Agence TOPO initiates, produces and co-produces collective web art projects. The centre hosts artists in residencies and offers them artistic, technical and technological support.
Productions
Explore the streets of Montreal through a series of reworked city transit maps
2012Detours: Poetics of the City invites you to explore the streets of Montreal through a series of reworked city transit maps, using photos, video, audio, drama, poetry and iconography to explore personal engagements with the city. The detour happens as a break from routine, an unexpected trip through the spaces of stories and small observations that are strewn across the everyday landscape. [+]
Team
Taien Ng-Chan, Donna Akrey, Lance Blomgren, Gordon Neil Allen, Adrian Gorea, Emilie O’Brien, Samuel Thulin
Agence TOPO
Multimédia director: Vincent Archambault
Coordination: Marc Fournel
Production: Agence TOPO, 2011
Urban exploration and Musical Improvisation
2011Bêta-cité is an audiovisual & interactive mapping project on the Web created by the Audiotopie cooperative in collaboration with Agence TOPO. The website makes it possible to create audio guided urban walking tours which the user can design and try out in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce and Saint-Laurent boroughs in Montreal. Bêta-cité provides a space for interpretation, discovery, experimentation and composition on the internet based on a walking itinerary.
Équipe du projet
Audiotopie
Scénarisation: Yannick Guéguen, Edith Normandeau
Création musicale: Étienne Legast, David Martin
Captation vidéo: David Tousignant
Narration: Sylvain Lamy et Marie-Hélène Gosselin
Agence TOPO
Réalisation multimédia: Vincent Archambault, assisté de Keshia NauDominique et Alex Saint-Gelais
Direction de projet: Michel Lefebvre
Coordination: Éric Legendre
Production: Agence TOPO, 2010
Creating new geographies.
2010Nowadays, popular cartographic and earth visualization tools have become an increasingly tangible component of how we experience the web. Moreover, the use of geolocalization systems is spreading and increasingly present in the digital world. Artists are appropriating these technologies to explore the will to « situate » and their projects question the new geographic consciousness brought about by these network practices.
Selected by curator Sylvie Parent, the artists Matthew Biederman (Montréal), Grégory Chatonsky (Montréal), Zahra Poonawala (Strasbourg, France) and Cheryl Sourkes (Toronto) benefited from support and production residencies at Agence TOPO to create web-based works on this theme in 2009-2010. With Spectrum Survey, Biederman investigates on the surrounding electromagnetic spectrum. In Circulation, Chatonsky uses urban traffic sites and their RSS feeds to control dialogues between a man and a woman. Poonawala proposes an unusual sight of the world with a collection of outside speakers in Public Address System, and Sourkes proposes GeoTag, a web version of the word game Geography.
An essay by the curator Sylvie Parent complements the project online: Geoweb : creating new geographies
Production : Agence TOPO, 2010
Project Director : Michel Lefebvre
Web Designers : Vincent Archambault, Guy Asselin
Multimedia trainees : Keshia Nau-Dominique, Alex St-Gelais.
One lost cell phone, four ficticious identities.
2007One lost cell phone, four ficticious identities. The curator Élène Tremblay has invited four artists, Marie-Josée Hardy, Maryse Larivière, Marcio Lana-Lopez and James Prior to create works where their probable identities could spread.
Presentation:
- Articule, septembre 2007, Articule, Montréal
- Festival Val d’Argent, Février 2008, France
- E-Fagia, février 2009, Toronto
- File, March 2009, Sao Paulo
E-poetry
Poetry, photography, multimedia
2006
This e-poetry project, is based on a poetic body of work of the Canadian-Welsh author Childe Roland and the images of the Canadian photographer Susan Coolen.
Astres / Stars / Goleuadau stands as a metaphorical representation of the black holes in astronomy and the death of supernovas. The series is composed of sound poems in which all verses first syllables start as an aspirated syllable which slowly dries up the throat. The spoken words only stand when read loud, « like a string of curses launched to pitiless stars » (Childe Roland). Written in three languages, French, English and Welsh, the texts are organized in sets of themes and approach various contemporary issues: environment, epidemics, computerization, globalization, etc.
The photographic work of Susan Coolen also evolves around the cosmos’ theme. In the ongoing project Astral Projections, Coolen stages objects and links her collecting of specimens to space imagery. Often playful, and linking to fictional accounts of travel to the Moon and beyond, Astral Projections opens up the imaginative possibilities of multiple entities and possibilities inhabiting our vast cosmos.
