Miscellaneous

This page displays various works, not related with game design or writing, but rather around my other activities: photography, etc.

 
 

Multimedia concept design: e-ku


e-ku is a new multimedia form of communication. Based on the Japanese form of poetry haiku, an e-ku is a virtual poem lasting 17 seconds and combining a short text, pictures or video, and sound.
Like its haiku inspiration, e-ku is focused on the concept of evoking a feeling and a mood, via meaningful, subtle or surprising combination of its multimedia elements. You can express a humoristic or philosophical idea, a satirical or polemical message, a poetic moment… possibilities are huge.

e-ku emphasizes user creation and customization. Users can create their own e-ku using the e-komposer, allowing them to use either downloadable content or their own personal content.
It is available on the Internet and on mobile phones, to be sent and received similarly to a virtual postcard or and SMS.
 

What e-ku will you share?
 

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My participation to the project consisted in several points:

– helping defining the concept,

– creating the public image and presentation for investors,

– pitching it to investors.

It was a successful and enriching experience since I could have an in-depth experience of building and pitching a project to investors, and I could discover the industry of multimedia content creation and edition, which is close to the video game industry. The e-ku project is now up and running, and I will probably keep following it by creating e-ku for various events, so check for updates!

 
 
 

“36 heures de Saint-Eustache”

Cultural event for the Music Festival

June 20-21st 2009


For the “Fête de la musique” (Music Festival) in Paris, an important cultural event, the Festival of the “36 heures de Saint-Eustache” took place in the church of Saint-Eustache, located at the heart of Paris, Châtelet-les-Halles (1st arrondissement). Saint-Eustache is the second biggest church of Paris, and regularly hosts cultural and musical events of all kind – many, such as ours, not religious in nature. Organising a festival of this magnitude in such an impressive and renowned setting was both an honour and a fascinating challenge for us. It consisted of 4 main parts: 14 concerts, 4 conferences, a scenography, and a photographic exhibition, all running during 36 hours non-stop, from Saturday morning to Sunday evening. 15,000 people are estimated to have attended the festival.
The yearly event, that first took place in 2008, is the end-year project for the students of the Philosophy and Concept section of design school E-Art Sup Institut. I was a part of the 14 students who organised the whole festival.
The theme of this year’s edition was: “From modernity to ultramodernity through reenchantment of the world.”

Many thanks to our philosophy teacher Jean-Louis Bischoff, to all the staff of E-Art Sup Institut, to the kind people of Saint-Eustache, and to all who attended the exhibition for this wonderful experience! See you next year for the next edition!

 

Theme explanation

In short, Modernity is the thought that leads our current time: initiated by Descartes in the 17th century, it places Man at the centre of everything, and postulates that Man can control everything through the means of Science. As such, we apprehend everything around us only with a scientific eye; this destroys the meaning that humanity, through its ancient history, had placed in the world that surrounds it. For example, the ancients saw symbols and meaning in the stars, in every element of Nature, etc. This gave Man meaning and a sense to his life. Today, we see no meaning in anything, since this belief in Science only has gradually been degraded into pure materialism: since we only believe in matter and no more in soul, the only thing that now drives the world is efficiency and money.
Ultramodernity seeks to rehabilitate the deep sense of life in our world: rather than trying to control his world, and himself, with pure reason, Man should seek to be in harmony with it. He should strive, not to achieve merely material goals that will not make him whole neither accomplished, but to follow his inner path and understand other living things, to reach a higher level of consciousness.

Ultramodernity thus places the meaning of life in emotion, affects and imagination: in the world of the soul rather than the world of the matter.

 

Concerts

List of the bands:

Mamia Cherif – Jazz/Acoustic
Blackswan – Electro/Rock
Ravenhill – Pop/Progressive rock
La secte phonétik – Hip hop
Baroque harmonico – Classical
Compagnie RC2 – Classical/Performance
sHEPARD + Vincent Crosnier – Trip-Hop
Kwoon – Post-Rock
Cirrus – Post-Rock
sayCet – Ambient
Math & Broken letters – Folk
Lepolair – Ambient
Madam Jesus – Pop/Rock
JLS, Neb & co – Slam

 

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Conferences

Jesús García Ruiz – Research director at Interdisciplinary study centre for religious facts of High study school in social science
The rise of evangelist movements – Which link can be established between current evangelist movements and religions in general throughout History?

Gilbert Caffin – Priest of the Oratory of France, Former representative of the International office for the catholic education at the Europe Council
The new faces of transmission – Which are the main education models nowadays in Europe, what is their history, and what are they leading to?

Jean-François Riaux – Teacher in preparatory classes for HEC (major marketing school) and for the Faculty of Theology of Notre-Dame
Kandinsky or the quest of the spiritual through art – How did Kandinsky free art from the bonds of ‘form’ and install it into pure ‘expression’?

Barbara Cassin – Philosopher and Philologist, Research director at the National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris
Debate around the notions of Modernity and Ultramodernity – Which notions of Modernity should be kept in the transition to Ultramodernity?

