In-Site Montréal is a collection of site-specific art presented on the portal pages of five wireless internet hotspots. Artists Nicolas Fleming, Maria Legault, and Virginie Laganià¨re have created site-specific art works that can be viewed simply by connecting to the àŽle Sans Fil network at the selected hotspots. Though the project is best viewed in-situ, you can also view the works produced by the artists for the hotspot locations at the In-Site Montréal micro-site.
From the curator’s essay:
The virtual spaces that In-site Montréal inhabit are amorphous areas around several accepted gathering places such as cafés, galleries, markets, and bars. They are perhaps places where as an internet user, you may intend to use the opportunity of connectivity to the network to look outward, to read news of distant places or connect with friends far away through e-mails and online social networking sites. The art practice of telematics in particular addresses the creative possibilities when two parties are connected over distance to communicate. In some way, the pieces presented on the portal pages of àŽle Sans Fil’s network as part of the In-Site Montréal project present something that is almost anti-telematic, in that the works look inward rather than outward. In the case of this project, a connection to someone across the globe is not sought, it is shunned in favour of a further examination and rumination on the details of the local environment.
The project was produced by Year Zero One, supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, and curated by Michelle Kasprzak.
