PRISM
Diffraction
A series of talks and discussions presented by PRISM, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ digital mediation innovation lab.
At each event, the public is invited to discuss a technology issue with speakers from the museum, entrepreneurial and academic worlds with contrasting points of view. These intersecting perspectives provide a multi-dimensional understanding of the potential and challenges relating to the adoption of new technologies in the museum and cultural sector.
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Geneviève Levasseur, Ingrid Ingrid
Sam at the Museum is a user-friendly, content-rich support experience. Sam, which made its debut at the last Montreal Museums Day, is a curious and knowledgeable conversational robot with a keen sense of humour. It was devised by Ingrid Ingrid with the idea of creating a continuous connection between the museum network and what happens in real time in exhibitions. On this occasion, Ingrid Ingrid, which specializes in designing participatory experiences for public spaces, will provide an overview of the creative process, potential for use, and spin-offs of the initiative.
Jonathan Rouxel, Prologue AI
Prologue AI is a studio that designs extraordinary experiences for cities and their attractions. Comprising award-winning (Clio® and AI XPRIZE®) artisans, it combines conversational innovation with an avant-garde approach to the new art of XR narration to create original and immersive discovery experiences. Its most recent project brings Voix Montréal to life, which will be presented in order to fuel the discussion on the application of artificial intelligence in the tourism and cultural sector.
Eric Marradi, Spoken Adventures
Our work at Spoken Adventures is in the field of interactive audio employing voice recognition. (We don’t develop voice recognition technology ourselves, but instead use Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa.) We design all kinds of cultural and entertainment experiences revolving around oral communication with a device. Beyond technological intelligence, we focus on the user experience to make interactions with devices as human-centred as possible.
Thursday, February 24, 2020
Robert Lalla, ERICSSON
Robert Lalla is program manager at Ericsson Montreal’s Innovation Lab, whose operations focus on creating consumer and enterprise use cases with the coming 5G revolution in mind. Its research activities involve reaching out to leading local and industrial players to find creative new ways to bring all the benefits 5G has to offer to businesses and individuals.
Louis-Philippe Bellerose-Demers, CREO inc.
A true technophile who makes the most of his solid grounding in science and video gaming, as well as strong interest in education, Louis-Philippe Bellerose-Demers has contributed to developing educational games and interactive exhibitions at CREO for close to four years. His keen eye also enables him to ensure the quality of various digital products and techniques throughout the process of their design.
Sihem Neïla Abtroun, Université de Montréal
Sihem Neïla Abtroun is a doctoral student in bioethics as well as a lecturer in the bioethics programs of the Université de Montréal’s School of Public Health. Her dissertation focuses on the development of competencies in bioethics. Her interests include the responsible conduct of research, management of conflicts of interest, ethical pedagogy and knowledge transfer. She is also an editor of the open access Canadian Journal of Bioethics / Revue canadienne de bioéthique.
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Nathalie Thibault, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ)
Working in the MNBAQ’s Archives, Documentation and Photography area since 1987, Nathalie Thibault has a bachelor’s degree in Art History and Archival Management from Université Laval, as well as a diploma in Digital Information Management from the Université du Québec à Rimouski. She also obtained a graduate diploma in Museology from Université Laval in 2003. She has collaborated on and taken part in various digital projects in the cultural sphere, including in standardization of data, metadata, wikis, and digitization and dissemination of artwork and archival collections, since 2016.
Emmanuel Château-Dutier, Université de Montréal
An architectural historian and advocate of digital humanism, Emmanuel Château-Dutier focuses his research on the administration of public architecture in nineteenth-century France, the architectural profession, the relationship between contracting authorities and project managers, and the architecture of zoos, as well as architectural publishing and books. Trained in history-related computerized documentation and XML technologies at France’s École nationale des chartes, he is a specialist in art history metadata. His work also encompasses museology and the history of digital art.
Viêt Cao, Synapse C
Director of Innovation and Data Analytics at Synapse C, a non-profit organization dedicated to the valorization of data in the area of arts and culture, Viêt Cao plays an active role in projects to grow knowledge about audiences through enhancing individual and collective data from cultural partners, as well as in partnership-based research projects. He also supervises the development of data management and analysis tools for players in the field of arts and culture.
