Participants
Chélanie Beaudin-Quintin
Concordia University
Visual artist and filmmaker, Chélanie Beaudin-Quintin (she/her) creates cinedance, virtual reality (VR) experiences, short film, and video installations. She currently directs BODIES OF WATER a VR subaquatic cinedance, choreographed by Caroline Laurin-Beaucage (Art et Essai), the short VR animation film L’ENFANT PERDU in collaboration with Justice Rutikara (Inaru Films), looking at children’s issues with ADHD, the short dance film À BRAS-LE-CORPS on the movement of manifestation, and finally, she collaborates on the augmented opera UNE MAISON DANS LA MAIN, with Clémentine Brochet, created with volumetric capture (Opéra de Montréal and Chaire de recherche du Canada en création d’Opéra). In parallel with her artistic practice, Chélanie is pursuing a PhD in research-creation at Concordia University. Through dance, cinema, and anthropology, she explores both individual and collective bodies and investigates spaces of exchange and cohabitation. Through dance and film, she seeks to create a new dramaturgy whose narrative form, by moving away from classical codes, seems rather sensory and embodied.
www.chelanie.com
Margherita Bergamo
University Paris 8
University of Bologna
Margherita Bergamo Meneghini is a dancer, choreographer and researcher. She has a degree in Economics and Management of Arts and Cultural Activities from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, a Master in Historical Culture and Communication from the UB in Barcelona (Spain) and a degree in Choreography from the Barcelona Conservatory of Dance. She worked with the dance companies Erre que erre and Les filles Föllen before founding Compagnie Voix in France, with which she develops a research in contemporary dance and virtual reality (The Ecstasy of Gold, Eve – dance is an unplaceable place, Eve 3.0). She is currently in the process of writing a doctoral thesis on body-based storytelling through digital media, affiliated to the Research unit Scènes du monde, EDESTA, University Paris 8, and to the PhD Program in Visual Performing and Media Arts, University of Bologna.
Tawanda Chabikwa
University of Texas at El Paso
Tawanda is a Zimbabwean-born, interdisciplinary artist-scholar and an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. His research and consultancy practices live at the intersections of ethical AI design and implementation, black/Africana technological innovation, and embodied research methodologies. As a member of the AI 4 Afrika (AI4A) collegium and an affiliate of the Center of Arts Migration and Entrepreneurship (CAME) at the University of Florida Gainesville, his key interests include sustainable data-centricity models, NLP for African Languages, digital intellectual property of underrepresented peoples, and assessments of impact and efficacy of current technologies on African and African diasporic lifeworlds. Tawanda is also deeply invested in the possibilities of enriching current AI innovations by mobilizing various indigenous knowledge and conceptual systems in AI design. Tawanda is currently an Assistant professor of Dance and Africana Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Marc-André Cossette
Concordia University
Marc-André Cossette (he/his) is a Canadian trans-disciplinary artist working on the relation between technology and performing arts using sound, visual, and interaction design. Marc-André holds a BA in Interactive Media and a Master’s in Experimental Media (UQAM). He is now pursuing a PhD program at Concordia University in which he explores the use of Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life algorithms to create generative dance performances. He is a member of the duo ALMA along with Alexandre Saunier with whom he creates generative electronic audio/visual performances based on real-time AI, ALife and ML algorithms. In addition to his research-creation practice, Marc-André has collaborated with several artists as a sound, visual, interaction, and stage designer. His work has been presented both in Canada and internationally, notably at Tangente Danse (Canada), Ars Electronica Festival (Austria), El Matadero (Spain) and CMMAS (Mexico). Additionally, his scenography work with singer/songwriter Afrotronix has been touring in Africa, Europe, USA, and Canada since 2015. Marc-André is also the co-creator and co-host of the REC podcast series on research-creation produced in collaboration with CHOQ.fm and the Hexagram Network.
