Artengine

"Artengine - Where technology comes to play."

The success of the creative economy depends on the vision of its artists. At the fringes of mainstream feature films and television commercials, there is video and performance art. At the edges of mainstream music, there are audio-visual festivals taking audiences to their sensory limits. On the margins of engineering, there are do-it-yourself makers and Hackers. And so on.

More than any other sector, at the very heart of the creative economy, media artists engage with new technologies with a sense of play. Inspired by the powerful possibilities afforded by new technologies, media artists open up to new ways of thinking about, of doing technology. The stuff of Media Arts today encompasses online communities, game play, distributed and open source technology development, mixed or augmented reality experience, assistive technologies, cyborg bodies, and other as yet unimagined territories of invention.

From the very small DIY projects, to the spectacular events altering our sensorium, to virtual communities of technologists and creators, the Media Arts today remind us of technology's potential to elicit wonder. They are where technology – and human beings – come to play.

Who We Are

Artengine is an Ottawa-based collective of artists, technologists and interested members of the general public with strong ties to the local, national and international community of technologically-based artists.

1. Our Mission

Our mission at Artengine is to drive your creativity.

2. Our Vision

Our vision is to connect artists, art audiences and the general public locally, nationally and internationally.

We aim to be a highly flexible organization that leverages strategic partnerships to produce ambitious public projects with an international reach, reputation and contribution, combined with responsive, short term programming and the capacity to incubate new artistic ideas and trends through their natural life cycles.

3. Our Values

We value democratic access to our facilities and know-how as well as to our organization as a whole.

We value and facilitate connections between artists and members of the general public with an interest in technology.

What We Do

Artengine presents, promotes and enables technologically based artistic creation.

Artengine is an artist-run media arts production and presentation centre located in Ottawa's Arts Court. A leader in Media Arts development in the Ottawa-Gatineau region, we share our expertise in a number of open-source programming languages of interest to artists, participate in international networks of artist programmers, and provide tools and instruction to interested artists of all disciplines to develop their own work independently. Artists interested in digital media arts production now benefit from Artengine's M70 Lab, offering a flexible workspace, technological tools for use on-site and in the field, as well as professional training in the use of Artengine's technological tools and tool development.

Artengine's many programming events offer sophisticated, intelligent and entertaining programming to the largely professional population of the nation's capital, and extending to youth of all social classes. These events garner enthusiastic media attention, no doubt encouraged by Artengine's inclusive Artlist – an online promotion tool for use by all interested arts organizations, which boasts a 1500 member subscriber list and growing.

In addition, Artengine's critically acclaimed bi-annual media arts festival, Electric Fields/Champs électriques, has grown significantly, reaching larger audiences with local, national and international programming. It's sister event, the Electric Fields symposium which is held in the Festival's off-years, brings together a host of partners from the arts and research communities in Ottawa and Montreal, advancing critical discourse around technologically-based arts creation.

Our Mandate

Artengine is committed to:

1. The creation, presentation/dissemination and promotion of art concerned with technological experimentation, both online and in physical space.

2. Ensuring that artists have affordable access to specific technological resources needed for their work. This would include both physical and information based resources. Relevant artistic endeavors include computer programming, custom electronics, network adaptation and many other practices in which the production or presentation technology plays a distinct role in shaping the work.

3. Carving out artist-run space in the on-line world by owning and operating its own server with the direct goal of providing more accessible services to artists and other art and artist-run organizations. These services include web space for presentation and promotion, email, listservs and other network based services as well as technological support and guidance.

4. Maintaining a space dedicated to technological experimentation with the recognition of the important role a locally-based community of practice plays in the artistic process. This space functions as a laboratory for production and presentation, and for the exchange of ideas and methods, both formal and informal, as they relate to technological based art.

5. Actively supporting the open source movement by working with specific software projects that provide artists with distinct and accessible tools for the creation of their work.