The Basics of Algorithmic Image Creation with TouchDesigner

With Joy Boissière

WORKSHOP

April 8th,9th,15th,16th,22nd, and 23rd

Vidéographe

180$ (taxes not included)

► Workshop Plan

► Click here to register

Registration deadline: March 26^th, 2023

The selected participants will be contacted during the week of March 27th, 2022 in order to finalize their registration.

This workshop can receive a limited number of persons. Priority will be given to those who best meet the conditions of admission (see below).

Description

The TouchDesigner introductory course explores visual creation in real-time and how to exploit and distribute our creations. 2D, 3D, video capture, abstract or realistic visuals, the course introduces the different ways to create visuals on a computer. Following this creative exploration, we will see the different possible applications of our visuals, for film, theater projection or purely audiovisual shows and performances!

As Touchdesigner is a vast software, this training is meant to be a door opener to the understanding of the language of nodal creation software. This training is intended for people who already possess an understanding of the language of visual creation on computers, knowledge in graphics, 3D, editing and video animation will aid in the learning process.

Equipment required:

Windows or Apple based computers, dating from 2015 or newer (example of the reference graphics card: Nvidia GTX 1060 or newer). The TouchDesigner software: non-commercial license, is accessible via the registration of a free Derivative account.

Conditions of admission

You must prove that this training will improve your employment conditions, whether it be by improving your employment conditions in your sector of activity and/or by the acquisition of skills for your artistic career.
You must be an artist, professional or job seeker in the media arts field residing on the island of Montreal.
You must be available for the entire duration of the training and for all training dates.

Methodology

This workshop includes theoretical and practical group instruction. Participants also have flexible access to Vidéographe’s studio spaces and equipment in order to practice different techniques.

Where: Vidéographe, 4550 Garnier Street, Montréal, QC H2J 3S7

When: April 8^th, 9^th, 15^th, 16^th, 22^nd, and 23rd 2023 from 10am to 5pm (including a one-hour lunch break)

Public transport: Metro – Mont-Royal; bus – lines 27, 45 & 97

Price: 180$ (taxes not included)

Totaling 36 hours of group workshops

This workshop will be given in French. Please note that the training room at Vidéographe is not accessible to persons of reduced mobility.

For further information about our workshops, please contact:

Mick Sand

514-521-2116 (extension 221)

info@videographe.org

Joy Boissière

Joy Boissiere (Jules Boissiere) is a non-binary artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Moniang Montreal. Inspired by ecosystems, movement absurdity, and rave culture, Joy explores technological and living arts.

Their practice links light shows, video projection, material recovery and performance materials and dance performance. The surfaces of creation are eclectic, trees, glass, neon, bodies. It is about an exploration of the sensitive, of an observation of the various relations of scale, of the divergence of perspectives.

A graduate of a master’s degree in digital creation at UQAT, Joy has produced exhibitions at l’Écart in Rouyn-Noranda, a residency at the Alternative Art Fair in residency at the Sudbury Alternative Art Fair and has performed at the Entractes festival in Montreal. They have worked with the Ampleman Dance company, created the visual design for the play Ciseaux presented at the Espace Libre theater. Finally, Joy is involved in Montreal’s culture, as co-president of the board of directors of ADA-X, by giving trainings at Vidéographe, and by creating with their collective CrocoDealDunil.

Atlas, nébuleuses du Sphinx

PROGRAMMING

From January 28 to April 28, 2024
Opening : January 28, at 2pm

MAC LAU
101 Pl. du Curé-Labelle, Saint-Jérôme, QC J7Z 1X6

A choral and transdisciplinary project by Suzan Vachon, artist-curator.

Exhibition produced by MAC LAU / Suzan Vachon / Vidéographe

This Atlas was first initiated in 2019 by a curatorial project at Vidéographe entitled “Questions adressées au Sphinx.” Surveying the Vidéographe collection, like an alley of Sphinxes, and guided by a perception of the visible apprehended as a mystery, this active commitment to documented wanderings gradually unfolded around open questions, fictional and existential concepts soliciting transdisciplinary encounters, leading to the choral project “Atlas, nébuleuses du Sphinx.”

“Atlas, nébuleuses du Sphinx” is structured around five distinct spaces of constellated images, five nebulae of images testing their attractions, around which satellite works gravitate. Islands of stars map an atlas of dialectical relationships in which different time-spaces meet. But also, polyglot and transdisciplinary discussions to which I have invited some timeless figures of the enigma, some artists of the dark and miraculous matter (ghosts and revenants, dead or alive…). Warburg, Benjamin, and Godard, among others, held my hand during this four-year journey, where one works in a telepathic relationship with another, and beyond the certainties of seeing, allowed us to sense the complexity of their relationships.

Faced with the uncertainty of this challenge, moved by the possible stakes of these dangerous liaisons, I invited the chimerical figure of the Sphinx into the age-old game of these fabulous enigmas.

