Distances

In situ Interactive Installation, 2011
Samuel Bianchini

Multimedia programming: Oussama Mubarak
Capturing and technical advice: Cyrille Henry
Manufacturing of the metallic structure: Michel Delarasse
LED screen: Adaptive Micro System Europe
Thanks to Jean-Claude Kastelik and Laurent Debraux
With the support of the University of Valenciennes and the Hainaut-Cambrésis, France, of the Atelier Arts-Sciences (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (CEA), Grenoble, and Hexagone scène nationale de Meylan, France); of the Fondation de France, in the context of the initiative Les Nouveaux commanditaires, mediation Mari Linnman, 3-CA; of la Maison du geste et de l’image (MGI), Paris; and of the association Dispothèque

 

 


To download this image in HD (Tiff), click here

Distances, Samuel Bianchini, 2011
Experimenta, collective exhibition in the framework of Rencontres-i, Biennale Arts-Sciences, Minatec, Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (CEA), Grenoble, France, from October, 2011. Organized by Hexagone Scène nationale de Meylan.
Photograph: © Samuel Bianchini - ADAGP

 


To download this image in HD (Tiff), click here

Distances, Samuel Bianchini, 2011
Maison du geste et de l'image, Paris, December 2012.
Photograph: © Samuel Bianchini - ADAGP

 

 


The top half of a two-meter tall black metallic monolith contains a one square meter LED screen. What it displays varies depending on the activities of the facing public. Off and dark when the room is empty, it comes on when it someone enters its field. As long as the public keeps its distance, the monolith continues to display images: photographic portraits, taken from the Internet, of main items of current events. The screen reacts to the least movement in its direction: the sharpness of the image varies depending upon the distance between itself and the public. As the latter draws nearer, the image grows blurrier and blurrier; if someone stands less than half a meter away, the image becomes an indistinct field of light. All that remains, at the bottom of the screen, are some numbers: these display, in real time but without unity, the distance between the screen and the closest member of the public.
The relation between the public and the screen, going from image to light, evolves gradually. Once the time for image recognition has passed, the play of variations draws us closer and closer to the screen. Eventually, our silhouette appears on the screen, substituting itself for the presentation and imposing –indeed, superimposing–itself onto the gaze of the others and of the image. The incessant stream of images of contemporary events in real time is met by the space of physical distances, whose variations–drawing nearer, pulling back–sketch out a strange choreography with the black box that fashions the reality of our daily lives: the computer.


 

 


To download this image in HD (Tiff), click here


To download this image in HD (Tiff), click here


To download this image in HD (Tiff), click here

To download the image series in HD (Tiff), click here

Distances, Samuel Bianchini, 2011
Maison du geste et de l'image, Paris, December 2012.
Photographs: © Samuel Bianchini - ADAGP