Discontrol Party #3

Interactive party dispositif, 2009 - 2018
conceived and produced under the direction of Samuel Bianchini

Music programming: Sylvie Astié (Dokidoki)

With the lives and DJ sets of Rebeka Warrior, Candie Hank, Retrigger, Front de Cadeaux, Mr Marcaille, WR2OLD, Sinead O' Connick Jr.

micadanses, Paris, February 2, 2018

Discontrol Party was part of 'We are not the number we think we are', an event of the Daniel & Nina Carasso Foundation in partnership with the 'Chaire arts & sciences' (founded by the École polytechnique / École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs – PSL / Daniel & Nina Carasso Foundation), the Cité internationale des arts and of the dance festival 'Faits d'hiver' of micadanses.

'We are not the number we think we are' was curated by Mélanie Bouteloup, director of Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research and Villa Vassilieff.

Discontrol Party is developed in the framework of the Reflective Interaction Research Group of EnsadLab, the research laboratory directed by Emmanuel Mahé at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, PSL University – Paris.

Technological direction: Colin Bouvry, Dominique Cunin, Jonathan Tanant
Real-time video capture system: Colin Bouvry
Software and IT development (smartphones apps, data visualizations, video mapping): Dominique Cunin, Jérémy De Barros, Léon Denise, Florent Dubois, Ianis Lallemand, Oussama Mubarak, Jonathan Tanant
Network management: Benoît Hérard
Video projection system, sound and light controls: idscènes
Production assistant: Gwenaëlle Lallemand

With the collaboration of artists and designers: Sylvie Astié, David Bihanic, Antoine Chapon, Dominique Cunin, Jérémy De Barros, Alexandre Dechosal, Léon Denise, Lucile Haute, Ianis Lallemand, Oussama Mubarak and the Transcyberien collective

Design of RFID accessories: Claire Bonardot, Ornella Coffi, Cécile Gay, Jennifer Hugot, Pauline Jamilloux, Laure Pétré, Valentine Rosi, Chloé Severyns, Alice Topart, all students in Textile & Texture Design and Fashion Design at EnsAD in 2011

The research and development of this apparatus are conducted in association with the development of Mobilizing.js (www.mobilizing-js.net), a programming environment for mobile screens, conceived by EnsadLab, for artists and designers.

With the support of the 'Chaire arts & sciences' of the École polytechnique, École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs – PSL and Daniel & Nina Carasso Foundation.

Special thanks to Christophe Aubry (idscènes), Mélanie Bouteloup (Bétonsalon – Center for Art and Research and Villa Vassilieff), Pascal Delabouglise (micadanses), Jérôme Gensollen (EnsAD), Olivier Jean (idscènes), Christophe Martin (micadanses), Boris Molinié (micadanses), Estelle Mury, Yoan Romano, Élodie Tincq and the team of Sonic Protest.

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Alain Declercq

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Samuel Bianchini

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Christian Mamoun

Discontrol Party #3, 2018
micadanses, Paris, February 2 and 3, 2018.
Video : Alice Brygo et Thomas Vauthier
3mn34s - High band request

Discontrol Party is a dispositif which brings together two worlds: that of state-of-the-art surveillance techniques and that of partying. The dancefloor/live music venue/performance space will appear in the dual spotlight of a partying event and a data-driven control and surveillance system (computer vision, RFID-UWB, infrared camera, face detection, identification, IoT, indoor geolocation, interaction via smartphones, BLE, etc.) The venue becomes for one evening a night-club set up as a control room: the participants, while partying, are confronted by multiple visualizations of the IT system which observes them and seeks to analyze their behavior. Like a game presented to a focus group or a large-scale Beta-testing, the challenge is launched: Can partying outplay the system? Lead it into a confusion which escapes it? Cause breakdown? Create a bug in the system? Because here, you are invited to a party where the 'monitoring' by the dispositif on which you are acting is openly visible: the mappings and the listings of movements and behaviors, the attempts at interpretation, the raw images from the surveillance cameras, those same images transformed for and through automatic analysis, the representation of the activities of the IT systems.

