MELD

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30th September - October 1st

"Cyber Flânerie" augmented reality promenade

DRP FESTIVAL - Jardins des Tuileries, Paris

© Washmachine, Céline Shen, Nebula

The duo of artists called WASHMACHINE and the artist designer Céline Shen have collaborated on the Nebula project, a three-panel collection of works combining a universe of garment sculptures formed of atmospheric layers.

The Nebula project was born of a quest to experiment with form and matter, voluptuousness and combustion. This triptych unveils a chemical concoction creating atmospheres embodying the representation of three eras: the imaginary of an original world in formation whose vapours are tinged with the glow of the rainbow, a modern age where the element of metal predominates, and the era of plastic, the standard emblem of advanced industrial societies.

Supple by nature, they improvise themselves into moving rigidity, where smoke can flow like a vaporous river, a floating being, master of the elements. Between the real and the imaginary, they navigate between the familiarity of earthly elements

and the impossibility of the images they compose. Together, they reveal an ethereal atmosphere, where gravity seems disrupted, where the astral and reality can blend.

Washmachine is the duo of artists composed of Bastien Petit and Lucie Ellison. Both passionate about new technologies and curious about their use in the field of art, they wanted to use their knowledge to create content combining clothing, technology and surreal atmospheres. Both computer graphic designers by trade, Bastien initially experimented with virtual production and VFX, while Lucie was more interested in augmented reality and the creation of virtual garments.

✨ SAVE THE DATE✨

29th September - October 1st

"Cyber Flânerie" augmented reality promenade

DRP FESTIVAL - Jardins des Tuileries, Paris

© Tamiko Thiel & / p, Unexpected Growths

Perturbations in the natural order have torn the fabric of the space-time continuum, and unexpected growths are seeping into our world - perhaps from our own future. Augmented reality apps transform our mobile devices into "ARscopes;" allowing us to see into these parallel dimensions that co-exist and overlay our own so-called "reality."

One such growth was first discovered on the 6th floor terrace of the Whitney Museum of American Art and has subsequently been sighted around the world including Riga/Latvia, but also inland cities such as Bad Homburg/Germany and now in the Tuileries in Paris.

The growths are animate, an odd mixture of coral animals and plastic. It is unclear how the plastics are becoming incorporated into living systems, and what effects these coral-plastic symbioses will have on the larger ecosystems, especially on animals all along the food chain - up to human beings - who feed off of sea flora and fauna. More investigation and longer terms studies will be needed to see the longer-term effects of human interference with its growth cycle. Are such symbioses our future, as plastic waste becomes more numerous than the fish in the sea?

Another troublesome aspect is that the reefs are clearly underwater. If they are really coming from our future, when will the waters cover Paris?

Tamiko Thiel was awarded the 2018 SAT Montreal Visionary Pioneer Award for now over 35 years of politically and socially critical media artworks exploring place, space, the body, cultural identity and ecology. Since 2018 she has been collaborating with the artist /p. Their AR installation Unexpected Growth was commissioned by and is in the collection of the Whitney Museum New York.