Thomas Fourmond, Maxence Mercier, Quentin Drouet: REFLET - project presentation

Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Arts, Ljubljana,
in cooperation with Kiberpipa and ACE Kibla presents:

Thomas Fourmond, Maxence Mercier, Quentin Drouet
REFLET

Wednesday 9th December 2009 at 8.30 pm
Kiberpipa, Kersnikova 6, Ljubljana and
MMC Kibla, Ulica kneza Koclja 9, Maribor

Reflet is a group input/output digital work of art. At the input side, it is created by individuals publishing textual and audio “excerpts of life” on a fictional animated board using the keyboard, microphone, mobile phone or other user interface. These presentations then become part of the Reflet worldwide network system composed of independent sub-domains hosted by various institutions (universities, libraries, art organisations, social groups etc.) or individuals.
At the output side, this group content remains part of the animated board, available to be shown and seen in various contexts: as an immersive installation, as screening particularly adapted to a certain venue (hyper-area), as webpage, as screensaver, on a mobile phone. Yet, in contrast to the board, these publications are not deleted as new ones appear: older publications gradually become smaller in the growing organism. Each contribution, which simultaneously serves as a readable memory and a digital work of art in constant movement, is immediately evaluated by appearing in the forefront either visually or in sound, while its appearance gradually diminishes.
The main topics of Reflet are freedom of expression, the role of an individual in creating the collective totality and the intimacy as a private, yet common, shared process. While individuals contribute their personal thoughts and ideas into the Reflet system, they create a social network of a kind, in some ways reminiscent of Facebook, MySpace and last.fm, where independent sub-domains are related to other sub-domains through a multilayered relation network. Reflet will be kept online as an open-code transferable tool for computers and mobile phones, a network architecture platform with open possibilities that can be implemented by users in a creative way.

Public presentations of the project was held simultaneously in MMC Kiberpipa, Ljubljana and in MMC Kibla, Maribor. Its form was that of a dislocated multimedia installation that actually “absorbs” the visitor, who thus integrated in the system becomes a co-creator of Reflet.

Reflet presents all the paradoxes, ambitions and utopias of the Internet.

Thomas Fourmond develops art projects stimulating the audience to question their everyday behaviour. He is into interactive environments, web art, video and sound installations and actions both in physical and digital public spaces.

Maxence Mercier studied electro acoustic composition at Paris conservatory with Prof Roger Cochini. He works as an assistant at the multimedia International Institute for Electroacoustic Music in Bourges (IMEB). Since 2004 he has been composing and developing multidisciplinary projects in cooperation with various artists.

Quentin Drouet worked at CICV Pierre Schaeffer in the field of media art, organised the festival (AM/PM –http://www.scenum.net) of the first French cultural centre dedicated to the development of video and digital art in France. He then joined the Gaité Lyric team in creating the future Paris Centre for digital arts and contemporary music. He graduated in the organisation of international cultural events at the 8 Paris university. In 2004 he created the Arscenic non-profit organisation. He is a co-editor (together with Pierre Bongiovanni) of an interdisciplinary zine/webzine addressing the relation between art, politics and society.

Production: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Arts, Ljubljana
Co-organisers: Arscenic (F), K6/4 Institute – Kiberpipa, Ljubljana and ACE Kibla, Maribor

Links:
www.aksioma.org/reflet
http://global.reflets.org
www.aksioma.org
www.kiberpipa.org