Offered for the 9th time, this program aims to support a cohort of 10 artists in the definition of a future interactive project, with a variety of specialists in digital creation. At the end of a program of meetings and workshops, the artists have three hours of individual mentoring with the trainer of their choice to move their project forward.

As always, this ninth edition sees a remix of skills shared with new people. After eight years as co-host, the director Diego Briceño is replaced by the artist Katherine Melançon to lead the first day, which focused on project structuring. With the artist Stéphanie Lagueux, they'll be putting their projects to the test in a fun, hands-on way. Also invited are two female directors with multi-platform backgrounds, Cléo Palacio-Quintin, which is developing a visual and poetic musical application for tablets, and Chélanie Beaudin-Quintin, who works closely with dance and virtual reality. Two new artists will present projects that are recent or in production, Justice Rutikara, interactive film, and Andrée-Anne Roussel, whose latest project plays with probabilities to explore the narrative structure of a video work. Returning Yannick Guéguen and Alfonso Hernández, two artists and experts in project management, ideation and prototyping, always with the power of art in mind. Finally, we invite the artists to get acquainted during a convivial 5 à 7 on the preceding Wednesday, so that we can get off to a fast start on Saturday. We take this opportunity to propose a fun activity, this time an opportunity to experiment with the Xplore card game, which uses augmented reality, in the presence of one of its designers, Abderrhaman Ourahou.

Detailed Program

Wednesday, January 31, 5 to 7 p.m.

Preparatory meeting of bootcamp artists at TOPO
Icebreaker activity: introduce yourself and play cards!

→ Brief introduction to each artist and their projects + presentation of a set of three educational card games using augmented reality, by Abderrhaman Ourahou of Pixsenses

Saturday, February 3, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Structuring workshop - Brainstorming and collaborative exchange sessions

With Stéphanie Lagueux, digital artist, mediator and cultural worker (at Ada X).
With Katherine Melançonmulti-disciplinary artist, interactive designer and strategist.

→ The cohort is divided into two groups who exchange facilitator in the middle of the workshop. Each in her own way, the facilitators question and challenge the participants through concrete conceptualization exercises that will help define the projects further. At the end of the workshop, there is a pooling session.

Structuring workshop - The pitch in a nutshell

With Diego Briceño, director, interactive designer and co-founder of the cooperative Makila. Pioneer of the bootcamp, host for the first eight editions.

→ Tips on the art of pitching.

Saturday, February 10, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sharing experience - ALÉAS: a transdisciplinary musicopoetic work

With Cléo Palacio-Quintin, transdisciplinary artist, flutist-improviser-composer, Productions Fiolûtröniq.

→ Documented chronology of the production of a multiplatform project and an artistic application for tablets: for over five years, Cléo Palacio-Quintin has been drawing, composing, recording and conceiving the creation of an application for tablets incorporating her music (performed by the Quatuor Bozzini, Bernard Falaise, Sarah Albu and herself) and the poetry of Thierry Dimanche. The painting Écho et reflet des éolithes was recently presented as a showcase installation. The application is currently being integrated into the Unity platform with a view to commercialization in 2025. This large-scale project is based on important design, production, tree structure and interaction documents.

Structuring workshop - Tools and methods for collaborative work

With Chélanie Beaudin Quintin, a visual artist and filmmaker at the crossroads of dance, cinema and anthropology.

→ Issues and methods of multiplatform production and directing, based on his current projects. Or the art of plunging into the metaverse by exploring various modes of scripting and directing with diverse, relocated teams.

Artist presentation - A view of interactive cinema: Encounter with Le Chasseur.

With Justice Rutikara, director and actor.

→ Report on script exploration with Twine and Celtx platforms for the production of an interactive film.

Saturday, February 17, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Structuring workshop - Schematic ideation and interaction prototyping

With Yannick Guéguen, multidisciplinary artist, digital designer and landscape architect.

→ Yannick Guéguen will present ideation tools, maps, scenarios and user feedback methods tested in various projects he has carried out, including the mesmots.ca project with TOPO and artist Caroline Barber. Participants will be invited to put their project to the test and integrate different points of view, whether those of the participants, or of a potential audience. Participants will be able to test methods adapted to the different stages of creation, and leave with a toolbox to help their projects evolve.

Structuring workshop - Sharing play: multidisciplinarity, connectivity, complementarity

With Alfonso Hernández, co-founder of Atypic Labs.

→ At the heart of Atypic Labs' approach, every project is an opportunity to create a meaningful experience, an emotional imprint that transcends the ordinary. By exploring the deep "why", the team develops original strategies for each stage of the journey. With a methodology focused on feedback, each project becomes a measurable story, an emotional adventure.

Thanks to its developing teleworking platform, Atypic Labs offers a dynamic virtual space, recreating the energy of a physical office with online meetings and spontaneous interactions. Each project requires a diverse range of technical and artistic skills, such as generative visual design, audiovisual production, manipulation of intelligent objects, sensor integration, and embedded electronics design (micro-controller integration).

Artist presentation - Speculative Creatures: exploring narrative structure using probabilistic methods

With Andrée-Anne Roussel, filmmaker and digital artist.

→ In her most recent video installation, produced in part as part of CALQ's residency in New York, Andrée-Anne Roussel blends the speculative worlds of finance, divinatory art, spirituality and algorithmic mechanics. The discourse that emerges from several hours of segmented interviews is mathematically assembled on the basis of a Markov chain. The installation also self-analyzes to produce its own predictions. Matter for discussion, certainly.

Saturday, February 17, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Final pitch session

→ In turn, participants have 7 minutes to make a successful presentation of their project, and receive feedback from guest trainers throughout the bootcamp.

See the program for previous editions: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016