The Guide to MUTEK Forum
MUTEK is more than a festival, it is also a major international event that brings together artists, digital experts, researchers, and cultural practitioners under the name of MUTEK Forum. This year’s Forum will feature over 45 activities led by 100 speakers from August 20 to 22 at Monument-National.
This year’s edition of MUTEK Forum unfolds under the theme Radical Rituals—a call to explore how artistic and technological practices can serve as tools for resilience, meaning-making, and systemic change. In a rapidly shifting world, rituals help us navigate complexity and imagine more inclusive futures.
The Forum is structured across three distinct days—Storytelling (August 20), Technology (August 21), and Practices (August 22)—each offering a lens into the evolving rituals of digital creation.
What can you expect from this three-day program?
Talks, performances, workshops, and networking opportunities that explore the intersections of music, artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR), media arts, video games, ecology, quantum art, and design.
NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES
At the core of MUTEK Forum is the drive to connect through daily networking moments designed to expand your creative and professional circles:
- Day 1: Opening cocktail at the SAT
- Day 2: Networking cocktail at OASIS Immersion on the occasion of MUTEK Match (a curated matchmaking event featuring 80+ local and international professionals)
- Day 3: Closing cocktail at the Monument-National
Each gathering offers a welcoming space to exchange ideas, spark collaborations, and build lasting connections.
Special rates for STUDENTS:
- Forum Passport: $90 CAD
- Individual tickets: $35 CAD
GROUPS receive a 15% discount on most passes and passports.
Access to the MUTEK Match networking event at OASIS Immersion is available for an additional fee, offered at the time of purchase. Please select this as an add-on option when you’re checking out.
Forum Passport
Day 1 | Storytelling
Day 2 | Technology
Day 3 | Practices
FULL PROGRAM
Day 1 | Expanding Realities: Immersive Media and Storytelling, presented by the Canada Media Fund (CMF)
Wednesday, August 20
Discover new ways of telling stories through technology with live performances, engaging talks, and hands-on workshops. Highlights include a live AI poetry reading by Sasha Stiles, an interactive performance by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, and the launch of the Village Numérique digital art showcase in the Quartier des Spectacles.
The talk show What’s Next in Immersive?, hosted by Myriam Achard (PHI), gathers voices shaping the future of immersive media—including curator Ana Brzezińska, Marc Barto (V&A), and artist Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes.
The day concludes with a public exhibition of the MUTEK AI Ecologies Lab, a new interdisciplinary residency exploring sustainability and justice in cultural uses of AI, presented in collaboration with the SAT, Milieux, Applied AI, and Abundant Intelligences.
Meet artists and professionals across music, visual design, and digital media—Day 1 opens the Forum with new perspectives on how stories are shaped, shared, and experienced today.
Day 2 | Future Interfaces: Technology
Thursday, August 21
Explore how quantum theory, AI, and video games are reshaping artistic creation. Day 2 features an inspiring talk by Libby Heaney on quantum art, the debut of Benny, an open-source music software by James Holden, and an immersive performance by Suzanne Kite.
Discover Machinic Encounters (presented by Milieux Institute, Applied AI Institute and the Hexagram Network), an exhibition questioning our relationship with AI, and interactive game-based projects, including Indigenous-led creations by Kahentawaks Tiewshaw and Vanessa Racine. Join workshops with Lexis, machìna and Nicola Cruz.
It also hosts MUTEK Match, the Festival's flagship networking event at OASIS Immersion, where 150 local and international professionals connect through curated one-on-one meetings, a performative lecture by Suzanne Kite (presented by the Indigenous Screen Office), and a networking cocktail, presented by OASIS Immersion.
Please note: This activity is only open to MUTEK Forum Passport holders with the exclusive MUTEK Match add-on. The session will be bilingual.
Day 2 is an invitation to connect with artists and professionals exploring new ways to create, share, and imagine narratives.
Day 3 | Ethical Futures: Practices
Friday, August 22
Discover how artists and thinkers are imagining more sustainable and inclusive practices in digital creation. Attend a conversation with Madame Gandhi on music and climate justice, explore queer rave culture with McKenzie Wark, and try out new musical technologies in the interactive Ableton Spaces environment.
Key panels explore diversity, governance, and ownership in music and AI, while Ash Fure leads an immersive masterclass on the physicality of sound. Don’t miss composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer (The White Lotus) in conversation, along with other artists who are redefining sound creation. Also take part in Computational Witchcraft Sleepover, a queer-feminist ritual blending games, digital altars, and collective storytelling!
Day 3 is a moment to learn, connect, and be inspired by emerging visions for a more responsible and creative future.
Practical information
Locations
- Monument-National
1182 Boulevard St-Laurent, Montréal, H2X 2S5 - Society for Arts and Technology
1201 Boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montréal, H2X 2S6 - DASA
1341 Boulevard René-Lévesque Est, Montréal, H2L 3B5 - OASIS Immersion
301 Rue Saint-Antoine Ouest, Montréal, H2Y 0A3
Accessibility
Our action plan and collaborations with various experts allow us to work continuously to improve accessibility and reduce barriers to participation in our events. Our current goals focus on risk reduction, harassment prevention of all kinds, and ensuring physical access to our venues.
During the event, no interpretation for Deaf attendees will be provided.
More information:
Accommodation and transportation
THE MUTEK FORUM APP
The MUTEK Forum App is the main networking tool for international professionals and Canadian artists to make valuable connections during the festival. You may use it to send messages to all other participants, book 1-on-1 meetings with them, and to register for limited capacity activities via a desktop computer or a smartphone.
All Forum tickets and passes include access to the platform. Once you purchase a ticket, you receive an invitation to set up your account.
PARTNERS
MUTEK would like to thank its partners, who play a key role in the maintenance and development of its activities and have provided support towards the production of the Forum.
The Government of Québec, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the ministère du Tourisme du Québec, the Secrétariat à la région métropolitaine du gouvernement du Québec, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, FACTOR and Canada's private radio broadcasters, the Department of Canadian Heritage, Musicaction, the City of Montréal, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, Goethe-Institut, Tourisme Montréal, Hôtel Monville, Society for Arts and Technology, Canada Media Fund (CMF), Institut en sciences et génie quantique de l’ÉTS, LCI Éducation, Ableton, Applied AI Institute, Milieux Institute, Silent Partners, OASIS Immersion, Xn Québec, Abundant Intelligences, FEMINAE NOX, Caisse de la Culture Desjardins, CJE, Station Clip, Ubisoft, MOTH, DASA, La Piscine, Encode Canada, Club Sexu, Revital Software, Hexagram, ArtiA, Sporobole, and Botto.
