Porte des Savoirs - Embodied experience of Immersion and Information Flow on Vimeo
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Porte des Savoirs - Embodied experience of Immersion and Information Flow The initial question at the origin of this research-by-design project touches on fundamental and critical notions involving our information age. Is it possible to create the sensation of bodily immersion from something that is, by nature, rather intellectual such as the reading of text? The context of the project adds yet another dimension: located at the outskirts of the city of Lausanne, at the entry station to the subway line, it aims at our perception of the urban environment. Entering the city can foster the experience of density in physical spaces, objects and encounters, and likewise stimulate knowledge and information production. Literally streaming information into the public space, the project thus challenges our understanding of such an experience. In order to create a clear and powerful spatial setup, the project sets forth a simple parameter: the space for information display becomes the entire space available on site, thus bringing the body in direct correlation with the text flow. Porte des Savoirs is playing on the scale and movement of the text flow in critical relation to the perceiver/reader’s body in space. Through size, speed and movement of the flow of information and the direct visual and physical contact of the observer with the text—as he or she is literally standing on rivers of information—a bodily relation between message sent and receiver is established. In terms of spatial perception, this relation is brought to its radical consequence in that any vertical spatial boundary is dissolved. In a kaleidoscope where only horizontals remain as signs of stability and support, the bands of text travel through an endless space mirroring itself in reflecting surfaces on the floor, ceiling and wall. Light and contrast emitted by the 25 square meter screen-floor set the reader/observer in mi-air. The visual stimuli that act at precise speed engage with our sense of gravity: suspended between these breathing bands of information, the body’s sense of time and presence is momentarily blurred. The installation plays with different levels of perception: a flow of content is always optimised for reading, putting emphasis on the meaning of information, while other lines play with scales, rhythms and accelerations to create a landscape of sensations. The interactive features of the installation, through the touch-sensitive floor, induce a relation between the visitors, the content to read and the immersive dimension. It activates readings in different depths in mirrored reflexions. By placing this installation at the core of its new experimental agency, project partner Vaudoise Insurance enters a new field of activity,: it provides its visitors as well as passers-by with an interface to a world of news emerging from the different Lausanne-based Universities, who feed content into the installation in real time. Ultimately, Porte des Savoirs plays on the dichotomy between the content of the information, and its aesthetic dimension: on the visual appearance of text. Being immersed in the aesthetic and spatial dimension of these flows of information does not guarantee immersion in their content: such immersion remains entirely the work of one’s imagination. Project by EPFL+ECAL Lab & ALICE studio EPFL Team: Dieter Dietz, Rudi Nieveen, Guillaume Othenin-Girard, ALICE EPFL Interaction design: Nicolas Henchoz, Thibault Brevet, EPFL+ECAL LAB http://ift.tt/Kp1aBz http://alice.epfl.ch/ Video by CAUSE Frederic Goncerut, Adrian Meredith http://ift.tt/1rt6ap4 Sound by DBA Studio Marc Steadler http://ift.tt/1faMyED