A visual and sound universe for the launch of Printemps numérique

On March 20 at the Muséed’art contemporain de Montréal, the official launch of the 2014 Printemps numérique program took place in the presence of partners and creators from the digital-arts community. For the occasion, the Conférence régionale des élus de Montréal asked visual artist Jérôme Delapierre

to create an immersive and interactive projection in the museum rotunda. With Navid Navab designing the sound environment, a visual and sonic universe inspired by Printemps numérique was born.

During the launch I had thechance to speak with the twoartists and see behind the scenes of their creation. Passionate about technology and its use in immersive contexts, I want to introduce this work, which marked the opening of Printemps numérique.

Jérôme Delapierre is a visual and interaction designer and aresearcher with the Topological Media Lab. His research focuses on the relationship between humans and new technologies, as well as nonlinear interactivity based on urban social behaviours. He also explores scenography using eclectic and interactive projection techniques. Navid Navab is a composer, improviser, programmer and sound designer who has created expressive media instruments in recent years. Also active in the Topological Media Lab, he explores the social life of objects and the enrichment of their embedded performative qualities through gestures, rhythms and vibrations from everyday life.

The projected visual environment greeted guests in the famous rotunda. It was made possible

on the second floor and another on the ceiling. Jérôme controlled them with the VVVV software and

his own code from a laptop. The background visual came from the barcode of the Printemps numérique

by his code, almost as if a camera were flying endlessly over the barcode. An infrared camera detected people in the space, allowing Jérôme to know exactly how many people were present and to create interactive effects. According to the number of people, fine lines appeared over the virtual world; the more

people there were, the more the lines connected, while pink-outlined cubes moved in a collision simulator depending on where the crowd was located.

Navid Navab’s sound environment completed the work by immersing guests in a transparent universe inspired by natural ecologies such as a rainforest at dusk, material interactions and dynamics of indeterminate duration

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inside complex structures. His composition, created in Max/MSP, moved us from a tropical forest to a decaying cabin creaking in the night and to the sound of autumn leaves under passersby. Jérôme Delapierre and Navid Navab brought guests into an environment that beautifully represented Printemps numérique: a spring in unmatched digital colours. Information about the artists, VVVV

and the Topological Media Lab

is available through the

links provided.