Chris Gatti
The Centre for Circus Arts Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer (CRITAC)
École nationale de cirque
Chris Gatti is on an ongoing quest to find a balance between circus and scientific research. An engineer by education, his research background includes both computational biomechanics and machine learning. After a nearly 25-year gymnastics career, he transitioned to circus, initially performing with Cirque du Soleil immediately after obtaining a PhD, and then transitioning to coaching and consulting roles within circus. He is currently a data scientist for CRITAC, the research center at École nationale de cirque in Montreal, where his work is focused on motion capture for acrobatics, numerical analysis and optimization, and improving human performance. He also continues to be a recreational handbalancer and handbalancing coach.
Audrey Gaussiran
Danseuse et chorégraphe, Audrey Gaussiran se forme au Conservatoire de danse de Montréal (2007), ainsi qu’auprès de maîtres au Brésil, à Cuba, à New York et en Espagne.
Elle cumule rapidement les expériences d’interprète et les commandes chorégraphiques: DJD à Calgary (2012-2016), adaptation du Blank Placard Dance d’Anna Halprin (2014), interprète/co-chorégraphe pour ZEUGMA DANSE (2017-2021), etc.
Comme chorégraphe indépendante, elle signe Le 2e sexe (2014), Corrida (2017) et Portraits dansés (2017), sept courts métrages, nominés pour l’Oeuvre de l’année du CALQ (2019). S’ensuit la création de Fisheye (2020), CTRL:N (2019) et MOSAÏCO (2024), des oeuvres métissées, utilisant le numérique.
Kat Hawkins
Kat is a queercrip researcher-artist who tries their best to navigate the slippiest of experiences – being a human. Their interdisciplinary work seeks to uncover mulitiplicities and their application in the world, through film, language, movement, and kinesthetic experiences. The(ir) Crip experience keeps coming to the surface in it all and they are influenced and shaped by the teachings of Disability Justice thinkers. They are a PhD researcher at the Centre of Dance Research (C-DaRE), Coventry University, partnered with Candoco Dance Co. uncovering how the role of an understudy can introduce care into contemporary dance settings for disabled artists.
Clarice Hilton
Goldsmiths University
Clarice Hilton is a neurodivergent researcher and creative technologist whose work is centered in critical disability design and immersive technology. She is currently completing a PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London developing a research methodology and creative practice using critical disability design methods for performance with immersive technology. During her PhD she has used participatory and co-design methods working with Kat alongside Xan Dye, Ted Wilkinson, Paulina Porwollik and Dermot Farrell. During this process they developed “Figural Bodies” a motion capture dance performance, which premiered at SXSW 2024.
Lisa Jamhoury
New York University
Lisa Jamhoury is a Lebanese-American movement artist and programmer creating embodied, computational experiences. Rooted in contemporary circus and mindfulness, her practice includes interactive performances, installations, and websites that encourage a consensual, celebratory approach to humanity’s shared physicality. As an aerial acrobat, Lisa has choreographed and performed across the United States, including commissioned work for the Streb Lab for Action Mechanics and TEDx Brooklyn. Her computational work has been recognized by Ars Electronica, Meta Open Arts, the Conference on Movement and Computing, Contemporary Art Society, CultureHub, Google xStory, Media Art Xploration (MAX), and others. Lisa is a member of NEW INC, the New Museum’s incubator for art, design, and technology and Onassis ONX Studio. She is an adjunct arts professor at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), where she completed her masters degree. Earlier in her career, Lisa held positions at Adobe Design as a senior designer, machine intelligence, and Blue Chalk Media as founding chief digital officer.
