06.04.2022 | Marc Veyrat – Gaëtan Le Coarer (Fr) | Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne 2022 (Fr)

Immersion in the 4th world of Marc Veyrat’s hypermedia artwork “i-REAL”, and in the Mixed Reality experience “An Domhan” by Gaëtan Le Coarer, as part of the proposal “De L’arbre in the labyrinth” (or how imaginary derivations, cognitive biases, fortuitous finds, give rise to a new order which is the very essence of creation and promote the emergence of new forms of digital writing).

This World 4 in virtual reality (VR) is part of the variable geometry work XR i-REAL (a digital and hypermedia work of art that mixes VR environments triggered using cards on a set of I -u) by Marc Veyrat (artist researcher at the French University of Savoie Mont-Blanc and Paris 8 is specialized in new technologies), was imagined, programmed by Jonathan Juste (designer and digital developer). This World 4 “is architextured” around all the words used in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, a famous novel published by Lewis Carroll in 1865. Within this obscure world of the text, the words re / constitute in the course of our progression walls of blinding texts / images gradually revealing to us passages, “between-spaces” through which we can progress… The electro-rhythmic-organic music of Paradise Now (BE / FR) course the floating walls of this Lettrist maze as if in search of mutant prey. Alice (World 4) is presented here in the form of a video as well as in her VR version (with headset).How can we loose ourselves by loosing the meaning of the words when these lead us to experience them as images?

‘An Domhan’ (which translates to “the earth” in French) is a project conceived from a research methodology created as part of the thesis of Gaëtan Le Coarer (under the supervision of Ghislaine Chabert and Marc Veyrat-University of Savoie) whose subject is “Comic Strip and Mixed Reality, towards new narrative spaces”. Based on an adaptation of the Irish Celtic legend entitled “The Tragic Death of the Tuireann Children”, an immersive and multi-user experience in mixed reality XR (AR + VR) is developed. The legend mainly features two characters from Irish Celtic mythology. Following a terrible event, one of the characters will hunt down and seek to destroy the other. There is a vengeful quest on one side and a quest for redemption on the other.

From the tree to the labyrinth

From the presentation of mind maps from heritage manuscripts to the discovery of an artistic and literary journey, the exhibition “From the tree to the labyrinth” aims to explore how our cultural roots have inspired contemporary forms of digital expression. more innovative.

From the presentation of mind maps taken from heritage manuscripts to the discovery of an artistic journey in virtual reality, this exhibition aims to explore how the theory of bifurcations which has inspired mathematics and computer science (among others in the constitution of networks , image encryption, encryption…) can still be reconsidered in the light of human creativity. A playful and artistic journey through different aspects of digital creation with the works A shadow in your window by Jean-Michel Othoniel, Les Herbiers by Marie Denis or even the prototype of I-Real by Marc Veyrat (hypermedia work that mixes contributions of a virtual reality course, a game board and artificial intelligence).

For the curious whether they are schoolchildren, assiduous readers, simple walkers, lovers of contemporary art or keen on modernity and new technologies: playful collaborative actions, digital writing games, challenges within social networks will constitute as much of imaginary geographies that will link, in this labyrinth, our cultural legacy (scholarly as “mainstream”) to new forms of contemporary digital writing.

With, among others, pieces by Marie Denis, Philippe Favier, Alice Baude, and the virtual reality work “i-REAL” by Marc Veyrat, the Mixed Reality experience “An Domhan” by Gaëtan Le Coarer…

Curator and scenography: Véronique Gay-Rosier