Game maker Silicon Knights is teaming up with McMaster University, Mohawk College and the Art Gallery of Hamilton to create an $11 million dollar institute for interactive digital media.

Expected to open sometime in 2011, the group is calling the venture “Eight,” a name meant to canonize interactive media as “the eighth major art form after music, poetry, dance, sculpture, painting, architecture and cinema,” according to the Hamilton Spectator.

The paper also outlined what the institute hopes to accomplish:

Though the fine details are still in play, the groups are expected to collaborate on developing games and work on technical and creative problems, such as making games look more real, while also training students to work in the field.

The partners signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday in order to get the ball rolling and plan to take space in McMaster Innovation Park.