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Jean-François Bélisle, Musée d’art de Joliette
Previous to his becoming Executive Director and Chief Curator at the Musée d’art de Joliette (MAJ) in April 2016, Jean-François Bélisle curated many exhibitions of Quebec, Canadian and international contemporary art. As part of its digital strategy, the MAJ conducted an extensive survey of the Lanaudière region. The goal of this project, known as Les muséniaux, was to establish a dynamic, ongoing dialogue between the area’s cultural institutions and young people aged 18 to 35, who were invited to design a digital tool that would enable them to take ownership of those cultural venues.
Laura Delfino, Université de Montréal
After working at the McCord Stewart Museum from 2013 to 2019 as Project Manager, Education and Community Engagement, Laura Delfino recently joined the team at the Université de Montréal’s Canada Research Chair in Civic Museology. Drawing on the practices of action research, her study aims at making the museum a force for social change and a contributor to building a sense of belonging. Thanks to a fellowship from the Mitacs Accelerate program, she is developing a web application for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ Arts of One World galleries, in conjunction with PRISM.
Lena Krause, Maison MONA
A master’s student at the Université de Montréal, Lena Krause experiments with creating innovative tools for research and the cultural field. She is part of the Canada Research Chair in Digital Textualities, as well as of the research group Art+Site. She is also the founder and art director of Maison MONA, a Montreal non-profit cultural organization that, by combining culture and technology, invites the public to have encounters with art. Her main project, the MONA mobile app, turns the discovery of public artworks and cultural sites into an urban treasure hunt.
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Sarah Bélanger-Martel and Madeleine Cloutier, Musée ambulant
An extremely active presence on the cultural and educational scene, Sarah Bélanger-Martel has contributed to developing and perfecting the Musée ambulant’s mediation approach, as well as growing that small project into a big one. A mediator in its early days and its co-director since 2018, she currently oversees a number of research and innovation projects focusing on both mediation practices in contemporary art and the technological tools enabling access to them. Madeleine Cloutier has a bachelor’s degree in art education and is a graduate of a professional theatre school. A Musée ambulant mediator since 2019, she is now a coordinator and designer of school projects. Building on her multidisciplinary and multi-sensory relationship with art, she invites the public to enjoy a meaningfully rich experience with all its forms.
Cindy Veilleux, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
As coordinator of collections data management, Cindy Veilleux has been working for over five years on the development of projects focusing on the digital dissemination of works in the collection of Montreal’s Musée d’art contemporain (MAC). She is also an active member of various cultural committees. During the last few years, the MAC has carried out two major projects to digitize and centralize collections-related data, both of which have now contributed to the digital expansion of its artistic, cultural and educational offerings. Some examples of those initiatives, which provide multiple perspectives on works, include: on-line collections, interactive chronologies, and, most recently, the virtual exhibition Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, a veritable visual and aural immersive experience that explores the universal nature of the major themes in Cohen’s work as well as their possible connections with contemporary art.
Félix-Antoine Huard, Rum&Code, CultureGo
A native of Shawinigan, Félix-Antoine Huard is the co-founder of Rum&Code, a company specializing in custom software programming. Proud of his roots in the region and of his team, after obtaining an MBA he returned to settle in Mauricie to launch his business. His role within the team involves defining the requirements of new clients and project management of the product CultureGo, a web software that makes it easy to add multimedia content to discovery experiences. The web-based computer application allows museum teams to put together pages with videos, photos, audio files, 3-D models and texts, and to post that content on-line with just a few clicks. Visitors can see those pages adapted for mobile use (phone and tablet) by pointing their device’s camera at the QR codes generated by the application.
Thursday, June 17, 2021
Alaviva H2H
Project incubated at the Musée de la civilisation du Québec’s (MCQ) MLab Creaform
Presented by Brigitte Belleville (MCQ) and Andrée Pelletier (Alaviva)
In order to offer an enjoyable activity to seniors and people with reduced mobility living in health-care settings, Alaviva had come up with an immersive story (the Racontoir). Instead, as part of the open innovation process with the MCQ team, the target clientele declared that they wanted to explore spaces virtually (Mirette project). With the pandemic, connecting this clientele with other human beings became a priority, a need that led to the creation of Alaviva H2H, a solution using telepresence robots that has been tested by PRISM and a number of cultural organizations.
EducArt in virtual reality
A PRISM initiative at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Presented by Thibault Zimmer (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts)
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) has made a new virtual reality (VR) capability available to teachers of all subjects in Quebec secondary schools. The VR device makes it possible to interact remotely with a work from the MMFA collection in an immersive virtual space, use the thematic and pedagogical content of the www.educart.ca platform, and invite Quebec secondary school teaching staff and students to adopt a new learning tool for exploring the MMFA’s encyclopedic collection in a different way. The presentation outlines the various steps involved in this project, which is based on the design thinking process employed by PRISM at the MMFA.