Pamela Krayenbuhl
University of Washington Tacoma
Dr. Pamela Krayenbuhl is an Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Washington Tacoma. Prior to joining the UW Tacoma faculty, she was an Assistant Professor in Residence in the Communication program at Northwestern University in Qatar. Krayenbuhl is a media historian whose scholarship focuses on the relationship between moving bodies and moving images, from early cinema to contemporary video games. A dancer and choreographer as well as a scholar, Krayenbuhl co-founded both the Ballet Company at Berkeley and Modet Dance Collective. She has also worked at the Chicago Film Archives as a researcher and archivist; she researched and catalogued the 500+ films in the Ruth Page Collection. Krayenbuhl is currently at work on a book project that examines the intersection of U.S. dance cultures with commercial film & television cultures in the mid-20th century, with a particular focus on issues of race and masculinity.
Caroline Laurin-Beaucage
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Choreographer, performer and teacher for 25 years, Caroline Laurin-Beaucage has a repertoire of some ten works, including installations, In Situ performances, projections and a virtual reality film. Her repertoire has been presented in Montreal (Danse Danse, Agora de la danse, Tangente, Festival TransAmériques, OFFTA), as well as in Canada, France, Spain, Hungary, Germany, South Korea, Switzerland and Israel. In 2019, the stage work Intérieurs received the CALQ Prize for Best Choreographic Work 2019-2020. As a performer, she has worked with Ginette Laurin (O Vertigo), Jacques Poulin-Denis, Paul-André Fortier and Jean-Pierre Perreault. She is also co-founder of the choreographers’ organization Lorganisme, of which she is still a member-artist. This season, she joins Circuit-Est center chorégraphique. Caroline first trained at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre, then obtained her Master’s degree from Concordia University’s INDI program in 2022. Caroline taught in Concordia’s contemporary dance department as a lecturer from 2005 to 2019. She joins the faculty of UQAM’s dance department in 2020, where she is currently developing the field of dance and new technologies.
Chorégraphe, interprète et enseignante depuis 25 ans, Caroline Laurin-Beaucage possède un répertoire d’une dizaine d’œuvres, incluant des installations, des performances in situ, une œuvre de projection architecturale et un film en réalité virtuelle. Son travail a été présenté à Montréal (Danse Danse, Agora de la danse, Tangente, Festival TransAmériques, OFFTA), ainsi qu’au Canada, en France, en Espagne, en Hongrie, en Allemagne, en Corée du Sud, en Suisse et en Israël. En 2019, son œuvre scénique Intérieurs reçoit le Prix du CALQ pour la meilleure œuvre chorégraphique 2019-2020. En tant qu’interprète, elle a évolué auprès de Ginette Laurin (O Vertigo), Jacques Poulin-Denis, Paul-André Fortier et Jean-Pierre Perreault. Elle est cofondatrice de la structure pour chorégraphes Lorganisme – dont elle est toujours membre-artiste – et, en 2022, elle se joint à Circuit-Est centre chorégraphique. Formée à ses débuts à l’École du Toronto Dance Theatre, elle obtient également sa maîtrise au programme INDI de l’Université Concordia en 2022. Caroline a enseigné au Département de danse contemporaine de Concordia comme chargée de cours de 2005 à 2019. Elle se joint au corps professoral du Département de danse de l’UQAM en 2020 où elle développe actuellement le champ de la danse et des nouvelles technologies.
Armando Menicacci
Après des études de danse classique et contemporaine et de musique classique. Il obtient une maîtrise en musicologie à l’Université de Rome en 1994 et un Doctorat sur les relations entre la danse et les technologies numériques à l’Université Paris 8 en 2003. De 1999 à 2009, il enseigne à l’Université Paris 8, au Fresnoy, dans d’autres universités et écoles d’art en Espagne, Angleterre, Brésil, et Turquie. Entre 2015 et 2019, il est Professeur à l’UQAM où il crée un programme en danse et nouvelles technologies et est membre cofondateur du Laboratoire LAVI financé par la FCI dirigeant en 2017-2018 le premier axe de recherche d’Hexagram. Il collabore également avec nombre d’artistes en tant que dramaturge, vidéaste, compositeur et programmeur de dispositifs interactifs et à partir de 2005 il réalise et diffuse ses propres installations interactives, créations scéniques et téléperformances jouées et exposées dans de nombreux pays. En 2021, avec Nicolas Berzi Ph.D, il crée SIT (Scènes Interactives Technologiques) un projet de création d’innovations technologiques et d’accompagnement des artistes contemporains de la scène grâce à la diffusion de nouvelles technologies de création, de webdiffusion et de téléperformances.
