Guodu-LookingOutwards04

Adrien M /  Claire B

I stumbled upon some of the recent works of Adrien M /  Claire B, a french company headed by artists Adrien Mondot and Claire Bardainne. They create a range of digital arts for performances and exhibitions, combining the virtual and physical world. Their motto is “placing the human body at the heart of technological and artistic challenges and adapting today’s technological tools to create a timeless poetry through a visual language based on playing and enjoyment, which breeds imagination.”

I particularly enjoyed this performance, Coincidence (2011), where a juggler dances, juggles both a metal and digital sphere, and interacts with a background of living type. Adrien and Claire have been developing eMotion, a tool they implement in their projects to create objects (particles, text, drawing strokes, quartz compositions) that move and interact live with a performer.

Typography is always around us everyday, from the nutrition facts on Nutella spread to street crossing signs to Facebook etc. I thought the projection of large type surrounding, and even attacking the performer is so poetic; it is no longer that the human controls and has influence over type (type designers, readers, writers), but the type equally influences us in good and bad ways (clarity, legibility, information, helpful, demanding). But what’s even more impressive, is the ability for the type to seem alive and aware of the performers. Both are having a conversation with each other.  I think it’s so much more natural and right that projections for performances are generated in real time instead of pre-recorded, it brings us into a more convincing new world. It’s just like a pit that responds accordingly to the actors and singers of musical. Humans will always make mistakes and algorithms are new lending hands.

More projects by Adrien M and Claire B:

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