Interface[s] Montréal

Networked Spaces and Services

René Barsalo, 08

Research and Strategy, Society for Arts and Technology [SAT]

Networked Spaces : the Next IP Frontier ?

View the presentation [In French]

The first era of development in computers focused on digital data; in the era now dawning, we see an ever-accelerating focus on the use of audiovisual tools — an area of expertise that has been lodged in the cultural sector since the term was first coined. Research carried out at the SAT since 2003 has produced a strategy for linking public spaces, stages and studios by combining IP networks with the new generation of digital A/V equipment. At this presentation we intend to share some of our experimental results from this type of networking, as well as provide a quick overview of the UrbanHub concept and the PropulseART project now in development at the SAT.

A communications specialist and graphic designer since the mid-seventies, René Barsalo has become one of Canada’s most influential analysts and activists in the world of digital culture. Over the years he has established and managed a host of pioneering companies and associations in the software, multimedia and communications sectors. In addition to being one of the founders of the Forum des Inforoutes et du Multimédia and the Alliance NumériQc, he is a dedicated lecturer, an astute entrepreneur and an insightful witness to the great cultural changes wrought by the arrival of the digital age.

René Barsalo joined the Society for Art and Technology [SAT] in June 2004, with the goal of further advancing its local and international reputation for innovative research and development. Among his recent initiatives at the SAT is the UrbanHub concept, which will use ultra-high-speed IP networks to transform concert halls and artist’s studios into transmission nodes for interactive, interdisciplinary performance.

He is also the originator of the Interface[s] conference series, and the host for its instalments in Montreal.