After studying classical and contemporary dance, as well as classical music, Armando Menicacci obtained a master’s degree in musicology from the University of Rome and a Ph.D. on the relationships between dance and digital technologies from the University Paris 8 in 2003. From 1999 to 2009, he taught at the University Paris 8, at Le Fresnoy, and at other universities and art schools in various countries in Europe, Africa, North and south Americas. Between 2015 and 2019, he was a Professor at UQAM where he created a program in dance and new technologies and was a co-founding member of the LAVI Laboratory, funded by the FCI, and was leading in 2017-2018 Hexagram first research axis. Armando Menicacci also collaborated with numerous artists as a dramaturge, videographer, composer, and programmer of interactive devices, and from 2005 he produced and disseminated his own interactive installations, stage creations, and teleperformances, played and exhibited in many countries. In 2021, together with Nicolas Berzi, Ph.D., he created SIT (Scènes Interactives Technologiques), a project for creating technological innovations and supporting contemporary stage artists disseminating new creative technologies, web broadcasting, and teleperformance.
Avital Meshi
University of California Davis
Avital Meshi is a new media and performance artist. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at UC Davis’s Performance Studies Graduate Group. Meshi holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the Digital Arts and New Media program at UC Santa Cruz. She also holds a BSc. and an MSc. in Behavioral Biology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her artworks examine new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality. Inspired by New Aesthetics, Technofeminism, posthumanism, and relational aesthetics, Meshi creates installations and performances that examine these technologies’ impact on identity and social behavior. Meshi’s work was exhibited in NYU’s Institute of Fine Art, CURRENTS New-Media Festival in Santa Fe, Root Division Gallery in San Francisco, and Woman Made Gallery in Chicago. She also exhibited work and presented papers at conferences such as SIGGRAPH, NuerIPS, CVPR, ISEA, ARTECH, and more.
Liliane Moussa
Liliane Moussa est une artiste basée à Tio’tia:ke, Montréal. À travers une pratique multidisciplinaire basée sur l’hybridation de la danse, de la performance et du sport, Liliane cherche à engager les corps dans un effort qui questionne les notions de rendement, de santé et de productivité. Elle sculpte et travaille les corps afin d’étudier les dynamiques de pouvoir et rapports de force qui sont des concepts inhérents au mouvement, qu’il soit individuel, sociétal ou organique. Depuis 2012, elle présente ses œuvres sur la scène canadienne (Agora, CAFKA, Tangente, The Dance Center, Fringe), au Chili (Danzalborde) et dans des contextes sportifs non-traditionnels (Shakti Rock Gym) et préconise les processus collaboratifs avec des artistes d’autres mediums. Liliane est co-fondatrice et co-organisatrice du Festival Lots of love_LOL. Elle est également physiothérapeute de profession depuis 2006 et maman d’un garçon de neuf ans. Elle ancre ses différentes pratiques dans un désir de conscientisation et d’agir vers une saine écologie de la performance.
Liliane Moussa is a dance artist interested in engaging bodies in an effort to question the notions of performance, health, and productivity. Her multidisciplinary and collaborative practice based on the crossbreeding of dance, performance and sport, has led her to present her work around the world. She is co-founder and co-organizer of the Lots of love LOL Festival. Also practicing physiotherapy since 2006, she anchors her practices in a desire to raise awareness and actions towards a healthy ecology of the performing arts scene in Montreal.
