Part of:

People:

R&Sie(n) (archive creator)
Francois Roche (architect)
Stephanie Lavaux (artist)
Benoit Durandin (architect)
Jean Navarro (architect)

Title:

I’ve heard about and Hypnosis chamber

Date:

2004-2006

Level of archival description:
Series

Extent and medium:

320 digital files (8.47 GB)

Scope and content:
Series 2, I’ve heard about and Hypnosis chamber, 2004-2006, relates to the conception of the urban structure “I’ve heard about”.
The records contain algorithmically-generated images, renderings, pictures of models and exhibitions. There are also photographs of the contour crafting process, 3D models and animated renderings illustrating the construction process of the structure.

The project is a conceptual, unbuilt project that is meant to be a habitable organism, an adaptive landscape in a constant state of evolution. By means of transitory scenarios in which the operational mode is entropy and uncertainty, it develops open algorithms based on growth scripts permeable not only to human expressions, but also to the most discrete data such as the chemical emissions (for example due to stress or anxiety) of those who inhabit it. The chemical information is harvested through nanoreceptors feeding the VIAB machine with information. This biostructure becomes the visible part of human contingencies and their negotiation in real time. The structure is conceptualized to be in constant construction through the VIAB machine which is also a constituent of the structure itself. It secretes fiber cement, shaping the landscape where it is located and through which it moves. It generates the reticular structure using a process modelled on contour crafting. The VIAB machine was developed with Robotics Research Lab of the University of Southern California and takes its name from the terms viability and variability. R&Sie(n) considers that due to its mode of emergence “I’ve heard about” fabrication is not subjugated to any political power.

Hypnosis chamber is a component of “I’ve heard about”. It consists of an indoor chamber, which was realized as a full-scale sample constructed through automated machinery. The chamber is situated as a part of the whole urban structure presented by “I’ve heard about,” and its goal is to immerse the audience into the project, into a fictional environment only reachable by hypnosis. In this context, hypnosis is a way to help citizens escape from their social condition and experience the new condition of citizenship imagined in “I’ve heard about”, where democracy is re-evaluated as a process of self-determination.

Both parts of the projects were shown in contemporary art museums. First at Musée d’art de la ville de Paris in Paris (2005), the Hypnotic chamber is permanently on view at Towada Art Center in Towanda, Japan.

AP193.S4 contains a video orienting the project into François Roche theoretical stance, research as speculation, that can be summarize as the use of technological tools to take a critical and political position through esthetic in order to open new lines of thoughts. AP193.S4 contains an updated version of the VIAB machine

Reference number:

AP193.S2

Arrangement:
Material in this series has not been arranged.