If you are seized by the sudden urge to surf the Web when strolling through the historic streets of ol Montreal, have no fear. Next time you are in Vieux-Montréal, check out Le Café Électronique: 85 St-Paul ouest, corner of St-Sulpice. A sunny, techno, cafe, with a dozen Macs and Internet access for $5 (Canadian) per half hour. You get a free half hour if you buy more than $10 of food or software. They sell various items of digital interest, but even more intriguing than the cafe was the exhibit in the adjacent space, "Images du Futur: L'art interactif." I've been to a zillion of these. In fact, I've seen some of these pieces before, in Linz or Tokyo. The chair with the televisions is an old joke nicely executed, better is Paul Garrin's "White Devil," an installation you walk into, where the floor is a video mosaic of television screens depicting a snarling pit bull that follows you around the room, lunging at you, getting more furious if you try evasive action.
I gave my QuickTake to the lady at the cafe, and at the moment she snapped the picture, a hasidic child appeared from nowhere, on his way to elsewhere.
Images du Futur includes a pretty cool little show of computer graphic films. It runs through October 15, 1995.
Casual techno decor.
Writing on the Montreal Wall