Line Nault
Line Nault est active dans le milieu des arts vivants depuis 40 ans. Elle a créé une quinzaine d’œuvres interdisciplinaires, installatives et performatives. Récits-Récifs, sa plus récente création, a été présentée en février 2024 au Mois Multi à Québec et sera reprise en décembre 2024 à l’Agora de la danse. Elle a collaboré en tant qu’interprète, conseillère artistique, metteuse en scène et chorégraphe avec différent.e.s artistes discipliné·e·s et indiscipliné·e·s. Au sein de l’organisme Artificiel (laboratoire de lutherie numérique), elle développe ses projets personnels et codirige la galerie EISODE, lieu d’expérimentation en art actuel génératif.
Freya Olafson
University of Manitoba School of Art
Freya Björg Olafson is an intermedia artist who works with video, audio, animation, motion capture, XR, painting, and performance. Her praxis engages with identity and the body, as informed by technology and the Internet. Olafson’s work has been exhibited and performed internationally at the Bauhaus Archiv (Berlin), SECCA – SouthEastern Center for Contemporary Art (North Carolina), LUDWIG museum (Budapest), and The National Arts Center (Ottawa). Olafson has benefitted from residencies, most notably through EMPAC – Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center (New York), Oboro (Montreal), and Counterpulse (San Francisco). In spring 2020 Olafson was one of the longlist ‘Sobey Art Award’ recipients through a nomination by Video Pool Media Arts Center and in July 2021 her work was selected for the ‘Lumen Prize for Art & Technology’ longlist. Olafson holds an MFA in New Media from the Transart Institute / Donau Universität. In 2017 Olafson joined the Department of Dance at York University as an Assistant Professor in Screendance. As of July 2021, Olafson is an Assistant Professor in Digital Media at the University of Manitoba School of Art.
Danny Perreault
UQAM École des médias
Danny Perreault est professeur à l’École des médias et occupe le poste de directeur du baccalauréat en médias interactifs. Son champ de recherche-création se concentre sur les processus de collaboration et les scénographies numériques. Il s’intéresse notamment aux atmosphères performatives et aux démarches de co-création entre entités humaines et non-humaines. Impliqué dans divers projets novateurs, il est notamment co-concepteur du projet Popmolle, une initiative transdisciplinaire réunissant chorégraphes, interprètes, robots, lumières et matières. Il est co-fondateur du mXlab, le laboratoire de création médiatique au-delà de l’humain. Il est aussi membre actif du comité exécutif du réseau de recherche-création Hexagram.
Danny Perreault is a professor at UQAM’s École des médias. He recently co-founded the mXlab, a research laboratory on more-than-human media creation. His research-creation approach focuses on the collaborative processes at work in the co-creation of digital scenography. His works explore the possibilities of images and light in three-dimensional space to create singular affective atmospheres.
Denis Poulin
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Denis Poulin Ph.D.en Études et Pratiques des Arts de l’UQAM en 2013. Maîtrise en télévision et cinéma à l’Université du Michigan (Ann Arbor) en 1977. Il fut professeur de danse au Collège Montmorency à Laval, où il a créé le DEC en danse en 1985. Depuis 2006, il est professeur associé au Département de danse de l’UQAM. Il est membre collaborateur du réseau de recherche-création en arts, cultures e technologies, Hexagram.Réalisateur fasciné par la danse à l’écran, il a signé depuis 1971 de nombreux films et vidéos pour ses spectacles chorégraphiques multimédias et ceux de Martine Époque, feue son épouse et complice de création et de vie pendant près de 50 ans. Il a reçu la Coupe Enta maratone dei Templi du Festival international de cinéma de Salerno (1983) pour Ni scène, ni coulisses ⁄ Beyond curtains (1978), produit par l’Office National de Film du Canada (ONF/NFB). Il est le lauréat du premier concours de l’ONF «cinéaste recherché» (1981), prix qui lui a permis de réaliser son premier film d’animation (Le bouffe-pétrole, 1982). Son film “CODA, Le Final du Sacre du printemps”, a reçu de nombreux prix, dont le prestigieux Prix Lumière de Hollywood (2014).
