Where do Art and Technology Meet?: Discovering the MUTEK Festival

MUTEK is an annual international festival dedicated to the dissemination and development of digital creativity in sound, music, and audio-visual art. MUTEK’s programming intends to create a sonic space that can support innovation in new electronic music and digital art. Each year, the festival’s programming includes a public component, with a range of activities happening out of doors, usually in or near the Quartier des Spectacles. As a site of contention within the arts community, the Quartier des Spectacles has created a polarity in Montreal’s cultural offerings. By focusing on MUTEK’s engagement with the Quartier des Spectacles (the festival, while embracing their geographical location, still aims to be critical of the role QdeS plays in the Montreal arts scene), we will explore the veritable connections between art and the public domain, and how these connections can go right or wrong.


Facilitator

Eliane Ellbogen is a Montreal-based curator and Artistic Director of Eastern Bloc, a New Media production and exhibition centre, which she co-founded in 2007. After completing a BA in Art History at McGill University, she involved herself in the local art community as an independent curator, arts administrator and festival organizer. She has collaborated internationally and locally in the organization of Eastern Bloc’s annual audio/visual festival, Sight & Sound, and in recent years has co-curated the monthly Data : Salon series and other exhibits including Faux Lab, The Empty City, Département des Nuisances Publiques, and Clash.