Documentary projects

Luc Courchesne (b. 1952) is a Canadian artist and academic known for his work in interactive art.

Courchesne took part in the emergence of media arts forty years ago when, as a video artist inspired by a generation of experimental filmmakers such as Michael Snow and Hollis Frampton, he adopted computer technologies. First delving into interactive portraiture, a great artistic tradition re-articulated in a new mould with Portrait One (1990), his work turned to landscape, another important genre, with Landscape One (1997). With his immersive and interactive installations, “panoscopic” images, and devices of his own, he helped transform spectators into visitors, actors and inhabitants of his experiential crafts. He is now engaged in the creation of social virtual worlds with a particular interest in the transitions between the physical and the virtual experiences of space and of human interactions.

Born 1952 in Québec, Courchesne received a Bachelor’s degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax (1974), and a Master of Science in Visual Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (1984). He began his explorations in interactive video in 1984 when he co-authored Elastic Movies, one of the earliest experiments in the field, and since produced about 40 installation works and image series including Encyclopedia Chiaroscuro (1987), Portrait One (1990), Family Portrait (1993), Hall of Shadows (1996), Landscape One (1997), Passages (1998), Rendez-vous… (1999), Panoscope 360° (2000-), Panoscopic Journal (2000-), The Visitor: Living by Numbers (2001), Untitled (2004), Where are you? (2005-2010), Horizons (2007), the Shores Series (2007-), Icons (2009) in a co-creation with artist and choreographer Marie Chouinard, the Posture platform for immersive telepresence (2010-), You are here (2010-), McLuhan’s Massage Parlor (2011), Naked In Paradise (2013), Sublimations (2014) and The Exhibition (2015).