MONTREAL/March 2, 2000—
ìI look forward to working with the university, artistic and business communities, as well as government and industry, to develop the Daniel Langlois Chair and establish at Concordia University a ìMedia Labî which will bring together Quebec's artistic talent and technological innovation. Here, in Montreal, we need to position ourselves strategically in the field of digital technologies.î This is how HervÈ Fischer sees his mandate as the newly appointed head of the Daniel Langlois Foundation Chair in Digital Technologies and the Fine Arts at Concordia.
The Chair was officially inaugurated this morning at 11 a.m., at the Complex Ex-Centris (3536 St. Laurent Blvd.). Concordia Rector Frederick Lowy, Christopher Jackson, Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Daniel Langlois, President of the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology, and its Program Director and Concordia graduate Jean Gagnon (BFA'85), were all on hand to welcome Mr. Fischer to his new post.
Concordia established the Chair within its Faculty of Fine Arts, thanks to a $300,000 gift from the Daniel Langlois Foundation. ìThis Chair, housed in Concordia's Faculty of Fine Arts, which is nationally respected for its teaching in all the artistic disciplines, will foster the development of research in areas where the fine arts and computer science come together. This kind of marriage of the arts and technology mirrors the vision of the Foundation. We are honoured that Mr. Fischer, who has spent many years bringing these forces together, has agreed to serve as our first Chair,î explained Daniel Langlois.
The Chair will also lead to the development of a research centre oriented towards artistic productions with a grounding in computer applications. Dean Christopher Jackson added that, ìConcordia is a leader in the field of new media, and the Daniel Langlois Chair is the result of the joint efforts and expertise of two Faculties ñ Fine Arts and Engineering and Computer Science.î
HervÈ Fischer is co-founder and co-president (1985), with Ginette Major, of La CitÈ des arts et des nouvelles technologies de Montrèal (the exhibition Images du Futur, the CafÈ …lectronique, the International Computer Animation Competition - Images du Futur and Cyberworld). He was also co-founder (1986) of Infographie Canada. In 1990 he started the TÈlÈscience Festival; in 1993 the M.I.M. (Multimedia International Market), and Science Pour Tous (a network of Quebec's science and technology institutions), of which he is president. In 1999, he joined Martin International as vice-president of multimedia, science and technology. He recently published Mythanalyse du futur directly on the Internet, which can be accessed at: http://hervefischer.montreal.qc.ca
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