Surveillance and partying: if these worlds seem entirely opposed on all fronts, they both however are based on group - or even crowd - activities. But the former, most frequently destined for public spaces, focuses primarily on ordered crowd movements: a flow of persons, a line or waiting room, a boarding platform, etc. The rapid, disordered and even sometimes fusional movements of partying are at the limits of compatibility with the detection, tracking and aim to individually identify of the increasingly automatized dispositifs of surveillance and control: recognition of shapes, individuals, behaviors, traceability... In provoking their confrontation and possible overrunning of one world by the other, this prospective dispositif could reconnect with primitive traits of some of our oldest rituals: partying, celebrating, group celebration.

The musicians invited to incarnate the Discontrol Party dispositif epitomize different historic fragments of dancefloor activism : Candie Hank (Berlin) and his mutant wacky electro beats flirt with punk and breakcore music ; Rebeka Warrior, singer of the duets Sexy Sushi and Mansfield ; TYA, freak priestress of love, revolt and decay ; Retrigger, brazilian 8bit rock musician and his blazing theremin ; Front de Cadeaux, an Italian Belgian activist duet of slow party (a.k.a New Beat) and of records played at the right wrong speed ; Mr Marcaille, a modern Captain Caveman, whose stunning show links death metal and actionism; and the naturist fashionistas WR2OLD, will deliver their first world live performance.
All are experimenters and provocateurs. We expect them to unleash a celebratory energy through their stunt-like performances in the Discontrol dispositif. Their verve and thirst for danger will provoke spectators to join in.

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Alexis Komenda

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Alexis Komenda

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Alexis Komenda

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Christian Mamoun

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Alexis Komenda

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Alexis Komenda

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Alexis Komenda

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Alexis Komenda

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Samuel Bianchini

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Christian Mamoun

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Alexis Komenda

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Alexis Komenda

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Fennec Jackal

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Samuel Bianchini

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Alexis Komenda

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Christian Mamoun

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Alexis Komenda

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Samuel Bianchini

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Samuel Bianchini

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Christian Mamoun

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Christian Mamoun

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Samuel Bianchini

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Discontrol Party #3, 2018. Photo: Ianis Lallemand

Discontrol Party #2

Interactive party installation, 2009 - 2011
Samuel Bianchini

Music programming: Sylvie Astié (Dokidoki)

Discontrol Party was developed in the framework of the ‘Large Group Interaction’ research project at the EnsadLab/DRii, at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD), Paris, and at the University of Valenciennes and the Hainaut-Cambrésis, France; it enjoyed the support of the Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR) and of the Maison européenne des sciences de l’homme et de la société (MESHS) in Lille, France, in the framework of its research project PRATICABLES. Dispositifs artistiques: les mises en oeuvre du spectateur (PRACTICABLE. The Work of Art as Dispositif: Setting the Stage for Audience Participation)

La Gaîté Lyrique (Paris), June 24 and 25, 2011
With the support of the Cap Digital Business cluster for digital content and of the Île-de-France Region, in the framework of the program Futur en Seine 2011
In partnership with La Gaîté Lyrique

Musical program:
Friday, June 24: Schlachthofbronx; Ceephax Acid Crew; Absolute Body Control; Errorsmith; DJ Krikor

Saturday June 25: Captain Ahab; Covox; Bass Jog (DJ Elephant Power & FX.Randomiz); Nero’s Day at Disneyland; DJ Krikor
Technological direction: Antoine Villeret
Environmental visualization software (KetchupAddict): Oussama Mubarak,
with the collaboration of Tomek Jarolim and a contribution from
Marie-Julie Bourgeois
Embedded RFID-UWB capture: Xavier Boissarie and Jonathan Tanant (Orbe), with technology from and in partnership with Ubisense Video system (artistic collaboration and engineering): Antoine Villeret and Keyvane Alinaghi
Technical consultant: Cyrille Henry
In partnership with Philips
Tele-performance on Second Life: Disorder Screen Control: Lucile Haute, Claire Sistach, Alain Barthélémy and Frédérick Thomson, with the support of EnsadLab/EN-ER and, for the hosting on Second Life, Metalab 3D - ARTESI Île-de-France
Design of RFID accessories: Claire Bonardot, Ornella Coffi, Cécile Gay, Jennifer Hugot, Pauline Jamilloux, Laure Pétré, Valentine Rosi, Chloé Severyns, Alice Topart, all students in Textile & Texture Design and Fashion Design at EnsAD in 2011
Thanks to the Progis Company and to la Bibliothèque Francophone

