Just back from the 11th edition of Elektra, Montreal’s digital art festival. It’s been quite an adventure to spend hours on the plane, land on a country that looks and feels a bit like the United States and hear people around me speak a very creative and poetic but sometimes difficult to grasp version of my mother language. Add to that the fact that my Summer clothes followed me right from a sunlit 25° C Tuesday to a freezing, windy and snowy Sunday. The festival itself had its surprises, starting with a full day of International Marketplace for Digital Arts at the Cinémathèque québécoise. The professional networking event consisted of 24 actors from the world of digital art giving 15 minute presentations about their practice, festival, or organization. In two sets of 3 hours and a half. Maddeningly long but worth it as i made a few great finds. First a post dedicated to 3 organizations i discovered at Elektra’s Marketplace (and very soon another one about some of my favourite artworks at the festival):

Images from the city:

Even bought me some new shoes.

Back to business:

Irwin Oostindie presented W2 Community Media Arts, a huge media arts centre being developed in Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhood. W2 hopes that technologies of creation will give a voice to and empower marginalized individuals and communities.

Isabelle Hayeur, Fire With Fire, 2010. A video installation projected from the windows of Vancouver’s W2 culture + Media House (Art Threat has a video)

Unsurprisingly, erecting a technology center right in the middle of an area that counts a high concentration of low-income families, one of the highest rate of child poverty in Canada and countless homeless people and drug addicts is a big challenge.

By breaking the digital divide, W2 also hopes to creating a platform for cross-cultural dialogue, with first nations peoples for example.

(image credit: Cam in Van)

The center is located on the ground of Woodwards, a Vancouver landmark. Before its demolition, the famous department store in Canada was recognizable from afar by the big red “W” that topped its building.

Right now the organization is distributed over a series of sites. One is used as a festival and conference venue. In September, W2 is opening a 8,800 sq ft community media arts centre with a cafe, community FM radio station, cable TV station, fibre optic streaming web channels, printing press, media labs, performance space, open web, mobile and networked culture projects.

More images and information in the W2 video:

Wayne Ashley introduced us to FuturePerfect, an initiative that explores hybrid performance practices, media forms, and artistic ideas. Big artillery for maximum impact. Ashley is also the founding director and organizer of FuturePerfect 2011, a performance festival and exhibition, planned to take place New York City during Spring 2011.

Kurt Hentschlager, ZEE (image)

FuturePerfect’s inaugural event stared ZEE, by Kurt Hentschlager. The work immerses visitors in an enclosed space filled with a dense fog that completely blurs their environment. Stroboscopic- and pulse light filters through the haze, inducing hallucinations and sensory distortions within each viewer, resulting from light (wave) interference phenomena. A droning soundscape accompanies the experience, shifting according to changes in the color, frequency and intensity of the light.

Magid Seddati presented the fantastic work he’s been doing at Irisson The Center of Visual, Electronic Arts & Multimedia in Casablanca. Founded in 2006, the independent center is also organizing the International Festival of Visual Arts and New Medias (FAN), video competitions and a series of workshops for young artists. The presentation of Seddati was eye-opening. Most of us tend to assume that new media art is part of our culture but the perception and recognition of the field is very different in a country like Morocco. Despite its dynamism and energy, the festival is still in search of a public. But they’re getting there!

Image on the homepage: W2.