Moment Factory Gives A Tech-Touch To Montreal's Red Light District

Strip-clubs, best hot-dogs in town, and an off-kilter aura in general: that's the Montreal-based Quartier des spectacle's busiest intersection. The destination for parties and events of mythic proportions is a part of town where new structures and historical building clash, where the city's social problems are in contrast with its brightest stars. It's also where La Vitrine, one of the city's cultural promotion agencies, is located.

It's no surprise that La Vitrine wanted to situate itself in the city's entertainment hub. Its desire to push local culture motivated the agency to contact Moment Factory, a multimedia production company,to imbue the space with a special tech touch. The new building will be unveiled this fall, with an interactive facade that will bathe the Quartier in an artsy light show.

Taking into account the structural specificities of the unique building, the firm equipped the walkway that unites the three floors with multimedia elements, such as LED panels that combine dynamic light projections with a display of the latest news headlines. The system is controlled by X-Agora, a software developed specially by Moment Factory, which enhances the interactive sculpture inside the building that was revealed last year.

Once night falls, the installation lights up the "2-22," opening the porthole to another aesthetic dimension. Projected red lines run the length of the building, imbuing the facade with a tongue-in-cheek reference to the neighborhood’s history as the Red Light district. The cherry on the icing, though, is the large multimedia sign managed by a DMX system, which dominates the street as well as the building, turning La Vitrine into an icon--and a creative force to be reckoned with.

If there's a message to all this, beyond the aesthetic thrill and the technological wonder, it's that in Montreal, if you don't go to culture, culture will come to you.

La Vitrine - Devanture du 2-22 from Moment Factory.