Montreal, Quebec may be just a few hundred miles from New York City, but sometmes it feels so much like a European city that on a recent visit, Emerge often felt like our car had somehow taken a wrong turn to another continent altogether.

Typical of this largely francophone metropolis' kinship to Europe is it's sophisticated and highly evolved club scene. While electronic music and so much of the nontradtional media and art that it has helped birth remain a very niche proposition here in the US, technologically sophisticated art and music enjoys widespread popularity in Montreal, which boasts a busy schedule of hot-shot international DJs and live electronic performers. In addition to local institutions like the upcoming Mutek Festival and the Summer-long Piknic Electronik, there are Pop Montreal and MEG, both of which fall during the waning days of Autumn, before the city withdraws beneath feet of snow and temperatures far below freezing. All of these events- and many more- are partially supported by the state arts administrations.

One year round presence which also pushes the boundaries of electronic music and technologically intensive arts ranging from live visuals and motion graphics to IP design and all manner of fine arts applications is the Societe des Arts Technologies, a free-form art space smack in the middle of Montreal on Boulevard Saint Laurent. Home to some of the city's best electronic music parties, the SAT also hosts artists in residence in it's cavernous basement and features a bustling schedule of special events, tutorials, demonstrations and cooperative projects linking the city's music community to it's thriving community of digital composers, 3D graphics developers, filmmakers, and web designers.

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