Urban Explorations Paris

Editor's Notes

1. I have divided my presentation into 3 sections which all start with a quote, quotes that reflect the motivation and methods behind this project. the first is by T.S. Eliot This quote of course can be interpreted in many different ways but in this context it reminds me that in our routine driven everyday life we might have forgotten how to explore the physical world but we should not.
2. I want to start with the Internet. An invention that allows us to see the world through the eyes and lenses of others wherever we are. McLuhan's Global Village with it's landmarks Google, twitter, facebook, instagram, flickr, is here. we constantly share where we are, where we have been, and mostly we see where others have been - we are constantly connected. It is a very comfortable way of travelling, browsing, watching data passing by. but nevertheless we are physically detached from the places that we consume through the media and the technology that surrounds us on a daily basis. How to engage or re-engage with a place, physically and with our senses? A question the Urban Explorations project wants to find answer to.
3. The urban explorations project started in 2012 in Singapore with the proposal to collect samples and data from an urban landscape which are then discussed, evaluated and translated into an artefact to be showcased in an exhibition. The project is process driven rather than outcome focused. Although there is an artefact as the final item of the production chain, this artefact is considered as one of many steps as part of a continuous process, the journey. Currently there are 2 explorations that have been completed: Singapore in 2012 and Paris in 2015. The exhibition in the atrium showcases 3 works from 2012 and 13 works from 2015. The duration of the project spans over several weeks where a group of people with different backgrounds including art, design and science work together in a temporary studio environment to create, practice and exchange ideas, opinions. During both explorations different themes and topics have been addressed, for example variations in temperature perception, animal city life, investigation of various invisible signals and electromagnetic fields that surround us, classification of places through sound analysis, or the movement of things.
4. The methodology and the chain of events of the project looks like this, there are 5 scenarios: 1 Prototyping in the lab 2 building a data sampling tool 3 going out into the field to collect samples and data 4 data evaluation 5 showcase, the manifestation of data and the process this cycle concludes an exploration
5. Exploration here not only refers to the exploration of a space but equally important the exploration of new ideas, methods, methodologies, skill sets, mind sets, curiosity.
6. improvise
7. improvise
8. There is the studio, the starting point, the inside; but then there is the outside, equally important.
9. improvise
10. In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there. Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a dérive point of view cities have psychogeographical contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones.
11. As a tourist you drift, many things are new and special. You hop from one attractions to the next. The mobile phone has become the preferred tool of capturing and recording these special moments, that special snapshot that soon after is shared online with friends and strangers.
12. Often we see these attractions only through the screens of our phones making sure we got the perfect shot. But what if you replace the phone with your own capturing tool?
13. What if you shift perspective and you invent your own tools to capture an urban landscape, to find your own interpretation of a snapshot where you define your own attractions. Which can be found objects left behind lying on the floor, the sounds of the city, pigeons, the movement of things, frequencies, snails, moss and lichen or the vibrations of buildings.
14. Bin on the left with his 12 channel sound recording device and Patrick Kochlik on the right with his custom-built radio frequency scanner on the right.
15. Being out in the fields taking a snapshot of a place sometimes makes you the attraction. People wonder what is this guy doing what is this strange object that he is setting up?
16. But you also visit place that you would normally not go to, but your tool requires you to. Like here Patrick needed to capture the radio frequencies along the Seine …
17. .. Or he was curious about the intensity of the electromagnetic field of a watergate of one of the many canals in Paris.
18. .. Or the many light boxes inside a metro station
19. You start collecting souvenirs that you would otherwise not care much about like moss or lichen – ubiquitous bio sensors that can tell you about the conditions of an environment they inhabit.
20. You chase pigeons
21. Pigeons chase you
22. Pigeons take selfies
23. You climb on top of buildings to listen to its movement and vibrations.
24. Of course the view is great
25. You dig for snails, hoping to find one to tell you more about the ph-value of the place
26. To do so you bring all your custom built tools and equipment
27. You make people wonder, what is this guy doing there
28. And you climb objects.
29. Cedric Honnet, Tangible Display, Tech Studio.