HERVÉ FISCHER

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Artist-philosopher, Hervé Fischer graduated from the école Normale Supérieure (rue d'Ulm, Paris). For many years he taught sociology of communication and culture at the Sorbonne. He obtained its MBA in philosophy and PhD. in sociology. A multi-media artist and creator of "sociological art" (1971), he initiated many public participation projects with radio, television and print media in many European and Latin American countries before coming to Quebec. He was a special guest at the Venice Biennial in 1976, the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1981, and Documenta 7 in Kassel (Germany) in 1982. He had personal exhibitions at the Musée Galliéra in Contemporary Art in 1976, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal in 1980 (a retrospective), and Mexico in 1983. In 1985, he organized Franco-Canadian participation in the Marco Polo electronic novel project which involved writers from Africa, Europe and Canada. Since 1999, he is working again as a painter of the digital age. He had one man shows at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Argentine, (2003), Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales, Montevideo, Uruguay (2004), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Chile, Santiago (2006), MNBA de Neuquen (Argentine, 2009), Centro Wilfredo Lam, Xth Bienal Habana, Cuba, 2009), MAM, Céret, France (retrospective), 2010. In 2011 he initiated the "tweet art & philosophy".

He is co-founder and co-president (1985), with Ginette Major, of La Cité des arts et des nouvelles technologies de Montréal (the exhibition Images du Futur, the Café électronique (1995), the International Computer Animation Competition - Images du Futur and the Cyberworld). He is also co-founder (1986) of Infographie Canada. In 1990 he started the Quebec International Science Film Festival later called Téléscience, of which he was the executive director until 2002; in 1993 the M.I.M. (Multimedia International Market), and 1997 Science Pour Tous (a network of Quebec's science et technology institutions, of which he is president). Since 1997, he is the founder and president of the International Federation of Multimedia Associations, which organized a series of World Internet and Multimedia Summits in Montreal, Abu Dhabi, Montreux, Beijing, Shenyang. He has been a member of the selection committee of the Stentor Funds for new media, of the Canadian Culture Online Program (Canadian Heritage) and since 2006 a member of the Canadian UNESCO Committee.

He has been elected holder of the Daniel Langlois chair for Fine Arts and Digital Technologies at Concordia University, Montreal, 2000-2002, and developed the concept of a media lab, the Hexagram consortium between Concordia and UQAM universities. Since 2006, he is associate professor, director-founder of the International Digital Observatory, UQAM.

In 1987 he co-authored and produced the 12-minute computer animated film "Le Chant des étoiles," which won a first prize in the international computer animation competition held by the National Computer Graphics Association (USA) in 1988.

He was honored by the International Society for the Arts, Science and Technology with the first Leonardo (MIT Press) Makepeace Tsao Award, shared with Ginette Major for the activities of the Cité des Arts et des Nouvelles Technologies de Montreal (1998)., chevalier des Arts et lettres et de l'Ordre du mérite of the French government, Distincion de la Cultura cubana, 2009; Cartier Award of the 2011 Montreal Webcom.

He has published numerous articles, papers and books on the sociology of art and communications, notably: Art and Marginal Communication (Balland, Paris, 1974), Théorie de l'art sociologique, Casterman, Paris, 1976; L'Histoire de l'art est terminée, Balland, 1981; Citoyens-sculpteurs, Segedo, 1981; L'Oiseau-chat (on the Quebec identity), La Presse, 1983; La Calle ¿ A dónde Ilega?, Arte y Ediciones, Mexico, 1984; Mythanalyse du futur (400 p., on Internet, 'www.hervefischer.net'), Le choc du numérique (vlb éditions, Montreal, 2001, The Digital Shock, McGill and Queen's University Press, fall 2006), also translated in Spanish and in Chinese, Le romantisme numérique, Fides and Musée de la civilisation, 2002, Les défis du cybermonde, (direction, Presses de l'Université Laval 2003), CyberProméthée, l'instinct de puissance, vlb, 2003), La planète hyper, de la pensée linéaire à la pensée en arabesque, vlb, 2004), Le déclin de l'empire hollywoodien, vlb, Montreal, 2004, The Decline of the Hollywood Empire, Talon Books, Vancouver, fall 2006), also translated in Spanish, Nous serons des dieux, vlb, 2006, Québec imaginaire et Canada réel : l’avenir en suspens, vlb, 2008, Un roi américain, vlb, 2009, L'avenir de l'art, (vlb, 2010), 2010, Nouvelle Nature, MAM Céret, France, 2010.

He speaks fluently French, English, German and Spanish.