Canada -- Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) in Montreal
Number of residencies: 1
Period and duration of residency: December 2003 to March 2004
Société des arts technologiques SAT
1195 boulevard Saint-Laurent
CP 1083 succursale Desjardins
Montréal, Québec, H5B 1 C2
Canada
A transdisciplinary centre dedicated to the creation, dissemination and conservation of digital culture.
The Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) brings together creators who work with digital technologies, fostering collaboration among diverse artistic and scientific disciplines, establishing partnerships with industry and post-secondary educational institutions, and promoting its members at home and abroad.
The SAT’s activities facilitate access to human and technical resources and encourage reflection on issues related to the use of technology. With a unique mandate in Quebec, the SAT connects its membership to an international network of centres and organisations with similar or complementary objectives. With 24,000 square feet at its disposal in the heart of Montreal’s cultural corridor, the SAT has generated more than a hundred events in the last eighteen months and produced fifteen creations through its artists in residence program. Since its inception, SAT-sponsored productions have been presented in more than twenty countries and fifty cities.
A non-profit organization that is more than 90% self-funded through its production, touring and promotional activities, the SAT was founded in 1996 by several organizers of ISEA95 Montreal, an international symposium of electronic arts that saw the participation of 1,200 artists and professionals from around the world.
Facilities available for the artist
The SAT includes several distinct elements that serve its programs of digital art creation, dissemination and conservation:
SAT[prod], a studio for research, production and commission of artwork that also serves as workspace for artists in residence and houses SAT[webdif], a streaming media service for events presented at the SAT; see pdf file at http://www.nifca.org/new-media-air/sat.pdf for list of equipment.
Activities that artist can participate in
SAT[e-space], an 8,000 square foot multipurpose presentation space = possible public presentation of work in progress if applicable
SAT[meta_lab], a program for event-oriented network building among academic and scientific communities = lectures | conferences | workshops for artists in residency.
SAT[ellite], program for international promotion and dissemination of artwork, representing more than 30 artists;
SAT[a+i], liaison office, Art and Industry;
SAT[expo], a future permanent technological exhibition and conservation space with a wireless networked documentation centre.
Local new media/art scene
The SAT currently has more than 350 active members (artists and researchers) listed in the media arts repertory on its website, and a subscriber base of 1,900 for its mailing list. Events that it has organised or co-produced have attracted more than 45,000 people since October of 2000. Regular collaboration with major festivals and organizations (elektra, mutek, find, fcmm, meg etc.); check www.sat.qc.ca for more information.
The SAT is supported by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Fonds de stabilisation et de consolidation des arts et de la culture du Québec, Emploi-Québec, Fonds Jeunesse Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the local office of Economic Development Canada, Conseil des arts de Montréal and the City of Montreal.
Possibilities and preferences for the residency artist
Territoires Ouverts | Open Territories - SAT New Media Research Networks Project
The Territoires Ouverts | Open Territories project aims to foster the emergence of innovative forms of cultural expression by engaging the creativity of a new generation of artists and creators, in whose hands will be placed a host of advanced interface and networking technologies. A network of partners will enable the scientific, artistic and cultural communities to gather together to address issues of creation, dissemination and development of new audiences. Due to its mandate as a transdisciplinary centre for the creation, production, dissemination and conservation of digital culture, the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT), together with its network of institutional and private partners, will be able to open the broadband network environment to talented creators who are ideally placed to illustrate broadband’s potential as a means of avant-garde cultural expression.
The Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) and its network of partners intend to help make broadband networks a new space for the creation and dissemination of emerging digital culture—a space where it can define itself, develop and flourish.
To accomplish this goal, the SAT intends to focus its energies on the development of three creative platforms (and thus three research projects) to be deployed on the Canadian broadband network, which the SAT will then put at the disposal of various creators. The three platforms are:
• IP streaming
• IP telepresence (point-to-point and multi-point)
• Transmission of immersive audio-visual environments over IP networks
In an era of ubiquitous communications, this project aims to revive the role of public space by opening it up to future visions of the human collective and new metaphors of the ‘united nations.’
Indeed, the flourishing of networks raises important questions:
How will content creators appropriate networks? What place do citizens have in a context of globalization? How does spontaneous live interaction with a great diversity of people anywhere in the world transform how we think and create over networks in real time?
Territoires Ouverts | Open Territories is an infrastructural project whose benefits extend far
beyond the life of the research program itself. The SAT believes that such a pooling of resources will ignite AR&D (artistic research & development) of an unprecedented scope, definitively opening broadband environments to avant-garde creation.
Residencies proposals fitting the above description will be favoured.