About

Mandate

Avatar is dedicated to the research, creation, production, dissemination, publication, and circulation of audio and electronic artworks and artists.

To support creation, Avatar organizes projects, invites artists, reflects on practices, and encourages new collaborations through local and international networks. Located in the heart of Québec City, Avatar offers a venue for interactions and initiatives, explores new artistic terrains, and provides access to equipment and specialized skills.

Since its founding in 1993, Avatar has been an innovator in audio and electronic arts research in North America. At Avatar, audio and electronic creation covers a broad range of activities, including the creation of listening devices, the invention and circuit bending of instruments, sound installation, performance, radio art, and sound sculpture. Audio art crosses the fields of music, visual arts, and poetry and is open to hybrid forms of audible performance, sound excavations, and acoustic environments. Avatar also develops programming of custom-made software and electronic interfaces, as well as interactive and kinetic installation systems and telematic works.

Avatar hosts artists, researchers, thinkers, hackers, and students, listening to their needs and adapting itself to support the most unconventional artistic dreams.

Avatar is a member of Méduse, RCAAQ (Regroupement des centres d’artistes autogérés du Québec), REPAIRE (Regroupement de pairs des arts indépendants de recherché et d’expérimentation), and IMAA (Independent Media Arts Alliance).

Residencies at Avatar

Les types de résidences ont été réfléchis de manière empirique au fil des dernières années d’activités avatariennes, c’est-à-dire qu’elles tentent de répondre le plus possible aux besoins exprimés par les artistes, tout en rencontrant des barèmes que le centre peut se permettre.

Short-Term Residency – Guest Artist

This residency of two to three weeks aims to “stimulate” a project or a collaboration between an artist and Avatar in order to develop an idea and produce a new work that is directly connected to the art centre’s mandate and mission.

Support: Avatar provides an artist fee, studio time, artistic and technical support, as well as a per diem, accommodation, and transportation when needed.

E.g.: La Majorité by Le Bureau de l’APA, Douze Horizons by eriKm, Algorithmic Drive by François Quévillon

Extended Residency – Guest Artist

The extended residency supports research-creation and the development and production of a work over a period of four to six weeks in the studio, as well as additional occasional assistance over a period of three to eight months.

This residency aims to encourage in-depth research, helping the artist to explore new avenues in their practice. It also seeks to establish the vitality of Avatar’s community by proposing a work rhythm oriented more towards a daily creative process. The projects supported through this residency are closely connected to the centre’s mission and mandate. The artist has the opportunity to further develop an aspect of their practice, an aspect on which Avatar can potentially have significant impact. For these projects, Avatar also considers the possibility of offering artists personalized training during their residency.

Support: Avatar provides an artist fee, studio time, artistic and technical support, as well as a per diem, accommodation, and transportation when needed.

E.g.: Cascade by Marc Vilanova, Haunted Telegraph by Véronique Béland

Project Development – Guest Artist

This residency category offers an artist consultation time over a period of a few days to one week. At this stage, the artist has an initial idea for a project but has not yet tested out the concept. The artist needs time to better identify and examine the issues related to audio and electronic art. At the conclusion of a project development residency and in joint agreement with the artist, Avatar may decide to invest further in the project and support the development and production of the work through another type of residency.

Sound Excavation

This intensive one-week residency is an opportunity to invite an artist who has made a significant contribution to audio art or another field to explore the medium of sound by working in the studio using a predetermined stereo format. The sound excavations are then disseminated through Avatar’s SoundCloud page and/or other contexts.

Support: Avatar provides an artist fee, 5 consecutive days in the studio, artistic and technical support, as well as a per diem, accommodation, and transportation when needed.

Number of projects accepted per year: 2

E.g.: Markers

 

 

 

 

Production and Dissemination Assistance

The production and dissemination assistance allows artists who are part of the programming to benefit from Avatar’s artistic and technical support as well as its specialized equipment, so as to carry out a dissemination project, distributed by the centre.

Support: Avatar provides 20 hours of artistic and technical support, 5 days in the studio, equipment rental, a dissemination fee, as well as a per diem, accommodation, and transportation when needed.

Maximum number of projects accepted per year: 2
E.g.: Réel halluciné, And, the Coexistence of Temporalities

Partnerships and Special Projects

This residency category covers projects that Avatar initiates or produces in collaboration with its partners. The residency conditions are determined in agreement with the partners. Most often, these projects involve open calls for work.

The aim of this residency is to share affinities in thinking and vision with other local and international organizations whose mission and mandate are similar or complementary to Avatar’s and to encourage exchanges and the circulation of artists in our community.

E.g.: Cosmic Deliquescence, Researching the MIDIfied Pipe Organ in Guérande

Art Commission

The concordance between an artist’s creative development and Avatar’s is embodied in the art commission. It first requires special funding (specific funding applications). If the funding is obtained, Avatar makes a significant financial contribution to the project, which includes living expenses, work time in Avatar’s spaces, and access to all of the centre’s resources.

This category aims to build a strong relationship of reciprocity and a real intersection between the artist and the centre, in addition to facilitating the development and production of a work that wouldn’t happen otherwise. Ideally, the resulting projects make significant contributions to the discipline and the community. They occasion knowledge sharing and creative research and offer the artist an international reach, as well as publication or dissemination possibilities depending on the nature of the project.

Number: One art commission every 2 years

E.g.: Plein Jeu, OPS by Alexis Bellavance, Dialogues with Chantal Dumas, Semblances by Alexandre St-Onge, …

Emerging Artist Residency

These residencies highlight Avatar’s support of emerging practices. Artists receive artistic and technical assistance in accordance with a prior agreement.

Residency for graduate students in artist-run centres

Prix Avatar

Première Ovation

Other

Support: Avatar provides artistic and technical support, access to the small studio, equipment rental depending on the centre’s available supplies.

No current call for applications

Community Support

This category offers a work period of one to two weeks in Avatar’s spaces to an artist or group of artists. It doesn’t provide an artist fee, accommodation, per diem, or transportation, but artists receive artistic and technical assistance in accordance with a prior agreement.

This category aims to support and facilitate the development of sound art by giving artists access to Avatar’s equipment and expertise.

Maximum support: 20 hours of artistic and technical support, access to the small studio, equipment rental up to a maximum of $300 and depending on the centre’s available supplies.

Number of projects accepted per year: 2

 

 

Contractual Services

Avatar also offers its services when there is a suitable match between the request and the expertise or mandate of the artist-run centre.

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