Presentation :
- E-Poetry 2007, Paris, May 2007
- Galerie Espace, Montréal, February 2006
- Harbbourfront Centre, Toronto, September 2006
Re-enacted biographies
2005Who is…? is a body of work presenting with texts, photos and videos artist’s portraits created by Swedish artist Magnus Bärtås. These «biographies» articulate themselves around a series of statements, short sentences reconstituted through the memories of conversations between the author and the artists met randomly during journeys throughout the world.
Agence TOPO proposes a multimedia adaptation of Bärtås’ work. Taking for starting point the narrative method of the artist, Agence TOPO adds an element of creation to it by opening a section where the Net surfers can in their turn build a portrait. (Notes about adapting Bärtås’ work for the Web)
In its interactive form, the project plays with the questions of identity with the Internet. Between the « googlisation » of the people, the multiplication of the data banks and the self-representation of the Net surfers who draw themselves a profile real or idealized in the community’s sites, the questions of identity remain fundamental while being sources of fiction, of staging.
Translated into several languages (French, English, Spanish, Swedish, Russian and Latvian), the original work of Bärtås makes it possible TOPO to approach the universalization of the communities increasingly curious to communicate and elucidate the eternal mystery of Who is… Who?
COMMENT
Mix, network, lab, exchange
2004Inspired by the the musical object’s modes of circulation, its iconographic markers and its serial representations: (cds, vinyls, flyers), Post-Audio NetLab is a space of interaction, exchange and socialization that fictionally simulates the codes of today’s music culture.
The starting point is an invented collection of over 400 album covers, each one of which is associated with a musical style, texts and short videos, which allow one to enter Post-Audio’s fictional universe. Various interactive modules – listening, mixing and exchange rooms – are made available to the users who can handle the virtual albums, create their own musical compositions, or exchange texts, music, comments and information in a forum. The launch is now being held in order to invite the local and international community to intervene through the website and propagate the media culture of the hour.
Go beyond the Post-Audio_NetLab experience and get Post-Audio_DVD!
COMMENT
Comment vivre ensemble / How to live together
2003Civilities is a modular, collective fiction that brings together some ten Montreal artists from a range of disciplines and backgrounds who offer diverse perspectives on “living together.” The invited artists explore potential spaces of confidence, reconciliation and the cohabitation of persons, peoples and religions. From the rules of religious fundamentalisms to the movements of anonymous crowds in the city, the projects examine various aspects of social organization, cultural norms and the collective spaces of shared practices. Working from interfaces representing public space, that of the community and of civitas, small stories emerge like windows onto more universal situations, onto a certain state of the world, somber and violent indeed.
COMMENT
Tour de Villeneuve / Villeneuve Tour
2002VILANOVA is a multimedia creation following the photographic event Villeneuve Tour, by the collective of artists/photographers Fovea, presented during Le Mois de la Photo in Montreal, in September 2001.
Villeneuve Tour proposed a series of thirteen artistic interventions in several small shops and outdoor spaces of the Villeneuve neighbourhood, situated at the confluence of the Plateau Mont-Royal and the Mile End, in Montreal. The VILANOVA web site now revisits the little story of the in situ artworks and proposes a reflexion about transforming and archiving ephemeral interventions on the web. The urban route becomes a virtual itinerary through thirteen multimedia projects while in many ways exploring universal questions related to bodies, identities, memory and time.
Presentation:
- Festival du nouveau cinéma et des nouveaux médias de Montréal (FCMM), October 2002
- Net art open exhibition, Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum, Istanbul, September 2002
- FILE (Electronic Language International Festival), Sao Paulo, Brasil, August 2002
5 photonovels on the Web
19995 photographes and 5 witers created 5 new web fictions. In each of the projects created for FiXions, the guest artists managed to rise to the challenge of cooperation by producing works made up of agreements and differences between text and images, transcending the exclusive fields of literature and photography.
Presentation :
- PassArt, Rouyn Noranda (Canada), summer 2000
- Les HTMlles, IIIe Maid in Cyberspace, Studio XX, Montréal, February 2000
- Mois de la photo à Montréal, Zina, Ex-centris, September 1999
Coproductions
Have a good time and share your fishes!
