Autumn Editorial
What is currently happening at the SAT this season? Here are the answers!
Autumn Editorial
After eight years of occupying various floors of the Blumenthal building on St. Catherine street, we acquired its current location in 2003 when it took over an establishment that Montrealer’s had long known as either the Saint-Laurent Market or as the Poolroom, which occupied the second floor.
Located in front of the Monument-National, where we are being temporarily hosted, and at the South entrance of the Quartier des spectacles, our building was in serious need of both an upgrade and an expansion. This renovation was necessary in order for us to provide our patrons with a revamped showcase for our educational and research projects as well as for our production, dissemination, and conservation activities. Although the new development is nearing completion, these proceedings have been underway since 2007! The entire SAT team is finding this phase to be a rather long one… However, we will soon have almost 390 metres² of space spanning four floors, all of which will be dedicated to digital culture.
A major element of our expansion is the addition of a new floor, which will welcome the Satosphere, the first permanent immersive theatre devoted to artistic creation and visualization activities. This new floor, aptly named the Sensorium, will also incorporate the Culinary Creation Laboratory or FoodLab, where reputable chefs and young culinary recruits will bring their special touch to our programme. These additions to our building will introduce new creative instruments as well as a context in which immersive content can fully express itself. The Satosphère is not only a new room, but an innovative instrument that selected artists can use to explore new avenues of creation. By placing viewers in the centre of the experience and enabling them to become interactors, they will be able to fully live, savour, and experience artistic productions in a form that has, until now, been largely unexplored.
Satosphere’s modelisations
To date, over fifteen artists are developing original and engaging content for this new technological apparatus. Kurt Hentschläger, Jean Ranger, Jean-Jacques Lemêtre, Luc Courchesne, Joseph Lefèvre, Ambroise Vesac, Francis Théberge, Martin Kush and Marie-Claude Poulin are but a few of the artists who are currently using the Labodome, a scale model of the Satosphere, to experiment with and endorse a variety of different artistic submissions. The Labodome will be permanently installed on the new building in January 2011. Once installed, the works that emerge from this creation and production laboratory will make up the primary Satosphere programm.
After almost eight years of research and experimentation, the SAT can now provide artists with a new instrument capable of supporting video, music, sound design, visual art, architecture, choreography, dance, gaming design, and 3D content. In short, the Satosphere prides itself on being the result of primarily Canadian research and expertise and can endorse any discipline wishing to employ a creative tool for visualization.
Furthermore, we wish to carry out its fundamental mission as a Transdisciplinary Centre by integrating culinary art into our sphere. Bearing in mind our local cultural values and current questions regarding global consciousness, it is evident that diet is one of our era’s fundamental issues. These considerations directly question food-related technologies employed today and prompt us to reflect on the diversity, wealth, and subsequently, the fragility of our resources.
Looking forward to welcoming you in our new building.
Monique Savoie
Founding President
Artistic Director