Max and Iris Stern International Symposium 8

Montréal, March 24, 2014 — On Friday, April 4 and Saturday, April 5, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal  (MAC) will hold the eighth edition of the Max and Iris Stern International Symposium, titled Remontage/Remixing/Sharing: Technologies, Aesthetics, Politics. Organized by the MAC in connection with The Clock, the Symposium will examine the practices of remontage and remixing as manifested in various fields¾visual arts, film, sound art, video games¾in the studio or live, in institutional settings, on the Web or in urban space, in professional circles and in amateur networks. The presentations will be given in French or English and simultaneous translation service will be available. For full details on the Symposium and the speakers, please consult the MAC website at www.macm.org/en/stern. Information and reservations: 514 847-6233.

The creation and distribution of “media content” are no longer the preserve of professionals but are open to amateurs of all sorts. This expansion is furthering the shift from a “read-only culture” to a “read/write culture” (Lessig) and the development of a new participatory culture (Jenkins). This culture obviously generates new forms of knowledge and politics, as well as new aesthetic practices based on remontage and remixing—such as sampling, shuffle, remix, mash-up, machinima, fan film, VJing, modding—that affect not just the data involved, but also the software, applications and platforms for producing and disseminating them. These practices undoubtedly revive certain modern and postmodern operations—collage,  photomontage, ready-made, détournement, found footage, rephotographing, appropriation, remake, etc.—in addition to changing them considerably, most notably by developing brand-new forms of collaboration, circulation and sharing, and by forming wide-ranging communities.

The Symposium was organized by Olivier Asselin and Serge Cardinal, professors in the Department of Art History and Film Studies at the Université de Montréal, and François LeTourneux, Associate Curator at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

Continuous screening of The Clock and performance by DJ Spooky

A continuous screening of The Clock, Christian Marclay’s video masterpiece, will take place from Friday, April 4 at 11 a.m. to Saturday, April 5 at 6 p.m.  In addition, to close the Symposium, the museum is presenting a concert by Paul D. Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid) on Saturday, April 5 at 9 p.m.

Admission

Admission to the Symposium costs $20 per person, or $10 for students and MACarte holders. Admission to the exhibition galleries is free with the Symposium ticket. Tickets to the performance by DJ Spooky cost $15 each.

Acknowledgments

The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) is a provincially owned corporation funded by the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec. It receives additional funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts. The museum gratefully acknowledges their support and that of Collection Loto-Québec, the MAC’s principal partner. The MAC also thanks its media partner, La Presse+.