Jessica Rajko
Wayne State University
Jessica Rajko is Associate Chair of Wayne State University’s Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance. Her research includes critical scholarship and artistic approaches to research at the intersection of dance and computing. Her most recent artistic research explores haptic (tactile) aesthetics in numeric data representation and dance performances. Through her creative work, has also developed creative methods and pedagogical tools toward “feminist unboxings” of technologies in the creative process and classroom.
Rajko has presented and performed in collaborative artworks nationally and internationally, including OT301 (Amsterdam), Scotiabank Nuit Blanche festival (Toronto), The Joyce Theatre (NYC), Center for Performance Research (Brooklyn), and The Music Hall (Detroit). Her artwork has been commissioned by Currents New Media Festival, Breaking Ground Dance Festival, Mesa Arts Center, and Phoenix Art Museum. As a transdisciplinary artist, she has been invited to present her research at UMich’s Performing Arts Technology Seminar Series, Harvard’s Digital Futures Consortium, UPenn’s Price Lab for Digital Humanities, and Univ. New Mexico’s ART Lab. Her work has been published in several edited collections, as well as the Journal of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, Politics of the Machine proceedings by the British Computer Society, and the International Conference of Movement and Computing proceedings by ACM Multimedia.
Audrey Rochette
Audrey Rochette est chorégraphe interdisciplinaire et performeuse à Tio’tia :ke/ Montréal. Ses œuvres font dialoguer le corps et la technologie, et ont entre autres été diffusées à Tangente, à La Chapelle – Scènes Contemporaines, à Dance Matters et au Festivaleke de Charleroi en Belgique. Elle travaille présentement à la création de Diorama et de Playing Worlds, des installations interactives et performative reproduisant des écosystèmes artificiels interactifs. En tant que performeuse, elle a dansé pour de nombreux.ses chorégraphes et artistes dont Lucie Grégoire, Isabelle Boulanger, projet hybris, La Fratrie et la compagnie kondition pluriel qui œuvre au croisement des arts médiatiques et de la performance. Audrey est actuellement impliquée dans différents projets de recherche-création à Montréal et à l’étranger : en robotique créative et apprentissage automatisé (Machine Movement Lab – Petra Gemeinboeck), ainsi qu’en intelligence d’essaims robotisés (DESSAIM – David St-Onge et Hélène Duval). Elle est également assistante de recherche en Observation-Analyse du Mouvement (OAM) auprès de Nicole Harbonnier et Geneviève Dussault.
Audrey Rochette is an interdisciplinary choreographer and performer at Tio’tia :ke/ Montréal. Her work brings the body into dialogue with technology, and has been presented at Tangente, La Chapelle – Scènes Contemporaines, Dance Matters and the Festivaleke of Charleroi in Belgium. She is currently working on the creation of Diorama and Playing Worlds, both interactive and performative installations reproducing artificial ecosystems. As a performer, she has danced for numerous choreographers and artists, including Lucie Grégoire, Isabelle Boulanger, projet hybris, La Fratrie and the kondition pluriel company, which works at the crossroads of media arts and performance. Audrey is currently involved in various research-creation projects in Montreal and abroad: in creative robotics and machine learning (Machine Movement Lab – Petra Gemeinboeck), and in robotic swarm intelligence (DESSAIM – David St-Onge and Hélène Duval). She is also a research assistant in Movement Observation-Analysis (MOA) with Nicole Harbonnier and Geneviève Dussault.
Alice Sanz
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Alice Sanz is a new media artist exploring the relationship between the body and technology. She is conducting research at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) on the perception of technological devices by dancers in interdisciplinary creative processes. Alongside her research, she has created interactive installations for various interdisciplinary performance projects, including Diorama and Playing World by Audrey Rochette. Since 2018, she is working as a multimedia director at Iregular, a digital art studio where she contributes to conceptualizing interactive art pieces for public and immersive spaces.
