Magnitudes et Saisissement

Saisissement is a real-time interactive video installation that includes three silicon modules suspended from the ceiling. Each module uses a six-inch LCD screen and various flexion sensors, all contained in ovoid shaped flexible expanding foam covered with silicon. The texture of the objects is similar to that of a breast implant. The objects are connected to computers by modified game controllers, which control Max/MSP/Jitter patches. The programming differs subtly from one object to the next, making for three distinct portraits: each object thus has a different personality in relation to the subject represented, different reactions to the audience’s manipulation. The video and photo content presented was shot in three distinct homes, and features three different subjects represented in their domestic spaces.

The audience is invited to enter the private space of the three subjects, and intimately experience each video object to discover its subtle reactions. Each module functions on the same programming base, allowing it to slow down or speed up the rhythm at which the image is read. However, each one reacts differently when the spectator presses it more intensely. The Alexandra module (presented on the video documentation) interchangeably displays stills and close-ups in transparency. This portrait aims meld the subject into his immediate environment, so one can no longer be dissociated from the other, as though they issue from the same sensory experience. The Hermès module allows stills of intimate scenes to appear in rapid succession. This portrait aims to bring out the subject’s intense and spontaneous character, coloured with a touch of exhibitionism. Lastly, the Pascale module allows the sequence to be changed in mid-reading. This last portrait brings out the multiple aspects of the subject and his environment; one after another, living space, work space and exhibition space, the unit of this sequenced space is portrayed using manipulated jumps in time. Cuts from one shot to another are synchronized with movement in the space. These different temporalities jump back and forth.
 

This interactive installation by François Quévillon forms part of his artistic mandate of exploring the evocative force of natural phenomena. The spectators are immersed in an ambiophonic sonic environment and brought into contact with an unstable surface where energy is transferred between the public and the work.

Magnitudes makes use of two video recognition interfaces that feed an interactive process allowing an individual or collective experience. Polysensoriality is widely explored within the work: in addition to the participant’s vision and hearing, tactility plays an important role due to an interactive “matter-screen". The closeness of the device elicits the participant’s touch by focusing on the positions and movements of the participant’s hands for an experience that integrates haptic perception and physical feedback that affects the body as a whole. The sound dimension is omnipresent: to the ambiophonic environment that introduces the spectator to the work are added two sound compositions that result from the interaction. The installation explores the relationship between virtual and physical spaces by enabling the spectator to alter them.

Magnitudes takes the shape of a 2’9” tall sculptural object with a surface area of 4' by 4’. The device’s flexible surface, which serves as a platform and an interactive screen, is covered with white grains of variable dimensions, giving a materiality to both the projected images and the interactive sound track. The participants’ movements on this glacier-like surface are traced by ephemeral uneven lines, similar to fissures, and accompanied by cracking noises. The “matter-screen” vibrates depending on the activity detected in the immediate perimeter of the work and its surface, and this vibration is due to a droning sound, which becomes increasingly evident during the interaction and diminishes in periods of inactivity. A collective experience of the work brings together the actions of the participants depending on their degree of involvement by tracing lines between them.

François Quévillon would like to thank Freeset Interactive, the Interstices research/creation group and Groupe Molior for their involvement and support.