SAGAMIE

SAGAMIE, the National Research and Exhibition Centre for Contemporary Digital Art, specializes in computer art, digital photography, large-format digital printing and experimental print design.

SAGAMIE operates one of Canada's most important artist-in-residence programs. The centre welcomes more than 50 artists in residence each year from all over Quebec, Canada and abroad. SAGAMIE provides these artists with access to an advanced computer lab (including the latest digital-printing technology), and to the materials and expert technicians they need to complete research projects in contemporary art.

SAGAMIE is open to the multidisciplinarity found in contemporary methods of expression. The centre often grants residencies to artists whose approach draws upon different artistic fields or disciplines, and encourages them to explore new ground in their usual discipline with the aim of confronting their assumptions about art with concepts that normally govern digital procedures and the printing arts. SAGAMIE promotes projects that seek to integrate digital printing into other contexts of contemporary art research: installation, stage design, architecture, performance, outdoor exhibitions, etc. The centre remains open to all possibilities: SAGAMIE believes in the pertinence and potential of computer art and the printing arts as engines of research in contemporary art and as fundamental elements in the spread of multidisciplinary approaches.

SAGAMIE is also a major exhibition centre equipped with 232 square metres of exhibition space suitable for any current artistic practice or installation, especially projects that fuse new discourses in contemporary digital art. The SAGAMIE complex, which has a total surface area of 745 square metres, is located in the heart of downtown Alma, and provides audiences with easy access to the exhibition space.

SAGAMIE offers a digital printing service for large-format images (152 cm wide) that uses HP 5000 and Epson 10000 printers equipped with archive inks. Many different print media are available at discount prices for artists and cultural organizations.

SAGAMIE also provides a free marketing service through its website to artists who wish to sell their contemporary computer art online as a way of diversifying their sources of income and improving their international visibility.

SAGAMIE promotes contributions to new discourses in contemporary art and takes an active role in the recognition of computer art as a viable form. In focussing on the evolution of this discipline, the virtual colloquium now underway encourages exchanges between professionals in the field, and improves their understanding of the theoretical and critical issues pertinent to this emerging artistic medium.

SAGAMIE is a self-managed art centre and NPO that receives operating subsidies from the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec and the City of Alma. It also receives financial support from the Fonds de stabilisation et de consolidation des arts et de la culture du Québec, the Fonds de lutte contre la pauvreté, the CRCD, the CLD, Emploi Québec, the CRC and its 175 members

* Definition: "Computer art" is understood as an original creation of contemporary art that relies on digital production and printing tools: digital cameras, scanners, computers, image-processing software and large-format digital imagers. In its most fundamental sense, computer art is based on the manipulation of pixels for results that would be impossible in any other medium.