In this setting in motion of bodies and thought, together we turned the mirror of specular and unsuspected oscillations.

Together, we composed this Atlas, nebulae of the Sphinx.

Straddling heterogeneous, multiple, and eccentric spaces and temporalities, we shook our contemporaneity.

Accompanied by communities of loners, we were the dazzled witnesses of transfigured nights.

– Suzan Vachon

Works on display

Ïsmail Bahri, Frederique Beaupré-Decoste, Nicolas Bernier, Maude Bertrand, Marie-Claude Bouthillier, Jacynthe Carrier, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Sébastien Cliche, Martin Désilets, Mélanie Dumas, Vincent Lussier, Daniel Olsen, Natacha Nisic, Alex Pouliot, Francois Rioux, Suzan Vachon, Florence Viau

This research and creation project is carried out in partnership with Vidéographe and MAC LAU, who have encouraged and supported the project at all times.

The artist wishes to thank
The Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for their financial support. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts for the loan of a work of art from the Quebec and Canadian art collection, inv.2016.146. Center SAGAMIE, Atelier des Hauteurs, Atelier Michel Séguin, Atelier de l’île, for their professional support.

To all the artists who made this choral gathering of luminous hospitality possible, thank you for your unreserved trust.

Technical Support Program

Call for submissions

Open at all times

Application Deadline:

Open at all times.

Program Description:

The Technical Support Program is intended to support artists interested in experimentation and in pushing the boundaries of the moving image in all its forms. The kind of support offered is tailored to each project depending on the project’s specific pre-defined needs. This support can be used in the research phase, the production phase or in the post-production phase of a project.

Artists selected under this program have free access to:

Vidéographe’s editing suites, sound booth, digitizing equipment, and analog and digital video equipment up to a value of 500$. Should the project require additional support thereafter a preferential rate will be applied. Please note that artists are expected to be self-sufficient as Vidéographe’s team can only offer limited hands-on technical support.

Artists can also benefit from up to two meetings with Vidéographe’s team to discuss the project and to receive feedback. These meetings could be with different members of the team depending on how far along the project is and on the specific needs of the project and the artist.

Eligibility:

Vidéographe is looking to support independent experimental, or documentary works that stand apart for their currency and endeavour to renew the artistic language. We will accept proposals for single-channel video, installation, Web-based work, and all other forms of moving image. We consider all genres: video art, experimental work, fiction, documentary or essay form, animation, dance video, and videoclip. Please note that all works must be independent and non-commercial. Projects of a conventional nature, such as classic short narrative film or television documentary will not be considered.

Candidates must possess full editorial and creative control of the project.
Projects must be independent and non-commercial.
Projects that have received support through this program may not be re-submitted.
Student projects are not admissible.

We encourage traditionally under-represented artists to submit a project. Vidéographe embraces the notion of an intellectual community enriched by diversity along many axes, including race, indigeneity, ethnicity, trans/nationality, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, class, age, religion, ability, and neurodiversity.

Evaluation criteria:

Proposals are evaluated on the following criteria:

Contribution of the Technical Support Program to project’s development.
Thoroughness and relevance of research.
Innovative character of the project.

Selection process:

Works will be chosen by a selection committee made up of Vidéographe staff members. Projects that are retained will be subject to a contractual agreement between the artist and Vidéographe. Schedules, revised budgets, and requirements regarding equipment, rooms, and technical support will be planned and clearly laid out, as will the terms and conditions relative to each party.

Submissions:

Applications must include the following:

The candidate’s contact information and website (if applicable).
An artist statement (max 300 words)
A project description (max 500 words)
A schedule including the overall project timeline and detailed timeline for the Technical Support Program.
Technical requirements (please consult our website for more details on our editing suites and equipment).
The candidate’s CV (max 3 pages).
Visual support material including current or past projects. Maximum of 10 minutes of video footage. Please send a link to your video(s). Do not forget to include the password if applicable. Up to 15 images, sketches, plans, and mock-ups may also be submitted in PDF format.

Applications will be accepted by email only. Please send your file as a SINGLE PDF document including links to videos and other visual support material (max 25MB). Incomplete applications will not be considered nor will files found in the text section of the email.

Please write technical support program in the subject heading of your email and send your application to info@videographe.org. An acknowledgment of receipt will be sent within 1 week of receipt.

Note that it is not necessary to be a member of Vidéographe to apply; however, should your proposal be accepted, we will ask that you become a member. Once you have signed the agreement, you will have up to six months to take advantage of the benefits that this program has to offer. Regular membership fees are $50 + taxes per year and student membership fees are $25 + taxes per year.

Once your project is finished, you may submit it for active distribution by Vidéographe. Please note however that acceptance into the Technical Support Program does not guarantee that your work will be distributed.

For equity reasons, should you require any accommodations or need to submit your application in an alternative format, please contact the program coordinator at info@videographe.org or at (514) 521-2116 ext: 221.

Please allow six weeks for a response. Please note that Vidéographe can only support a limited number of projects per year.