MUTEK Forum, a platform and gathering for bold ideas in digital creation, is back from August 20-22, 2025, with a three-day programme to showcase and critically explore creative practices for artistic research, creation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. MUTEK Forum’s annual gathering brings together artists, studios, institutions, researchers, technology professionals, digital experts, and curators, nurturing interconnection between music, artificial intelligence (AI), extended reality (XR), ecology, media art, gaming, and design.

Speakers

RADICAL RITUALS

Radical Rituals invites a collective cultural inquiry, expanding our shared imaginaries through bold perspectives and transformative practices. In a time of rapid technological shifts and socio-political instability, rituals become essential tools for navigating complexity. This year’s theme frames the Forum as a space for resilience, care, and collaboration, where existing and emerging practices can spark systemic change. We call them rituals for their power to build meaning and community, and radical for their ability to transform dominant paradigms and imagine more just, inclusive futures.

To foster interdisciplinary exchange, the Forum will break down the silos in digital creativity by organizing each day into themed chapters. Storytelling: Expanding Realities, presented by the Canada Media Fund (CMF), will explore new narrative forms and immersive experiences. Technology: Future Interfaces will examine transformative tools and platforms shaping creative expression. Practices: Ethical Futures will focus on sustainable, inclusive, and responsible approaches to artistic and technological innovation.

Cristóbal Tapia de Veer at the Emmys in 2022. Image Credit: N/A

AN ENRICHING AND ECLECTIC TALKS PROGRAMME

Portrait of McKenzie Wark. Image Credit: N/A

This year’s MUTEK Forum will present a bold and forward-looking programme, spotlighting influential voices at the forefront of art, technology, and cultural transformation. Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, the award-winning composer behind The White Lotus, Babygirl, UTOPIA, and Black Mirror, will offer a rare glimpse into his compositional approach through a masterclass and Q&A. Language artist Sasha Stiles will present The Poet’s Code: Human Voice in the Digital Age, a performance and talk exploring how poetry can illuminate the impacts and possibilities of transformative technologies like AI. McKenzie Wark—writer, theorist, performer, and professor at The New School—will deliver a signature reading with beats from her books Raving and Love and Money, Sex and Death, followed by a live discussion. The programme will also feature a keynote by prolific multimedia artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, a case study on memory and transmission in the age of digitization from videographer and new media artist Mélanie O’Bomsawin, while interactive artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, known for centering Black trans lives, will share their immersive, speculative practice. Nyambura M. Waruingi, founder and creative director of Akoia, will speak on resilience in XR. Artist, writer, and educator Alice Bucknell will present All The World’s Polygons, a game engine lecture-performance exploring ecological simulation in gaming and how predictive technologies can both envision and limit future possibilities. Music journalist and author Liz Pelly will offer insights from her investigative book Mood Machine, followed by a conversation on alternative models for music platforms with Austin Robey, co-founder of collectively owned music marketplace Subvert.

The 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ) marks 100 years since the development of quantum mechanics and celebrates its significance in shaping a resilient and sustainable future. As part of this global initiative, award-winning artist and quantum art pioneer Libby Heaney will deliver a keynote exploring quantum theory, creativity, and non-binary futurisms. Her talk will be followed by a roundtable on emerging quantum musical aesthetics, and an activity showcasing MOTH’s generative media technology, powered by quantum computing.

Portrait of Madame Gandhi. Image credit: Lindsey Byrnes

ARTIST Q&As AND MASTERCLASSES

This year’s programme also opens a window into the creative practices of artists performing at the MUTEK Festival through a series of artist talks, presentations and masterclasses. Jason Voltaire (a.k.a. Martyn M Bootyspoon) will shed light on his career as a VJ ahead of his debut live performance at the festival. Madame Gandhi, award-winning artist and activist, will join for a fireside chat in collaboration with EarthPercent, the environmental charity founded by Brian Eno, to explore the intersection of music and climate justice. Machìna and Nicola Cruz will lead a joint masterclass at multidisciplinary production house DASA, sharing their distinct creative methodologies. Additionally, the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) will present a masterclass on sound scenography, drawing from its unique expertise in designing, structuring, and spatializing sound to craft powerful immersive environments.

