BEATS x SAT — [Unfolded]

Founded in 2018 by artistic director Hamie Robitaille and composer Yuki Berthiaume, BEATS Collective creates works at the intersection of contemporary dance, digital arts, and sound creation. Across its projects, the collective has developed a language in which the body enters into dialogue with light, sound, and interactive technologies, with a particular interest in the systems that organize, constrain, and transform our behaviours.

This exploration first took shape with the eponymous performance BEATS, presented in 2021 by Codes d’Accès as part of a filmed laboratory performance at OBORO. The project was subsequently presented in the dome of the Société des arts technologiques [SAT] as part of MUTEK, and later at the Phénomena festival in 2022. In 2023, BEATS 180 was presented at the PHI Centre, furthering the project’s evolution through a frontal, immersive format. Beginning in 2025, the collective expanded its practice to explore greater interactivity and audience participation. A residency at LAB7 of Les 7 Doigts de la main, in collaboration with the SAT’s innovation department, led to the development of an interactive dance floor conceived simultaneously as an instrument, a performance space, and an interface with the audience. In parallel, a residency at Agora de la danse initiated Marcher sur le feu, a new creation exploring the relationships between bodies, systems, and technologies.

This artistic practice has also extended beyond the stage through talks, demonstrations, and public engagement activities presented at HUB Montréal, MUTEK Mexico, and the KIKK Festival in Belgium, among others. BEATS Collective’s work is supported by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ), the Conseil des arts de Montréal (CAM), and the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA). The collective has also received the Mécènes investis pour les arts grant, an Applied Arts Award, and a nomination for the NUMIX Awards.

Phantom Limb is a project exploring the enigmatic and poetic relationship between a human being and the black box that is their interior through the use of a medical ultrasound machine. Amos Peled has been developing methods to perform audio-visual manipulations which transform the ultrasound machine into an instrument that illuminates the inside of the body and expands the space of the artistic act into the organs, under the skin. The work investigates conceptions such as the distance of the human body from the idea of oneself, the hierarchical relationship between the inside and the outside, pain as a poetic message, and the lack of internal symmetry. By revisiting personal memories of time spent in the seeming stillness of healthcare centres, the artist positions these experiences in a mediated imaginary space of internal images and sounds of the body.

Second Self is an audiovisual work and a first collaboration between choreographer and

performer Nien Tzu Weng and composer and digital artist Myriam Bleau. Through movement,

sound and video, the performance explores the object of the screen as tactile interface,

prosthesis, mask and mirror.

Custom-made small LED screens of irregular shapes are worn on the bodies of the

performers (Weng and Bleau). Gestures on the surface of these interactive devices inform the

sonic and video elements. Amplifying the sense of touch, they reveal the porous and elusive

surface delimiting our idea of a separate, autonomous self.

The project’s title ‘Second Self’ refers to Sherry Turkle’s book, published in 1984. The theorist

suggests that intelligent machines that exhibit human characteristics act as a mirror or

‘second self’ through which we define the image we have of ourselves. The object of the

screen, omnipresent in our societies, mediates this relationship to our ‘second self’, acting

both as a portal towards a hyper-connected network, but also as a mirror, reflecting back an

altered image.

Through different scenes, the artists explore the symbol of the mirror, social dynamics and the

myth of Narcissus and Echo. While specular and auditory reflections (echoes) multiply as in a

mirror palace, a strange ritual unfolds, the performers becoming in turn reflections of the

other, infra-human creatures, twins, shadows or machines.

Fractus presents an immersive audiovisual performance driven by a selection of hypnotic techno, percussive grooves, and industrial electronic textures. Building gradually in intensity, the performance explores the interplay between rhythm, movement, and perception, drawing the audience into a space where sonic energy extends into the visual realm.

Created and performed live, the visuals interact with the music to form a living work in constant evolution. Conceived as the climax of the evening, the performance celebrates the collective energy of the dance floor and the sensory experience it creates.