Alice Sanz est une artiste numérique qui explore la relation entre le corps et la technologie. Elle a écrit un mémoire de recherche à l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) sur la perception des dispositifs technologiques par les danseurs dans les processus créatifs interdisciplinaires. En parallèle de ses recherches, elle a créé des installations interactives pour divers projets de performances interdisciplinaires, notamment Diorama et Playing World d’Audrey Rochette. Elle travaille également en tant que directrice multimédia chez Iregular, un studio d’art numérique où elle contribue, depuis 2018, à la conceptualisation de pièces d’art interactives pour des espaces publics et immersifs.
Sandra Rodriguez
Sandra Rodriguez Ph.D., is a director and producer of XR and AI experiences, as well as a sociologist of new media technology. She has worked on linear, interactive and immersive experiences garnering multiple awards (including a Peabody, Numix, Best VR Leipzig, best storytelling UNVR, and a Golden Nica at Arts Electronica). Her work explores the crossroads of technology and human creativity: from multiuser XR, to live performance, AI dance, and large-scale exhibits. Rodriguez is a Sundance fellow and MacArthur Grantee. For six years, she led and lectured HackingXR at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – MIT’s first official curriculum on immersive media creation.
Alexandre Saunier
Concordia University
Alexandre Saunier (he/him) is a French multidisciplinary artist and researcher working with light, video, sound, and autonomous computing systems. His performances and installations explore the intersection between sensory perception, media arts, theatrical dramaturgy, cybernetics, and complex system theory. He completed a PhD at Concordia University (Montréal, Canada), where he investigated light as an artistic medium with autonomous and emergent properties based on real-time computational systems. He holds a master’s degree in sound design from the ENS Louis Lumière (Paris) and worked on robotic design and interactive lighting research at the ENS Arts Décoratifs (Paris).
Alexandre is a member of the artistic duo ALMA with Marc-André Cossette since 2020. Together they create live audiovisual performances that combine instrumental and electronic music with cutting-edge video game engine, motion capture, audio synthesis, and Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life techniques.
Alexandre’s artistic work and academic research are regularly presented in international venues such as Mutek, Elektra BIAN, Festival Internacional de la Imagen, Ars Electronica, ISEA, Impakt Festival, MuffatHalle, Bcn_llum, ALIFE Conference, Media Art History, or Toronto’s Nuit Blanche.
Sydney Skybetter
Sydney Skybetter is a choreographer. Hailed by the Financial Times as “One of the world’s foremost thinkers on the intersection of dance and emerging technologies,” Sydney’s choreography has been performed at such venues as The Kennedy Center and Jacob’s Pillow. He has lectured at SXSW, Yale, Mozilla and the Boston Dynamics AI Institute, and consulted for The National Ballet of Canada, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Hasbro, and The University of Southern California, among others. His work has been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and a Creative Capital “Wild Futures” Award. He is a Senior Affiliate of metaLAB at Harvard University, a frequent contributor to WIRED and Dance Magazine, the Founder of the Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces and Host of the podcast, “Dances with Robots.” Sydney serves as the Deputy Dean of the College for Curriculum and Co-Curriculum, is an Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies, and was the first choreographer at Brown University to receive tenure. He resides in Providence, Rhode Island with his partner, their feral children and a supposedly hypoallergenic cat. www.skybetter.org.
Samuel Tétreault
Co-founder, creative director, and stage director, Les 7 doigts de la main
Samuel is an artistic director renowned for his creative versatility. His interest in interdisciplinary creation has led him to direct a wide variety of works combining circus with dance, theater, visual arts, video, and new technologies.
With Les 7 Doigts, Samuel has directed the shows RIOPELLE Grandeur Nature, Carry Me Home (Innovation award – HUB 2023), Geysers, Vice & Vertu, Bosch Dreams, Triptyque (Grand prize – CAM 2015), Projet Fibonacci and Intersection. His creations are presented around the world in prestigious theaters and festivals including Sadler’s Well, Les Nuits de Fourvière, Melbourne Arts Festival, La Villette, Hong Kong Arts Festival and Place des Arts.