INNOVATION ACROSS CULTURE, EDUCATION, AND TECHNOLOGY

In collaboration with the SAT, MUTEK will co-present activities throughout the week exploring the need for a creative AI commons, framed by the ArtIA initiative. A joint highlight will be a week-long participatory installation by prompt jockeys and AI research lab Dadabots. Milieux and the AI2 (Concordia University) are once again contributing to MUTEK Forum, bringing in student-led research-creation works that explore the thresholds of our encounters with machines. Results from MUTEK AI Ecologies Lab, an interdisciplinary residency fostering innovative and sustainable approaches to AI in the cultural sector, will be showcased to the public for the first time, in collaboration with the SAT, Milieux, Abundant Intelligences, and AI2. Participants will engage with six new projects from across Canada, from energy monitors and chatbots to lichen-based bioindicators.

MUTEK is also proud to announce its first-ever partnership with the international education network LCI Éducation, highlighting emerging student innovation. As part of this collaboration, students from programming, video game development, and other technology programmes at LaSalle College will present a series of multimedia projects in a panel that will showcase their creativity, technical expertise, and artistic vision.

Case studies and presentations from leading institutions and studios such as Serpentine Galleries, Encode Canada, FEMINAE NOX, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, will highlight innovative approaches.

OASIS Immersion. Image Credit: C. Pomerleau

DYNAMIC NETWORKING EVENTS

MUTEK Market, a curated networking and career development platform that connects digital artists with international presenters, curators, and industry professionals, returns this year. Dozens of international industry representatives are set to attend MUTEK, including AYA studio (Brazil), b-pm (France), MUTEK.JP (Japan), MUTEK.MX (Mexico), No Convencional fest (Colombia), Rencontres Audiovisuelles / ISBIC (France), Serpentine Galleries (United Kingdom), Silbersalz Science & Media Festival (Germany), and Victoria & Albert Museum (United Kingdom), and many more.

Xn Québec and the SAT are partnering with MUTEK to present the opening cocktail of the MUTEK Forum, taking place on August 20, 2025, at the SAT. These three pillars of Montréal’s creative ecosystem invite you to a special gathering to celebrate the influence and vitality of key players in Quebec’s digital creativity scene, alongside numerous international guests.

MUTEK will partner with OASIS Immersion, a leading destination for immersive and experiential culture in Canada, to present the inaugural edition of MUTEK Match on August 21. This customized professional matchmaking initiative will offer exclusive access to some of the brightest minds in digital creativity. Designed to foster meaningful interdisciplinary connections and collaborations between creators, technologists, studios, and cultural institutions, the event will conclude with an immersive cocktail reception.

If you want to enjoy MUTEK Match and gain access to MUTEK Forum networking activities, submit your interest through our form and connect with a global community of creators, curators, presenters, and creative innovators.

Join us as an international professional

BOX OFFICE

MUTEK Forum offers several ticketing options, including the Forum Passport and the Festival + Forum Passport, along with two new additions: the Student Forum Passport at a fixed price of $90 (+ service fees and taxes) and an additional networking access: MUTEK Match at $100 (+ service fees and taxes). MUTEK Match is a B2B custom matchmaking session with MUTEKs’ international community of festival programmers, curators, cultural institutions, and industry leaders.

Day passes will be available for purchase sale on May 13.

Tickets

PARTNERS

MUTEK would like to thank its partners, who play a key role in the maintenance and development of its activities and have provided particular 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, Tourisme Montréal, Hôtel Monville, Canada Media Fund (CMF), Society for Arts and Technology, OASIS Immersion, Xn Québec, LCI Éducation, Applied AI Institute, Milieux Institute, Abundant Intelligences, FEMINAE NOX, MOTH, Encode Canada, and DASA.