SALEM, MASS.- The Peabody Essex Museum presents an immersive exhibition designed by internationally acclaimed French digital artists, Adrien Mondot and Claire Bardainne. XYZT: A Journey in 4 Dimensions, on view at PEM from October 14, 2017 through April 22, 2018, invites exploration and interactivity through 10 digital installations that are inspired by nature, activated by gesture and movement and rooted in math and physics models.
Each letter in "XYZT" identifies the movement of a point in space - horizontal (X), vertical (Y), depth (Z) and time (T). The exhibition experience melds personal exploration with scientific reasoning, as each installation is accompanied by a video label on the nature of the underlying physical behavior, complete with excerpts from related dance performances.
In a darkened gallery, guests stroll through a digital landscape where letters blow off a tree like leaves, blades of grass move in response to footsteps and beach sands react to the lightest touch. In one installation, shifting clouds of light mold to the visitor’s silhouette based on the same algorithm that describes the flocking behavior observed in starlings. “We want our images to be danced on, played with and to react to the body,” says Bardainne. “We make immersive and interactive artwork, but we want you to forget that these are images.”
“XYZT brings the virtual and the organic together in playful and imaginative ways while expanding our understanding of our place in the natural world,” says Jane Winchell, PEM’s Sarah Fraser Robbins Director of the Art & Nature Center. “What brings this exhibition to life are the people who interact with it through their own movement. People often focus on how we react to the environment and XYZT makes us consider: What do we create? What is our effect on the environment? What do we bring to a moment that shapes and transforms it?”
The Adrien M & Claire B Company creates digital and living art forms, ranging from stage performance to installations. It is co-directed by Claire Bardainne and Adrien Mondot, whose approach puts the human experience at the centre of technological issues, with a strong visual focus on the body and unique bespoke technologies created in-house. They strive to create living digital art: mobile, handcrafted, short-lived, and responsive. Together, they aspire to create an art of movement to set the human body in resonance with graphic and digital arts. The result is a poetic visual language blending imaginary, real and virtual dimensions while bearing unlimited opportunities for artistic exploration. Today, the company has 30 associates, 4 performances and an exhibit touring internationally. Its Lyon headquarters also house a research and creation studio.