2010En 2009, DIAGONALE, Centre des arts et des fibres du Québec, organisait des journées de confection de poissons avec des artistes et des gens du public. Des centaines de poissons créés avec des tissus récupérés et puisés à même les ressources du Fashion Plaza, sis au 5455 de Gaspé, ont ensuite été distribués massivement le jour inaugural de la saison de la pêche, le 1er avril.
Cette année, l’Agence TOPO s’associe à DIAGONALE afin d’ajouter au projet une dimension médiatique. Huit poissons confectionnés ont été numérisés et animés pour le Web, permettant aux pêcheurs d’attraper des poissons et de les envoyer à leurs ami(e)s avec un message de leur cru ! Et dans le cadre du Mois de la Fibre et du Textile, édition 2010, plus de 400 poissons seront distribués à l’entrée du Métro Mont-Royal.
COMMENT
A performative and poetic infiltration
2009As part of Art Pop 2009, Agence TOPO presents101 Song Scores, a performative and poetic infiltration initiative by the artists Sheena Hoszko & Michelle Lacombe.
101 Song Scores is a project which addresses the subjective ways of relating to song lyrics and their meaning. The artists compiled a database of song « scores » (text-based performance directions) culled from the lyrics of western popular music of the last 50 years. In collaboration with Agence Topo, these informations are available online to propose a long series of shared moments of action. With an emphasis on waiting, the 101 Song Scoresweb page highlights the integral relationship between an action and its duration. Have fun, perform!
COMMENT
Kalavera Deliciosa
Cadavre exquis video and web-tv
2009
www.Makila.tv
Plus d’info : www.Makila.tv/blog
En 2008-2009, l’Agence TOPO réalise avec le collectif de vidéastes Makila un cycle de création, d’exploration multimédia et de diffusion autour de la Kalavera Deliciosa, un dérivé audiovisuel du cadavre exquis des surréalistes. Une Kalavera est une série de 13 clips vidéos de 30 secondes créés en continuité des 5 dernières secondes du clip précédent. Le résultat en est une oeuvre linéaire en expansion constante utilisant comme modèle d’écriture de collaboration, la fragmentation.
Après quelques Kalavera réalisées par le collectif, l’Agence TOPO s’est associée à Makila pour l’organisation d’une dizaine d’ateliers en audio-visuel et multimédia, avec le soutien de l’Institut national de l’image et du son [INIS], et la production de soirées de diffusion à la Société des arts technologiques. Le collectif est maintenant réuni en coopérative de travail et de création. Voici www.Makila.tv
Creation : Makila
Coproduction and web design: Agence TOPO (fall 2008 – winter 2009)
Presentation:
- Société des arts technologiques (SAT), novembre 2008
- Société des arts technologiques (SAT), mars 2009
E-poetry
Generative and interactive
2008
«VÉVÉ» – http://veve.sofianaudry.com
Generative and interactive
Words are but amalgams of letters. It is the relationship between words that gives them life and meaning. In this project, visitors contribute to the creation of dialogical entities called vévés, taking a conversation based on the simple exchange of words. From this dialogue, the vévés learn, become more complex and evolve. They seem to be animated by their own will.
This project launched at the International Festival of Litterature Blue Metropolis (Montréal) in May 2008 is resulting from Sofian Audry’s artist residency at Agence TOPO.
Creation : Sofian Audry
Audio : Alexandre Quessy
Coproduction : Agence TOPO (fall 2007 – spring 2008)
Presentation:
- International Festival of Literature Blue Metropolis, May 2008, Montréal
- Olympic Games of the French Speaking Countries, September 2009, Beyrouth
Inspired by a 1937 oil painting by Mexican artist Antonio Ruiz “El Corcito“
2006« Verano » (« summer ») was started by Isabelle Bernier in 2005 during a residency in Mexico at the multimedia center of the Centro national de las artes. She ended the work with the support of Agence TOPO that host her in residency. The launch took place at the gallery Powerhouse / La Centrale in March 2007.
Creation : Isabelle Bernier
Coproduction : Agence TOPO (fall 2005 – winter 2006)
Soutien à la communauté
2011
À Montréal, des artistes, collectifs d’artistes et organismes forment une coalition afin de préserver le patrimoine architectural, historique et culturel du Bain Saint-Michel situé au 5300, rue Saint-Dominique.
COMMENT
Agence TOPO © 2012
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