_Field

Lab212 Collective
18.09.2019 – 05.01.2020
LabElysée

_Field juxtaposes a reality experienced through the object with an imaginary projected environment. As we swing, we control the movement, itself induced by the swing. Through our bodily feelings, _Field induces a powerful immersive feedback. The suspension of the body and its displacement in a universe distinct from the real disrupt our reference points.

The corpus of photographs proposed was selected from the database of Photo Elysée. The projected images highlight the framing and composition of the subjects, playing on perspective and vanishing points. The sensation of balance and depth are accentuated, echoing the device in perpetual motion.

_Field proposes an immobile journey through the collections of Photo Elysée and its main protagonists. The photographer's point of view and ours dialogue and weave an invisible link that confers a singular meaning to the maze of images.

Design and production: Cyril Diagne, Bastien Girschig, Béatrice Lartigue.
Hardware: camera, swing, computer, projector.
Software: Three.js, OpenGL, SciPy, OpenCV.
Corpus: selection of photographs from Photo Elysée's collections.

_Field is an adaptation of the work Starfield created in 2012 by Cyril Diagne.

Starfield is an interactive physical installation that hijacks an icon from the democratization of computing: the Windows 3.1 screensaver. The work is composed of a swing allowing to interact with a large starry sky. The visitor travels to the rhythm of its swing. Starfield opens to the imagination, through the evocation of an infinite space: the visitor discovers a collection of white pixels on a black background. The video projection of black and white pixels animated by the movement of the swing, questions the meeting between fictional universe and tangible object. The device deliberately low-tech, hijacks a peripheral from the world of video games: the Kinect from Microsoft.

Lab212 Collective

Jonathan Blanchet, Juliette Champain, François Chay, Cyril Diagne, Erik Escoffier, Nicolas Guichard, Béatrice Lartigue, Tobias Muthesius and Pierre Thirion.

Lab212 is an interdisciplinary artistic collective founded in 2008 by a group of friends with complementary backgrounds in applied arts, electronics and animation. For 10 years, the collective has been developing an innovative approach that is both experimental and empirical.

Through the conception and realization of physical interactive devices, its members question, experiment and divert new media: they question the quality of our relationship with technology, the place and the role of man in relation to the machine. The Lab212 Collective regularly collaborates with public and private cultural institutions on issues of transmission and sharing in the cultural and artistic fields for the general public.

www.lab212.org @lab212_

Exhibitions
Barbican Centre (London), V&A Museum (London), Miraikan Museum (Tokyo), Museum of Digital Art (Zurich), Centre Pompidou (Paris), La Gaîté Lyrique (Paris).

Awards and distinctions
Sundance Film Festival (New Frontier Selection), Ars Electronica (Interactive Art Honorary Mention), Barbican Centre x Google (International DevArt Prize), Lumen Prize (Performance Award), European Street Design Challenge (First Prize).

Cyril Diagne (lives and works in Paris)
Cyril is a freelance interaction designer. He explores the impact of new media in our daily lives and the frictions that arise from them. His fields of experimentation are Computer Vision and Machine Learning. In 2008, Cyril graduated from Gobelins Paris in Media & Interaction Design, and co-founded the artist collective Lab212 in Paris.

Bastien Girschig (lives and works in Paris)
Bastien is a freelance interaction designer. He works on devices that bring into play the notion of space and the visitor's journey. His fields of experimentation are virtual reality and Machine Learning. In 2015, Bastien graduated from ECAL Lausanne in Media & Interaction Design.

Béatrice Lartigue (lives and works in Toulouse)
Béatrice is an independent interaction designer. She questions the perception of space and sound through new media. Her fields of experimentation are architecture and electronics. In 2008, Béatrice graduated from Gobelins Paris in Media & Interaction Design, and co-founded the artist collective Lab212 in Paris.

Partners

The exhibition is generously supported by the Loterie Romande, the BNP Paribas Switzerland Foundation, the Federal Office of Culture and the Canton de Vaud.