Interested in the exploration of new dramaturgical languages, Samuel has been involved since 2012 with the Centre for Circus Arts Research (CRITAC) and collaborates with university researchers and numerous leaders in the techno-creative sector. In 2020, he contributed setting up LAB7, a prototyping studio dedicated to the encounter between the performing arts and new technologies. As Artistic Director of LAB7, Samuel directs numerous creative projects linking the circus arts with motion capture, augmented and virtual reality, interactive systems, and generative artificial intelligence. His creation Carry Me Home, which combines live circus performance and music concert into a mixed reality experience, is shortlisted for the NUMIX 2024 award for Best XR Experience.
A native of Montreal, Samuel is a graduate of the National Circus School. In 1996, he embarked on a remarkable career as a hand-balancing artist, notably with Cirque du Soleil in the show Alegria, where he performed over 1,500 times. In 2002, he became one of the 7 co-founders of the creative collective Les 7 doigts de la main.
Cofondateur, directeur créatif et metteur en scène, Les 7 doigts de la main
Samuel est un directeur artistique et metteur en scène reconnu pour sa versatilité créative. Son intérêt pour la création interdisciplinaire l’a amené à diriger une grande variété d’œuvres mariant les arts du cirque avec la danse, le théâtre, les arts visuels, la vidéo et les nouvelles technologies.
Au sein des 7 Doigts, Samuel a notamment dirigé les spectacles RIOPELLE Grandeur Nature, Carry Me Home (Prix de l’innovation HUB 2023), Geysers, Vice & Vertu, Bosch Dreams, Triptyque (Grand prix du CAM 2015), Projet Fibonacci et Intersection. Ses créations sont présentées à travers le monde dans des théâtres et festivals prestigieux parmi lesquels le Sadler’s Well, Les Nuits de Fourvière, le Festival des Arts de Melbourne, La Villette, le Festival des Arts de Hong Kong et la Place des Arts.
Depuis 2012, intéressé par l’exploration de nouveaux langages dramaturgiques, Samuel s’implique auprès du Centre de Recherche en Arts du Cirque (CRITAC) et collabore avec des chercheurs universitaires et de nombreux chefs de file du secteur techno-créatif. En 2020 il participe à la mise sur pied du LAB7, un studio de prototypage dédié à la rencontre entre les arts vivants et les nouvelles technologies. À titre de directeur artistique du LAB7, Samuel dirige de nombreux projets créatifs liant les arts du cirque avec la capture de mouvement, la réalité augmenté et virtuelle, les systèmes interactifs et l’intelligence artificielle générative. Sa création Carry Me Home, qui combine spectacle de cirque et concert de musique en une expérience de réalité mixte, est en lice parmi les finalistes pour le prix NUMIX 2024 de la meilleure expérience XR.Originaire de Montréal, Samuel est diplômé de l’École Nationale de Cirque. En 1996 Il débute une remarquable carrière d’équilibriste, notamment au Cirque du Soleil dans le spectacle Alegria où il performe plus de 1500 fois. En 2002 il devient l’un des 7 cofondateurs du collectif de création Les 7 doigts de la main.
Alexander Whitley
Alexander Whitley is a London-based choreographer and artistic director of Alexander Whitley Dance Company. He has created work for several of the UK’s leading companies including the Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Rambert, Balletboyz and Candoco Dance Company.
Working with filmmakers, designers, digital artists and composers, Whitley creates innovative and wide-ranging work that seeks to broaden the scope of dance and elucidate movement across the many mediums it bears relevance to.
His work has been recognized through nominations for the Critics’ Circle, Arts Foundation and Southbank Awards. Whitley is a New Wave Associate artist at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, an associate artist at DanceEast, an associate of Rambert and a member of New Movement Collective. His most recent work, Pattern Recognition, is currently touring in the UK and internationally.