Quebec legends
Project carried out by the companies 4elements and Spoken Adventures and incubated by Musée POP’s Muséolab and DigiHub Shawinigan
Presented by Valérie St-Jean (4elements)
What if the future of permanent exhibitions lay in hybrid models using gamification to interact with visitors? That is what 4elements and Spoken Adventures proposed to Musée POP as part of a call for projects in conjunction with Muséolab: an interactive museum adventure in which you are the heroine or hero! The project enables people to begin their explorations off-site, continue them at Musée POP to discover hidden treasures and secret places, and then finish up at the museum, at school, or at home. It’s our opinion that such a 360-degree experience represents the future of exhibitions, as it takes the exhibition out of the museum while encouraging people to go there in person. Isn’t that a fantastic idea?
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Claudine Drolet, DigiHub
Claudine Drolet is the manager of heritage and digital museology projects at DigiHub Shawinigan, an accelerator and incubator for digital enterprises. Previously, she was a journalist at Radio-Canada for thirteen years, before working as a cultural heritage development officer and then as a project manager. As a coordinator at Muséolab, a living lab focused on digital museology, Claudine is at the centre of interactions between young companies and museums. The result of a collaborative effort between Musée POP and DigiHub Shawinigan, Muséolab has enabled the creation of five prototypes over the last three years. Its co-creation approach sometimes reveals clashes between cultures, so it is the role of the project manager to foster mutual understanding.
Valérie Therrien, Musée POP
The holder of a bachelor’s degree in Marketing as well as an MBA, Valérie Therrien has been the director of Musée POP since 2016. She previously worked at Parks Canada for close to ten years as a manager of external relations and senior officer for partnerships. In her position at Musée POP, she has successfully executed a number of major projects, including an organizational and financial restructuring and the setting up of a living lab in digital mediation, as well as the development of permanent exhibitions and educational and cultural programs. A Muséolab partner from the beginning, Musée POP serves as a playground for DigiHub-incubated young companies, providing a place where they can test proofs of concept—co-created on the basis of challenges experienced by the museum’s teams—in real-life situations.
Cécile Fonrouge, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, DigiHub Shawinigan
An associate professor and researcher at InRPME, the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières’ SME research institute, in more than twenty years Cécile Fonrouge has published a total of over fifty articles and book chapters on entrepreneurship. For more than two years now, working with DigiHub Shawinigan has allowed her to be a part of the living lab that Muséolab represents. Her current research efforts focus on how to get heterogeneous players to collaborate and the contribution of open innovation to relations between digital start-ups and museums.
Friday, November 12, 2021
Vivek Venkatesh and Emma June Huebner, Concordia University
In addition to being a full professor in Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts, Vivek Venkatesh is a co-chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Extremism (UNESCO-PREV), director of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP), co-founder of the musical projects Landscape of Hate and Landscape of Hope, and the creator of the Grimposium festival and conference series. A filmmaker, multimedia artist and interdisciplinary applied learning scientist, his research and creative works investigate the intersection between classroom learning, public pedagogy and digital media. His innumerable contributions in many forms to the promotion of tolerance and non-violence have been created in conjunction with community and educational partners.
- UNESCO-PREV, https://chaireunesco-prev.ca/en/home/
Emma June Huebner is a master’s student in art education at Concordia University and a teacher of media arts at the secondary-school level, as well as a multidisciplinary artist. Her current research focuses on social media as digital pedagogical tools in museum settings. Additionally, she recently co-founded, with Julie Talbot, the Canadian Youth Film Festival.
- Canadian Youth Film Festival, https://en.cinemajeunesse.ca/
Jean-Ambroise Vesac (JAV), digital artist, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue
JAV is a researcher, educator and new media artist. In his research and creative work he explores mixed realities and human-machine interactions, as well as takes an interest in hybridization, coexistence and digital togetherness, while his pedagogy is grounded in the digital humanities. JAV is a member of Perte-de-Signal, a professor at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue and a co-investigator within Hexagram, a network dedicated to research and creation in the arts, culture and technology.
