La_Fabrique_01

_INTRODUCTION_

A certain conception of the network will lay in the background during this first years' exhibition of the electronic gallery / file system la_fabrique. The students may take  position in regard to this conception. The precepts are the following: the network and the digital spaces represent the emergence of a mutating reality.  This reality is a deformed expression, an accelerated evolution of our society and our physical world. A (new) world submitted to near natural and  neo-darwinian processes of evolution and (technological) auto-selection, inside of which the values are melted and mixed:  human:nature:machine:information. It is in fact a world that becomes more and more complex and that informs itself: a mutating reality or a recombinant  reality (http://www.google.com/search?q=recombinant+reality). We could describe this as a new layer (of information: the noosphere, cf. Th. de  Chardin), that add itself to the already existing one, the biosphere.

La_Fabrique_01

_CONTEXT_

So, new or altered landscapes and territories are emerging. Modified architectures, new social relations and forms of communication as well. Our physical body and  identity and the relations we have with the outside world, human-beings, machines, things are modified:altered.

La_Fabrique_01

_BACKGROUND_

We are touching here the basics of the information theory of Claude Shannon (http://ink.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=%2Binformation+%2Btheory+%2Bshannon) and also Norbert Wieners' writings on cybernetic  (http://ink.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=%2Bcybernetics+%2Btheory+%2Bwiener). These theories describe physical and of energy relations between nature and machine, man and machine and in particular, man and computer. These theories consider everything as information/entropy, even  man.

The notion of energy as well as information exchange between physical world and machine world (in our case computers) will interest us in  thermodynamics (see i.e. J. de Rosnay, in L'homme symbiotique, ed. Seuil, Paris 1995 or Le macroscope. ed Seuil, Paris 1992 and also
http://194.199.143.5/derosnay). These scientific and philosophical theories and essays, those links, could serve as theoretical background to the exhibition  and elaboration of the project. The mailing list that we will set up during the elaboration phase of each exhibit will be used, hopefully, as an exchange area  between the people involved.

La_Fabrique_01

_INTENTIONS_

We wish to stay really anchored into what constitutes the main substances of the web: interactivity, interfaces, images, sound, light, pixel, bits,  programms, etc... Displaying galleries of paintings or sculptures in 3D which are the immediate and literal transcription of a pre-existing reality is of no  real interest in our eyes.

The gallery / file system is looking to create "actual and discursive thinking", a chatter and/or a polemic exchange around the domain of electronic and networked artwork/architecture.

La_Fabrique_01

_RECOMBINED_REALITY_

note: recombinant is a biological term, it describe a genetically modified organism or cell (i.e. http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=%2Brecombinant  and http://ink.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=%2Brecombinant+%2Breality)

Recombinant reality: the term commits us to look at the binary worlds as a digitally deformed reality, recombined, mixed and manipulated. A kind of  electronic extension of our reality with which there are information exchanges -i.e. the 2nd World of Canal+ (http://www.cplus.fr/lab) could be  already considered as a "mutant", a recombinant Paris, even if in this case, the type of exchange between Paris and Virtual Paris are limited-.

Recombinant reality: the term let us think that an evolution is going on that will bring us to an unknown place. In this process, the constituent matter will  interest us as much as the process in itself. In fact, matters are composing the process and we will be interested in light transportation, screen  emissions, comsumed energy, electromagnetic waves that are necessary to the life of the global information system. We will be interested as well in the  amount of information that the system gives back.

This material or physical side of the Recombinant reality roots it in a strong manner to our sensitive world. Like light or sound waves, there is now a big amount of artificial electromagnetic waves.

In summary, we will think with the artists as much to the semantic side as to the material one of the Recombinant reality during this year_01 of the digital  exhibitions.

La_Fabrique_00

_ARCHITECTURE_

The gallery / file system, la_fabrique, is made out of 3 different and distinct spaces/file systems. In principle, two of them don't evolve. The fourth one, dedicated to temporary  exhibitions, mutates for each exhibition according to the thematics.

According to the needs of Canal+, those 3 distinct spaces/file systems are dedicated to the following functionnalities: an access street-hall, a gallery dedicated to temporary exhibitions (modified for  each exhibit), a link gallery giving access to some online works of the  invited artists.

La_Fabrique_00

_SPACES_

- Lounge ->: the access street-hall to the electronic gallery / file system . There will be displayed maybe one or two permanent electro-artworks. There will be switch nodes on top of the stairs/arrows to go directly in the gallery/file of each group of students.

- Gallery : thematic: the temporary thematic rooms are displaying the works of professionals artists. Each creator will have the benefit up to 250K  gzipped of disc space (includind everything -sounds, environment, work, textures, etc... - gzip compresses approx. by a 1/3 factor the ACSII or WRL  files), of course, in this particular case, less will be more ;). Each artist gets his own file/room/world to produce his work. This part is a fragment of the whole gallery / file system and/or a copy/paste of another file. The way to go from one artists'room to  another will be managed via doors/boxes/switches and switch nodes, maybe LOD. 5-8 artists will exhibit their creations during each exhibition in this space. Duration of the online exhibit is 2,5 months.

- Url gallery: the link room, a room in which we will find links to some of the artists' online works and maybe, maybe to some online theoretical references.

La_Fabrique_01

_PROCESS_

Fragments (cut parts of gallery A, cut and paste of those different parts to create the right number of files corresponding to the number of artists) of the  gallery / file system are given to the artists so that they can produce in it/with it/against it their work of electro-art-architecture. At the end of the process of creation, where a  strange/complice relation between electroartworks and gallery / file system might emerge (e-merge also), fabric | ch will collect all the pieces/files to produce the final file.

Some points of connexion between the different parts of the gallery / file system cannot move or be renamed because they assure the way to go from one file to an other. These parts are beeing precised to the artists.

Each part of the gallery / file system received by each artist could be made out of geometries, sounds, textures, links, lights, texts, etc... These datas, their  hierarchies real and virtual, the way they appear on the hard disk, their relation to the complete gallery / file system , constitutes the context of intervention.