Elektra enters their sixth season this year with a series of presentations, including performances by influential electronica acts Autechre, Scanner and Front 242, running May 10 through 15 at various Montreal venues (http://www.elektrafestival.ca for complete program). Elektra founder and artistic director Alain Thibault spoke to me about the festival and his own background in the field of digital arts:

“I studied mostly at Université de Montréal, also in Laval, Quebec City and McGill,” began Alain. “I did a bachelor degree and master degree in electroacoustic music composition. I was always very interested in working with visuals. In the ‘80's I collaborated for example with groups like Écran Humain, and also did some pop stuff with Michel Lemieux. I taught electronic music at Universite de Montreal, Universite de Sherbrooke, and in communication and video creation at UQAM. I did many collaborations with visual artist Yan Breuleux. In 1999 we got an honorary mention in digital animation at Prize Ars Electronica for the Piece-a-light. I also worked in dance and theater with people like Edouard Lock of Lalala Human Steps, Marie Chouinard, Paul-André Fortier, and Carbone 14.”

In 1993 Thibault rose to the role of artistic director at ACREQ (the Quebec Association for the Creation and Research of Electroacoustics), a non-profit organization founded in 1978. For the small enterprise, organizing events five or six times every year began to make little sense; by centralizing their budget and efforts on one annual event, ACREQ would be able to reach more people, and stage more elaborate digital arts presentations. With a hunch that increasing numbers of artists working with both sound and images wanted to be part of such an event, Alain founded Elektra in 1999. Six years later, Alain has seen some of his hopes and aspirations materialize:

“These intuitions were right,” he affirms, “more and more works like that are produced now. I consider that we have an evolving artistic mandate. This year we are starting to present interactive sound and video installations and a new conference around animated design. These new activities are very important for me because I want to trigger more collaborations between electronic musicians, designers and visual artists, and help musicians learn about design and visual art, and vice versa. Digital arts are a new field of artistic explorations, expanding every year. It spreads in all the other traditional form of art. The new generations are really interested in its development. For me it is now difficult to imagine art without technology.”

This year marks a shift in the festival’s timing, as prior editions had run during November. Unfolding a mere two weeks before MUTEK, another major Montreal festival exploring new technologies’ applications to electronic music, the move certainly did not go unnoticed. Months ago, MUTEK staff made their dissatisfaction public, and the Elektra Festival was forced to defend their decision. I asked Thibault about the logic behind the date switch.

”As you know,” Thibault explains, “November is a bleak, dark, cold period. MEG (Montreal Electronic Groove) was two weeks before us. We were arriving at the end of a long stretch of festivals and events. Les Coups de Coeur Francophones were at the same time. The state of mind is that we are going into darkness and Christmas is coming. The type of productions we present are quite experimental, so we felt that November was, after all of our efforts, finally not an appropriate moment to try and convince people to come and see and hear weird shows. We thought that the artists could get a better audience if Elektra was at a better time. There was an opening at Usine C for the beginning of May. This was perfect. As you know, after winter we all want to get out, and University has just finished -students are a good part of our audience. Being in May allows us to present projects outside. This year we were supposed to present the interactive installation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer on a wall of the Musée d'art contemporain. Finally that was not possible for different reasons. That's why it is presented inside the Museum. But, we have another project for the outside next year. I think it is important that the people on the street get in touch with digital art. As an example we commissioned an interactive video installation to three young artists that will be presented from May 2nd to May 15th in the Couloir Des Pas Perdus at Place des Arts. We were invited to do a first test during Le Nuit Blanche last February, and the people were absolutely fascinated by this new kind of interactive work.”

Eager to differentiate Elektra from MUTEK, Alain elaborated on the subject:

“MUTEK is mostly known now for its techno parties, dance parties. The big "rave" -I know this word is outdated, that they recently presented in Mexico is a good example of their development. MUTEK is associated with music, not visuals, and specifically with a minimal techno sound. MUTEK is very close to an event like Sonar, which is a big weekend of parties in Barcelona. Like Sonar, MUTEK has a small experimental section in its program and is closer to the music industry with its CD label. MUTEK is addressing a different public. The two events are proposing very different kind of experiences. MUTEK has a roster of DJs, we don't. Elektra, on the other hand, is a cultural artistic event, closer to a festival like Ars Electronica, but with much less budget, with a much smaller audience. We are trying to have a broad selection of artists representing very different esthetics. Experimental works and artists are mostly what we present. The emphasis is really on works where music and visuals have equal qualities or could not be dissociated. We started last year a pedagogical activity for students in high schools and colleges. The idea was to show them works presented in the evening, not shows made for them. Last year classes came to see the 360 Granular Synthesis piece. They really enjoyed it and they are very open-minded. This year we continue the experience. Next year we should have a new competition for multimedia works made by people under 18. I really believe that we have some kind of education mission and that it is important to help to develop creativity by saying that a computer is a creative tool, and that you can use it also to do other things than downloading mp3s or whatever.”

Elektra Festival 2005 features Autechre, Ryoji Ikeda, D-Fuse with Scanner, UVA, Red Sniper, Rafael-Lozano-Hemmer, Marie Chouinard, Front 242 and much, much more, through five days of paid and free events, presentations, shows, performances, discussion panels and lectures. Check their program at http://www.elektrafestival.ca for complete details.