Workshop Artificial Landscape by Miguel Chevalier
As part of a partnership with the Académie d'Aix-Marseille, SECONDE NATURE and ZINC organise every Fall a special event for the educational community: Une Rentrée Numérique - A digital back-to-school.
In 2023, Une Rentrée Numérique featured a project specially dedicated to Senior year high school students specialising in the visual arts. In line with the baccalauréat syllabus (“Nature at work”), they had the chance to meet artist Miguel Chevalier (a pioneer of digital artistic practices) during a 2-hour master class at the Amphithéâtre de la Manufacture (Aix-en-Provence).
In class, they experimented with different digital tools (creating .gif with the online software Photopea and video mapping projection with Joanie Lemercier’s mapping software) to immerse viewers in an “artificial landscape”.
As every year, Une Rentrée Numérique was based on a diversified proposal: an encounter with a work of art and/or an artist, a digital practice workshop, teacher training and the construction of resources.
Based on a reflection on the work of Miguel Chevalier, the aim of this workshop was to introduce students to the practice of micro-mapping (and mapping in general). Using the “Artificial Landscape” proposition as a starting point, students were asked to create animated gifs and project them using video mapping in situ in the classroom, immersing the spectator in the work.
244 high school seniors from the Bouches-du-Rhone region took part in the project.
Objectives
> Explore the work of Miguel Chevalier (part of the baccalaureate syllabus)
> Take up the theme of the baccalauréat programme: “nature at work”, thinking about the relationship between exterior space [nature] and interior space [the architecture of the room].
> Discover a digital art practice
> Thinking about an image in space
> Collaborate
The students appreciated the discovery of mapping, which they had found difficult to understand in a purely theoretical way (especially the intrinsic link to the projection surface).
Miguel Chevalier – Expert bio
Born in 1959 in Mexico City. Resides in Paris, France since 1985.
Since 1978, Chevalier has focused exclusively on computers as an artistic means of expression. He quickly secured a spot on the international scene as a pioneer of virtual and digital art. Miguel Chevalier continues to be a trailblazer, and has proven himself to be one of the most significant artists on the contemporary scene.
Miguel Chevalier’s oeuvre is experimental and multidisciplinary. Taking references from the history of art and reformulating them using computer tools, his works investigate and explore recurrent themes such as nature and artifice, flows and networks, virtual cities and ornate designs. His images are a rich source of insights into ourselves and our relationship with the world.
Since the 1980s, Miguel Chevalier began tackling the question of the hybrid, generative and interactive image. He has created many projects variously incorporating generative and interactive virtual reality installations projected on large scale, shown on Leds screen or LCD screen, sculptures created with a 3D printer or with laser cut, holographic imagery and other forms.
Miguel Chevalier has produced exhibitions and installations for museums, art centers, galleries and public spaces around the world. He has been awarded a number of architecturally-based commissions.
Miguel Chevalier’s digital works are in constant metamorphosis, plunging us into a magical, poetic and very contemporary universe.
Dates
19/12/2023 to 22/03/2024
Number of participants
244
Workshop leader(s)
Assitant project Coodinator Ilona Carmona
Hosting partner
CHRONIQUES
