Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology at Concordia

Meet Aurélie, Kamyar, and François!
Returning to the Forum for their third year, their experience and support are crucial to this year’s iteration.

While Machine Agencies has presented various projects under a common vision over the last two years, this time the team's complementary skillsets and backgrounds are uniting around a single project: The Monolith.

👤Aurélie Petit is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chaire de recherche du Québec sur l'intelligence artificielle et le numérique francophones (IANF)‍ in Montréal, Canada, where she is working on the project “(Re)Generative AI for Culture.” She holds a Ph.D. in Film Studies from Concordia University in Montreal. As a researcher, she works on the intersection of animation and technology with a focus on gender and sexuality. In recent years, she has held research positions at the Canada Research Chair in Digital Regulation in Work and Life, the AI + Society initiative at the University of Ottawa, and the Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research. Her intermedia research-creation projects have been presented at the MUTEK Forum 2024, the MUTEK Forum 2025, and HTMlles 2026.

👤Kamyar “noak” Karimi is an Iranian-Canadian digital storyteller and sound artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. His practice begins from the idea that stories do not belong to a single medium. Within dynamic human networks, narratives circulate, fragment, and re-form through different platforms, and the tools we use to tell stories shape what becomes legible, shareable, or erased. This perspective is reflected in his background across programming, game design, and sound design, where he has worked with interactive systems and audio to build narrative experiences that move between technical structure and lived affect.

👤François Lespinasse is a transdisciplinary researcher and artist from Montréal studying the productive frictions between the humanities and Neuro-AI. After completing an undergraduate and master’s degree in cognitive neuroscience, he is now a doctoral student conducting research-creation in anthropology at Concordia University, where he is affiliated with the Milieux Institute and the Hexagram Network, with support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. His research designs spaces in which technology mediates expressive and contemplative practices, shedding light on novel forms of embodied, distributed meaning-making across human and non-human agents.

🎟️Get your passes now and join us on August 27! (Special pricing available for students) https://forum.mutek.org/en/tickets

The Monolith is presented in collaboration with Réseau Hexagram

Producers:
Aurélie Petit
Bart Simon

Facilitators:
Cristina Jimenez
Paolo Grumi
Syd Hamidreza Hosseini
Milton Lim

Creative Direction:
François Lespinasse

Technical Direction:
Kamyar Karimi

📅 August 27, 2026
⏱️ 10 AM - 12:30 PM
📍 Édifice Wilder - Espace Danse | 1435, rue de Bleury

🤝 Concordia University MUTEK Montréal

👁️Behind the Monolith technology is a group of researchers, artists, and creators from Machine Agencies, experimenting at the intersection of human and machine intelligences to resist an instrumental approach to AI.

During this event, our team of AI experts will help visitors evaluate upcoming projects that push the boundaries of creativity through technological innovation.

Prefer to just watch the experiment unfold? Observers are more than welcome. Either way: EVERY voice counts.
See you at the Forum! 🙌

🎟️Get your ticket now and join us on August 27! (Special pricing available for students) https://forum.mutek.org/en/tickets

The Monolith is presented in collaboration with Réseau Hexagram

Producers:
Aurélie Petit
Bart Simon

Facilitators:
Cristina Jimenez
Paolo Grumi
Syd Hamidreza Hosseini
Milton Lim

Creative Direction:
François Lespinasse

Technical Direction:
Concordia UniversityguMUTEK Montréal 10 AM - 12:30 PM
📍 Édifice Wilder - Espace Danse | 1435, rue de Bleury

🤝 Concordia University MUTEK Montréal

[CALL] ⏰ 5 days left before the submission deadline for letters of intent for the upcoming thematic issue on research-creation in Captures.

The Hexagram XR/Games Research Cluster invites contributors to reflect on the following question: What forms of knowledge emerge from the interdisciplinary contributions of research-creation, through what processes, and under what conditions?

This call seeks to highlight the diversity of approaches, methodologies, and ways of knowing that emerge at the intersection of disciplines.

Proposals for full-length articles or counterpoint essays are due by August 16, 2026.

📥Download the full call in PDF:https://hexagram.ca/wp-content/uploads/Appel-a-textes-Dossier-Recherche-Creation-Revue-Captures-Juin-2026-v3.pdf

⏳ The countdown is on!

For the third year in a row, Machine Agencies is taking the stage at MUTEK Forum. This year, the group will present The Monolith, an interactive social game exploring the intersection of AI and culture. 👁️🤖

Whether you are an artist, scholar, technologist, or simply curious about AI, join us on August 27 to experience the Monolith.
See you at the Forum! 🙌

🎟️Get your passes now and join us on August 27! (Special pricing available for students) https://forum.mutek.org/en/tickets

The Monolith is presented in collaboration with .

Producers:
Aurélie Petit
Bart Simon

Facilitators:
Cristina Jimenez
Paolo Grumi
Syd Hamidreza Hosseini
Milton Lim

Creative Direction:
François Lespinasse

Technical Direction:
Kamyar Karimi

📅 August 27, 2026
⏱️ 10 AM - 12:30 PM
📍 Édifice Wilder - Espace Danse | 1435, rue de Bleury

🤝

[CALL FOR ARTISTS] Got a research-creation project in development? Milieux is offering funding to support student projects developed over the Summer.

This funding is intended to cover all the costs, including honoraria, materials, and small equipment.

Plus, selected works will also be considered for inclusion in Milieux's 10th anniversary showcase this Fall.

🚨Only current cluster members can apply.

📅 Deadline to apply: May 18, 2026

👉 https://milieux.concordia.ca/call-milieux-support-funding-for-research-creation-projects/

[FRIDAY] Environmental Materials and/as Methods: Closing Remarks

Environmental Materials and/as Methods: Closing Remarks - Milieux Together with the Speculative Life Research Cluster, the Hexagram Chantier Ecotechnologies warmly invites you to join us for the closing remarks of the knowledge mobilization series Environmental Materials and/as Methods. This series has […]

[FRIDAY] Environmental Materials and/as Methods Keynotes and Roundtable

Environmental Materials and/as Methods: Student Workshop - Milieux How to mediate the banal? Inspired by Heather Davis’s forthcoming piece, Banal Violence: Breathing Plastic Air, this two-day workshop invites participants to investigate materiality as both object and method of […]

[THURSDAY] LePARC Tech Workshop
Le PARC Milieux

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[WEDNESDAY] Interdisciplinary Encounters Launch Evening

Interdisciplinary Encounters Launch Evening - Milieux On Wednesday, May 6, 2026, the Hexagram Network will launch the 4th edition of the Interdisciplinary Encounters.   This will be the opportunity to discover the program, which will unfold […]