 

Scenography

In the scenography, Modernity is symbolised by the floor: elements that are typical of modernity are scattered around the floor (ads, pages of magazines, etc), very aggressive to the eye, as is the constant flood of information, color and sound that is thrown at us every day by our society based on consumption. The elements are organised in a vertical and horizontal grid, to symbolise the very ordered and restraining aspect of modernity.
Ultramodernity is symbolised by the ceiling: tired of watching the agressive modernity on the floor, people look up, and see the exact opposite. Aerial, translucent, white pieces of light cloth are like clouds promising a brighter future, which is yet to be written. In opposition with the flood of meaningless words on the floor, only a few words are visible on the clouds, expressing the very essence of ultramodernity.
The room includes six columns, which were also used to convey ideas: linking the floor to the ceiling, each column bears a different color, and uses a specific mean to symbolise the transition from modernity to ultramodernity (photographs, lighting, painted images…).

My role in this scenography was, along with providing help with the whole installation and counselling on various subjects, to create the introduction to the scenography. The goal of this introduction was to express the notions of modernity and ultramodernity to people not used to these ideas, and to introduce them to the overall ‘feeling’ of the scenography. So I created the ‘Grave of Modernity’: a tombstone placed at the entrance of the exhibition. This tombstone was a printed imitation of the stone floor of the room (contrasting with the rest of the floor, crowded with ads and such), with a poem written on it (the epitaph of the tombstone). The poem explains the basic notions of Modernity, and what Ultramodernity leads to.
This was a very interesting work in two aspects: expression and scene design, since it demanded to find a smart and well-integrated way of immediately introducing the visitor to the mood of the scenography, and writing, since it demanded writing poetry and rimes, and talking about complex notions in a way immediately understandable by everyone.

 
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Here is a translation of the tombstone for non-French readers (rimes aren’t transcribed though):

Modernity
18th Century — 21st Century

Here lies Modernity.

Your death marks the end of an era of imprisonment.
And the beginning of a sacred era of liberty.
In your narrow limits, pathetic seclusion,
You tried to control that which should never be.

The human soul, sacrificed to your cupidity.
What have you obtained by destroying beauty?
Capitalism, Materialism, Fascism, Auschwitz.
Utilitarianism, Slavery, Hypocrisy.

You have lost Man in your misleading promises.
You have destroyed the precious Sense that throughout the eras
He had understood, the harmony in all things
In Himself, in Nature, the Stars, the Cosmos.

You believed that Science was All, the Key.
But Man is not meant to serve Science.
Science is but the instrument of he who creates it.
From your ashes, Ultramodernity is reborn

The resurrection of emotion, of action.
You who set foot on the tomb of this fallen empire,
Raise your eyes and contemplate with fascination
The shining glory of a brand new future.

 

Photographs exhibition

The theme of the exhibition was: Urban exploration. This exhibition was similar to the one we previously held in February 2009 near Châtelet. Please see the section below, about that exhibition, for more details.

In order to give an added value compared to the previous exhibition, we added several elements: more places were explored and photographed. We were able to visit and photograph the “Frigos de Paris”, an old warehouse complex that has been rehabilitated into a place where artists live, work, and exhibit their creations. We also showed pictures of the ancient swimming pool of the old Molitor swimming pool, an olympic swimming pool complex left disused for several years.

We also distributed an English leaflet since international visitors were expected. You can see below a few examples of the new pictures I exhibited.

 

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Xulux

The last element of the exhibition was a magazine produced by the students, named Xulux. The goal of this publication is to talk about precise notions of philosophy and symbolism that were taught to us during our design course, and to examine famous elements of pop culture (movies, books, games…) in the light of those notions. You can find a copy of my article in the [Miscellaneous] section.

 

Organizers and links

The primary organizers of the event are the students of E-Art Sup Institut. The project was led by the impulsion of Jean-Louis Bischoff, PhD in Philosophy and teacher in various Parisian art schools, and the association Art d’Ifer, composed of philosophy, design, and communication professionals. Finally, the managers of Saint-Eustache obviously played an important part in the organisation of the event.

Official Festival website: http://www.myspace.com/festival36heures
E-Art Sup Institut website: http://www.e-artsup.net/
Art d’Ifer website: http://www.artdifer.org/
Xulux website: http://www.xulux.fr/
Saint-Eustache website: http://www.saint-eustache.org/
 
 

 
 

Photographs exhibition at Café Reflets

February 4th 2009


Along with two other photographers (Camille Lescaudron and Dimitri Fofama), we exposed a series of pictures on the theme: Urban exploration. This exhibition took place at the Café Reflets (46 rue de Montorgueil, 75001 Paris) with the collaboration of the association Artdifer (http://www.artdifer.org/).
Urban exploration is discovering (or rather re-discovering) the landscapes around us that no one wants to see, and that no one wants us to see: be it catacombs, forsaken buildings, demolition sites, or abandoned transport ways, all those places share many things in common. They are decaying witnesses of the past, and as such, around them floats an eerie, but inviting and deeply promising atmosphere. They are twisted places not entering the modern criterias of beauty, but instead owning a far more interesting beauty of their own: the beauty of their history, of their past, of their present silence, and of the potential future they hold.
Why is their access forbidden? Which history must be hidden? Which so-called dangers lie ahead? What must not be seen? Ultimately, what do these places have to tell us? Exploring these places brings about the excitement of adventure along with a deep sense of respect, but what’s really worth noting is that the exploration creates powerful bonds between the « explorators » – rather unexpected for so-called « lonely » places, left without anyone for years.

This series of pictures tries to convey these feelings, questions and atmosphere. The photographs were taken at three different places in or near Paris: the basement of the University of Jussieu, the Batterie de la Pointe at Palaiseau, and the Petite Ceinture at Porte de Saint-Ouen.
 

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Exhibition introduction leaflet

 
My pictures:

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Pictures of the exhibition:

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