Mohamed Hassan Youssef
Research project
Particles.
Project summary
Far from the classical form of the plastic arts, the digital and above all interactive arts have shattered the respectful classification of the classical arts. Far from the question of inheritance or replacement, far from being accepted as modern artistic tools, digital art remains under judgment and criticism. Abstract in its forms and profound in its meanings, it leads, despite the critics, to a marvellous alliance between virtual-real and fiction, between the verb and the reaction of an audience in an interactive space. The “particles” project, already written at the end of 2006, is an attempt in the same direction.
I see the project of programmable digital particles as an imager for acquiring and processing the human form into an identical virtual form within an interactive space. The challenge is to start from an absence of particles or a chaotic presence. When the audience enters and begins to discover the game’s system, particles identical to the spectator’s form form free movements interacting with the spectators’ performances projected on the screens. Formed by virtual particles, through an interactive, multimedia space, the project is made up of 3 stages:
* 1°- creation of particles that circulate freely, but as soon as the spectator passes through them, he captures them (the particles) in synchronization with his movement and begins to manage their movement spontaneously with his own.
* 2°- the particles are controlled by a choreographer with the audience’s presence and contribution. (postponed)
* 3°- the audience sees the birth of particles that take the shape of the characters (the audience), imitate their movements and are very lively and sensitive to any spontaneous change.
The aim of the project is to invent a new way of looking at motion detection and its representation on screens, and in this way to interest the research community.
The Particules project has benefited and will continue to benefit from the support of ZINC/ECM and the complicity of Groupedunes, two structures which facilitated the initial diagnostic stages of the project, and enabled me to identify the research themes to be explored.
Mohamed Hassan Youssef is in residence at Iméra as part of a partnership with Zinc-ECM (La Friche).
His project is supported by the CRVM (Centre de Réalité Virtuelle de la Méditerranée) of the ISM (Institut des Sciences du Mouvement, UMR CNRS-INSB and Université de la Méditerranée) and the GMEM (Groupe de Musique expérimentale de Marseille, labeled Centre national de Création Musicale).
