# InterAccess

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**InterAccess** is a Canadian [artist-run centre](/source/Artist-run_centre) and electronic media production facility in [Toronto](/source/Toronto). The Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art places the founding of InterAccess as a key moment in both the history of Canadian electronic art but also within a timeline of developments in international art, science, technology and culture.

## History

In August 1981, Bill Perry and Ric Amis started Telidon at Trinity Square Video, with a Norpak Telidon Information Provider System given to Perry by Bell Canada. Perry, Nina Beveridge and Geoffrey Shea secured operational funding and premises to establish a separate, artist run organization called [Toronto Community Videotex (TCV)](/source/Videotex), incorporated in March of 1983.[1] Later in 1983, InterAccess was incorporated as a not-for-profit, [artist-run access centre](/source/Not-for-profit_arts_organization). The founding directors were Perry, Beveridge, Shea and Paul Petro. InterAccess provided artists access to the [Telidon](/source/Telidon) system, a precursor of the [World Wide Web](/source/World_Wide_Web). The early conception of electronic art placed the organization within the production cooperative system in Canada.[2][3] TCV's members created artworks which fell within the more [systems-based](/source/Systems_art) notions of art production, rather than the [beaux-arts](/source/Fine_arts)[4] aesthetic of the museum.[5] The name change to InterAccess in 1987 reflected a new focus on [Macintosh](/source/Macintosh) graphics, [multimedia](/source/Multimedia) production and a dial-up artists’ network (much like a [Bulletin Board System](/source/Bulletin_Board_System), or BBS) known as Matrix.[6]

InterAccess moved to a larger facility in 1995 allowing InterAccess to offer a gallery and production space that expanded its activities beyond simply access to multimedia production. The exhibitions began to emphasize the finished production and there was a particular focus on establishing an international presence for the centre.[7] The exhibition *Pandoras Box*, a collaboration between InterAccess and Fylkingen New Music and Intermedia Art in [Stockholm](/source/Stockholm), [Sweden](/source/Sweden) in 2000, was billed as "the first international interactive encounter with art using remotely controlled robots."[8]

In 2005, InterAccess moved to a renovated two-floor, three thousand square feet stand-alone building, allowing for more production space, a surround sound studio and a machine shop for constructing large-scale physical computing projects and installation.

The exhibition *This must be the place: Vera Frenkel, [David Rokeby](/source/David_Rokeby), [Nell Tenhaaf](/source/Nell_Tenhaaf) and [Norman White](/source/Norman_White)* was a reconsideration of the centre and as well the place of electronic art within art history.[9] The four featured artists are pioneers in electronic and interactive art and have a history with InterAccess as both members and exhibitors.[10]

In May 2006, InterAccess received a [Canada Council](/source/Canada_Council) Media Arts Commissioning Grant for *The Networked City*, a series of five outdoor interactive installations on [Yonge Street](/source/Yonge_Street) in Toronto.[11]

In Dec 2015, InterAccess announced that it had acquired Vector Festival, a game and new media art festival dedicated to showcasing creative media practices.[12] Vector Festival was founded in 2013 as the “Vector Game Art & New Media Festival” by an independent group of artists and curators: Skot Deeming, Clint Enns, Christine Kim, and Katie Micak, who were later joined by Diana Poulsen and Martin Zeilinger.

In 2016 InterAccess presented Canada's first exhibition related to drones, *Once Is Nothing: A Drone Art Exhibition,* "an art show completely dedicated to the rise of these suddenly ubiquitous machines, one that raises questions about borders, surveillance, identity and place".[13]

## References

### Notes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["Archived copy"](https://web.archive.org/web/20090904015538/http://www.interaccess.org/about/history.php). Archived from [the original](http://www.interaccess.org/about/history.php) on 2009-09-04. Retrieved 2009-07-08.{{[cite web](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Cite_web)}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_archived_copy_as_title))

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** [Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art "Timeline of Digital Art"](http://www.ccca.ca/circuit4/timeline.html?languagePref=fr&)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Shaw, "Cultural Democracy and Institutional Difference", p. 31

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Dowler, "Interstitial Aesthetics and the Politics of Video at the Canada Council", pp. 35-6

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Hough, "Beyond the Gallery (Electronic Mail Art)", p. 15

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Mann, "The Matrix Artists' Network: An Electronic Community", pp. 230-31

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Bull, "Radio Art in a Gallery?", p. 162

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Herst, "The Disembodied Eye", p. 122

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Schilling, *This must be the place*, p. 7

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Schilling, *This must be the place*, p. 8

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** [http://www.interaccess.org/exhibitions/index.php?id=55](http://www.interaccess.org/exhibitions/index.php?id=55) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20110330163214/http://www.interaccess.org/exhibitions/index.php?id=55) 2011-03-30 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine) The Networked City

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** ["untitled"](http://vectorfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2015-PressRelease_VectorAcquisition.pdf) (PDF) (Press release). Toronto. 2015-12-03. Retrieved 2019-09-06.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** Leah, Collins (2016-02-17). ["This drone footage will blow your mind, but not for the reasons you think"](https://www.cbc.ca/arts/this-drone-footage-will-blow-your-mind-but-not-for-the-reasons-you-think-1.3451628). *CBC*. Retrieved 2019-09-06.

### Further reading

- Bull, Hank. "Radio Art in a Gallery?" *TDR* Vol. 37, No. 1 (Spring, 1993): 161-166.

- Dick, Terence. "Controller: Artists Crack the Game Code." *Border Crossings* 25 No. 2 (June 2006): 113-14.

- Dowler, Kevin. "Interstitial Aesthetics and the Politics of Video at the Canada Council." *Mirror Machine: Video and Identity.* [Janine Marchessault](/source/Janine_Marchessault), ed. Toronto: YYZ Books, 1995. 35-50. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-920397-13-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-920397-13-1)

- Herst, Beth. *Pandora's Box.* *PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art* Vol. 24, No. 1, Intelligent Stages: Digital Art and Performance (Jan. 2002): 122-126.

- Hough, Robert. "Beyond the Gallery (Electronic Mail Art)." *This Magazine* Vol. 27, Iss. 4 (Nov. 1993): 15.

- Mann, Jeff. "The Matrix Artists' Network: An Electronic Community." *Leonardo* Vol. 24, No. 2, Connectivity: Art and Interactive Telecommunications (1991): 230-231.

- Schilling, Mark. ["*This must be the place:* Vera Frenkel, David Rokeby, Nell Tenhaaf and Norman White."](https://web.archive.org/web/20070715195645/http://www.parachute.ca/para_para/22/para22_Schilling.html) *para-para- 022: Parachute Magazine* No. 122 (April 2006), 7-8.

- Shaw, Nancy. "Cultural Democracy and Institutionalized Difference: Intermedia, Metro Media." *Mirror Machine: Video and Identity.* [Janine Marchessault](/source/Janine_Marchessault), ed. Toronto: YYZ Books, 1995. 26-34. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-920397-13-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-920397-13-1)

## External links

- [Official website](http://www.interaccess.org/)

- [Vector Festival Official website](http://www.vectorfestival.org/)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [InterAccess](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterAccess) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterAccess?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.