Now in its ninth year, this program aims to support a cohort of 10 artists in defining an interactive project in the making, with a diverse group of digital creation specialists.
Artists whose projects are selected will benefit from various workshops aimed at better defining the outlines of their projects, finding technical solutions, and preparing funding applications. The cohort of 10 artists will attend experience-sharing sessions with other artists who will talk about their journeys. After three Saturdays of collective emulation, bootcamp participants will receive three hours of mentoring with one of the trainers. At the end of the program, there will be a 7-minute pitch session in front of digital production specialists.
Registration before Wednesday, January 29. We seek to support projects in development, even if they are still in their early stages. Emerging artists are welcome!
Summary program
As always, this ninth edition sees a remix of skills shared with new people. After eight years as co-host, the director Diego Briceño make way for the artists Katherine Melançon and Stéphanie Lagueux to lead the first day focused on project structuring. Through various exercises, they will put the projects to the test in a fun and practical way. This will be followed by an introduction to the art of pitching with the director. Giulia Frati, co-founder of the pitch competition Cuban Hat. Two female directors with multi-platform backgrounds are also invited: 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 other artists will present recent projects or those currently in production, Mariane Laporte, which focuses on interactive digital literary performance, and Andrée-Anne Roussel, whose latest project plays with probabilities to explore the narrative structure of a video work. Returning Yannick Guéguen and Alfonso Hernandez, two designers who are experts in project management, ideation, and prototyping, always keeping the power of art in mind.
Detailed Program
Wednesday, January 29, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Preparatory meeting of bootcamp artists at TOPO
→ Brief introduction to each participating artist and their projects.
Saturday, February 1, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
9:30 a.m. – Structuring workshop | Brainstorming and collaborative discussion 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, which switch facilitators halfway through the workshop. Each facilitator, in their own way, questions and challenges participants through concrete conceptualization exercises that will help to further define the projects. A sharing session is planned at the end of the workshop.
3:45 p.m. – Structuring workshop | The pitch in brief
With Giulia Frati, director and co-founder of the cooperative Makila.
→ Tips and guidelines on the art of pitching.
Saturday, February 8, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
9:30 a.m. – Experience sharing | ALÉAS : 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 Échos 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.
1:15 p.m. – 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.
3:45 p.m. – Artist presentation | Screenwriting approach with artificial intelligence
With Mariane Laporte, artist-researcher specializing in the fields of communication, new media, and cinema.
→ Mariane Laporte is interested in interactive digital literary performance, ectogenesis, and feminist posthumanism. This academic and artistic approach is supported in many ways, notably through the Co-creation Art-AI residency of the Institute Mila, where the artist was able to explore ectogenesis through humorous work. Immaculate Conception Inc. In 15 minutes, the audience is invited to give birth to an artificial baby that resembles them.
Saturday, February 15, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
9:30 a.m. – Structuring workshop | Schematization, prototyping, and interaction plans
With Yannick Guéguen, multidisciplinary artist, digital designer, and landscape architect.
→ Yannick Guéguen offers an overview of perspectives on interactivity in order to equip participants with the tools they need to create participatory digital works. The workshop aims to suggest methodologies for carrying out an interactive project, while considering possible forms of reactivity and available active parameters. Participants of all levels will be invited to take part in a practical exercise to outline the interactive dimensions of their proposals and to think about the impact on the visitor experience. Several graphic models will be recommended, as well as concrete examples that stimulate creativity and limit technological difficulties.
Yannick Guéguen creates works at the intersection of sensory art, mobile devices, and sound immersion, drawing on the web, video game engines, sensors, and geolocation data.
1:15 p.m. – Structuring workshop | Sharing the game: 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).
3:45 p.m. – 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.
Mentoring – between February 15 and March 1
Bootcamp participants are entitled to three hours of mentoring with one of the guest artists.
Saturday, March 1, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Final pitch session
→ In turn, participants have 7 minutes to give a polished presentation of their project and receive feedback from a network of guests selected by TOPO.