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Discontrol Party 2, Samuel Bianchini, 2011
La Gaité Lyrique, Paris, June 24 and 25, 2011.
Photographs: © Samuel Bianchini - ADAGP

Discontrol Party is a dispositif which brings together two worlds: that of state-of-the-art surveillance techniques and that of partying. The dancefloor/live music venue/performance space will appear in the dual spotlight of a partying event and a data-driven control and surveillance system (computer vision, RFID, recording by smartphones, etc.) The main space of the Gaîté Lyrique becomes for the space of one evening a night-club set up as a control room: far from light effects or other VJing, the participants, while partying, are confronted by multiple visualizations of the IT system which observes them and seeks to analyze their behavior.
Like a game presented to a focus group or a large scale Beta-testing, the challenge is launched: Can partying outplay the system? Lead it into a confusion which escapes it? Cause breakdown? Create a bug in the system? Because here, you are invited to a party where the "monitoring" by the dispositif on which you are acting is openly visible: the mappings and the listings of movements and behaviors, the attempts at interpretation, the raw images from the surveillance cameras, those same images transformed for and through automatic analysis, the representation of the activities of the IT systems and, further, the consequences of these activities in the virtual space of Second Life and the reciprocal infiltration of this universe into the party.
Surveillance and partying: if these worlds seem entirely opposed on all fronts, they both however are based on group - or even crowd - activities. But the former, most frequently destined for public spaces, focuses primarily on ordered crowd movements: a flow of persons, a line or waiting room, a boarding platform, etc. The rapid, disordered and even sometimes fusional movements of partying are at the limits of compatibility with the detection, tracking and aim to individually identify of the increasingly automatized dispositifs of surveillance and control: recognition of shapes, individuals, behaviors, traceability... In provoking their confrontation and possible overrunning of one world by the other, this prospective dispositif could reconnect with primitive traits of some of our oldest rituals: partying, celebrating, group celebration.
The musicians invited to incarnate the dispositif Discontrol Party are the evolutionary front-line of current electronic music: they are all experimenters, provocateurs. We can trust them to unleash a celebratory energy - with the verve and taste for danger of stunt riders - in the Discontrol dispositif: and to incite the spectators to do likewise!

Discontrol Party 2, Samuel Bianchini, 2011
La Gaité Lyrique, Paris, June 24 and 25, 2011.
Video - 3mn55s - High band request

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Discontrol Party 2, Samuel Bianchini, 2011
La Gaité Lyrique, Paris, June 24 and 25, 2011.
Photographs: © Samuel Bianchini - ADAGP

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

Discontrol Party 2, Samuel Bianchini, 2011
La Gaité Lyrique, Paris, June 24 and 25, 2011.
Photographs: © Alain Declercq

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

Discontrol Party #1

Interactive party installation, 2009
Samuel Bianchini

Version 1:
Interactive installation: infrared cameras and projectors, computers, video-projections and slave mirror

Espace Pier Paolo Pasolini - Théâtre international de Valenciennes, France, November 20, 2009, opening of the NeXt Festival
Music program: Pan Sonic, Sexy Sushi, Pigeon Funk, Computer Truck, Hassan K, Sascii
Video system (artistic collaboration and engineering): Keyvane Alinaghi
Visual programming: Oussama Mubarak
Data processing and technical advice: Sylvie Tissot
Assistant: Antoine Villeret
In partnership with CiTu and iMAL, Center for Digital Cultures and Technology, Brussels, Belgium

Discontrol Party, Samuel Bianchini, 2009
NeXt - International Arts Festival, Espace Pier Paolo Pasolini - Théâtre international de Valenciennes, France, November 20, 2009.
Photograph: Didier Crasnault

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Discontrol Party, Samuel Bianchini, 2009
NeXt - International Arts Festival, Espace Pier Paolo Pasolini - Théâtre international de Valenciennes, France, November 20, 2009.
Photographs: © Samuel Bianchini - ADAGP