- Hexagram, https://hexagram.ca/en/
Lise Deville, digital artist
Lise Deville is a digital artist who interrogates the relationship between people and machines to explore both her identity and that of her audience. Deeply fascinated by language (whether spoken, written, or even machine language) and its various strata, she makes use of automatic writing as a pure means of expression to communicate her feelings to device or machine. Her works denote a personal and technological intimacy: by exposing her process and tools, she offers a space for reflection and interaction to those who wish to accompany her.
**Friday, December 10, 2021 **
Aurélia Fleury, Tactile Studio
For over ten years, Aurélia Fleury, an expert in sensory accessibility and museum ergonomics, has promoted a universal design approach, so as to take visitor diversity into consideration and make exhibits and programs accessible to everyone.
She worked for five years as the person in charge of accessibility for the project to renovate Paris’ Musée de l’Homme, and then as program coordinator for visitors with disabilities and the general public. Following that, she left for Canada to set up the North American branch of Tactile Studio, an agency that has been a pioneer in inclusive design in Europe. There she designed projects in conjunction with museums in Quebec and elsewhere in the country (including the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, National Gallery of Canada, Canadian Museum of History and Royal Ontario Museum) to increase the accessibility of their exhibitions.
In April 2021, she joined Société inclusive, an intersectoral research initiative whose aim is to foster inclusion for people with disabilities through participatory projects. Her mandate there is to facilitate collaboration between researchers from different academic fields and partners in various spheres (associations, clinical, municipal, private and cultural).
Justine Boulanger, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
Justine Boulanger has been the digital educational content coordinator at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec since October 2019. A teacher and artist by training, and a cultural mediator by profession, she has worked in educational and municipal settings for many years. As a project officer for the Ville de Saguenay, it was her role to make culture accessible to students at all levels and vulnerable or marginalized clienteles, as well as what has been termed “non-publics.” Her long-time participation in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean’s cultural mediation innovation unit has largely shaped her conception of the profession, which she sees as a powerful force for education, critical analysis and individual development.
Stephen Legari, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Stephen Legari holds a master's degree in Creative Arts Therapies from Concordia University as well as a master's in Couple and Family Therapy from McGill University. He has worked extensively with individuals, groups, couples and families in both clinical and non-clinical settings. Since 2017, he has been the program officer for art therapy at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where he has developed specialized therapy programs for groups, supervised master’s-level students, and contributed to numerous publications on the arts in health.
Friday, March 25, 2022
Nathalie Casemajor, Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS)
Nathalie Casemajor is a professor and researcher in the Urbanisation Culture Société Research Centre of Montreal’s INRS. Her work focuses on cultural development, citizen engagement and digital culture. She is the academic director of the Observatoire des médiations culturelles and has co-edited the book Expériences critiques de la médiation culturelle (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2017). She has also conducted various research projects on cultural institutions and Wikipedia, digital cultural participation and the circulation of artworks on the web.
Yannick Folla, cryptoart curator and metaverse adviser
Venture capitalist turned blockchain aficionado, Yannick Folla is focused on increasing the growth and usability of Web 3 protocols at Figment Networks. From 2015 to 2017, he worked as a partner at Residence Ventures and supported White Star Capital's Montreal operations, investing in promising start-ups at the seed and Series A stages.
Yannick began exploring the world of cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology in 2015, which led him to be fully dedicated to the development of its ecosystem via Icon.Partners, an advisory firm providing an end-to-end service to venture-backed start-ups looking to bridge to a decentralized model.
After venturing into the new area of proof-of-stake cryptoassets by launching a staking-service business, Yannick is now supporting the growth of Figment Networks as a business development manager, dividing his time between staking-service sales and products, building its data hub, and iterating on Hubble.
Maalavidaa (Alycia Rainaud), digital artist
Maalavidaa is Alycia Rainaud, a Franco-Canadian graphic designer and digital artist based in Montreal. Her highly saturated abstract aesthetic finds its inspiration in Jungian therapy, colour therapy and meditation. Her work aims to explore the complexity of emotions through using creative introspection as a way to increase emotional intelligence and sensitivity to mental health. With those intentions in mind, Alycia has also founded Heal The Deal, the metaverse’s first emotional support club, a safe space driven by creativity and empathy, as well as a gateway to a new path in her journey as an artist.
Aeforia (Alexy Préfontaine), digital artist
Alexy Préfontaine, a.k.a. Aeforia, is a digital artist from Montreal, Canada. His work is all about colours, balance and feeling. Blending surreal scenery and digital portraiture, over the years he has managed to craft a distinct style that combines a keen eye for detail with a focus on emotional impact. Those aspects of his visual style are embodied in his two latest cryptoart series, “Five Fears” and “Eras”—both released in 2021—in which he depicts his innermost fears and processes through his signature intimate landscapes.
Friday, January 20, 2023
PRISM, the MMFA’s Digital Mediation Innovation Lab, and L’Ouvroir, the Digital Art History and Museology Lab at the Université de Montréal, have partnered to present two events as part of the series of lunchtime talks and discussions launched by PRISM in January 2020.
Kristine Tanton, Université de Montréal
Kristine Tanton is an assistant professor of medieval art in the Department of Art History and Film Studies at the Université de Montréal (UdeM). Her research focuses on two principal areas: the dynamic relationship between sculpture, architecture, and ritual activity in the 11th to 13th centuries and the use of digital methods in art history, specifically through databases and 3-D reconstructions of medieval monuments. Kristine is the academic co-director of L’Ouvroir, the Digital Art History and Museology Lab, along with her colleague Emmanuel Château-Dutier.
Richard Lapointe, iSCAN
A professional archaeologist with training in geomatics, Richard Lapointe is the head “archaeomatician” at iSCAN, a 3-D laser-scanning firm specializing in the digitization, mapping and 3-D modelling of existing buildings, allowing multidisciplinary professionals to capture and document reality. Richard undertook an individualized master’s degree program in Archeology and Geomatics at Université Laval, during which he was introduced to 3-D laser surveying. He completed his academic training with a DESS in Territories and Environment at the Université de Montréal. He is a member of the Association des archéologues du Québec. President and founder of iSCAN, he has conducted numerous 3-D scanning projects varying in scope from historical sites to civil infrastructure such as bridges and viaducts, and from hospital and industrial environments to small objects. The surveys provide highly accurate information and can be used for a variety of purposes, including: 3-D models for architects and engineers, 3-D reconstitutions of landscapes and monuments for museums and entertainment companies, and photogrammetry and 3-D modelling of archaeological digs for referencing.
Laura Vigo, MMFA
The holder of a Ph.D. in Chinese Archaeology from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London in the United Kingdom, Laura Vigo is curator of Asian art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). She was responsible for the concepts behind the recent 根付 Netsuke Hands On digital project, as well as the new permanent gallery for Sikh art (2022) and the exhibition Buddha10 at the MAO Museo d’Arte Orientale in Turin, Italy (2022). Laura Vigo’s professional background includes work in museums, galleries, auction houses and non-profit cultural organizations. She has published various articles in professional and academic journals such as Arts of Asia, L’Objet d’Art, Kunsttexte and Spirale, in addition to contributing to a number of MMFA publications. She is currently visiting professor in Critical Art History at the Université de Montréal. Her research interests range from the history of collecting “the Other”—Western-centric conceptualizations of Asian art outside Asia—to issues surrounding digital mediation.
Thursday, March 30, 2023
PRISM, the MMFA’s Digital Mediation Innovation Lab, and L’Ouvroir, the Digital Art History and Museology Lab at the Université de Montréal, have partnered to present the next event in the series of lunchtime talks and discussions launched by PRISM in January 2020.
Chanele Morel-Lebrun, Musée de la civilisation
With a bachelor's degree in Communications and a passion for data, Chanele Morel-Lebrun has focused on the customer experience in every position she has held, which has enabled her to develop solid expertise in client acquisition and retention. Always looking for new ways to improve these aspects, in the last few years she has taken particular interest in how data can drive the creation of relevant and effective marketing strategies. Chanele currently works at the Musée de la civilisation in Quebec City, where she is introducing a customer data platform to strengthen the alignment between the use of marketing data and the visitor experience.
Yves Lapierre, Floe
A lawyer specializing in innovation law, for over 20 years Yves Lapierre has run a company active in the data hosting and digital services areas, providing support for a number of major organizations. His expertise covers digital tech, data usage, and augmented intelligence. He recently helped a group of partners create Culturepédia, the first cultural data trust serving Quebec, Acadian, and other Canadian francophone organizations.
Sébastien Gambs, Université du Québec à Montréal
Sébastien Gambs, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the Université du Québec à Montréal since January 2016, has been the Canada Research Chair in Privacy-preserving and Ethical Analysis of Big Data since December 2017. His research focuses on the protection of privacy in the digital world, while at the same time addresses long-term issues, such as the tension existing between privacy and the analysis of big data. He also takes an interest in the ethical issues, among them fairness, transparency and accountability, raised by personalized systems.
