‘fenetre augmentee’ (‘augmented window’) by thierry fournier

designed by french artist thierry fournier, ‘fenetre augmentee‘ (‘augmented window’) sets real-time video footage of paris in front of the landscape itself, allowing visitors to explore on the screen sixteen artistic interventions that fournier invited artists and authors to make on the city. the piece is on exhibition at the centre pompidou as part of the futur en seine festival of digital life and creativity, running from june 17th through 26th, 2011 in paris.

thierry fournier: fenetre augmentee (augmented window) sample screen view

fournier began the project asking sixteen artists and authors to create a work based on the landscape itself or the questions it may raise, ranging from personal experience to concepts of surveillance, geolocation, or distance. he selected the halles district as his site out of interest in its hybridity, where a neighborhood coexists alongside the royal cemetery of innocents and the baltard halles de trou shopping mall, and for the tension that exists between urban centers and suburban space. in the installation, the screen functions like a window, framing real-time footage of the landscape, which visitors may touch to zoom in and out and explore the geotagged projects. through the digital medium the inverventions are experienced in a second way, and can also be seen and compared with one another in a way that their physical distance would render difficult on the ground.

from the press release: ”augmented reality’ is not addressed here in the sense of an addition of information or immersion, but as an opportunity to create areas of controversy and confrontation between different points of view.’

following the project’s installation at the centre pompidou, a second version will be created in the mountains of languedoc-roussillon, focusing on subjects relevant to this setting. future editions are in development for both france and nations abroad.

thierry fournier: fenetre augmentee (augmented window) the range of the halles district where the sixteen artistic interventions have been enacted

the sixteen artists and authors who have created works for the project at the centre pompidou include fournier himself alongside installation artist benjamin laurent aman, video artist ivan argote, authors christelle bakhache and clément féger, historian david beytelmann, new media artist marie-julie bourgeois, director pierre carniaux, philosopher céline flécheux, artist juliette fontaine, visual artist marie husson, digital artist tomek jarolim, video artist je suis le petit chevalier (felicia atkinson), pascal mazoyer, jean-françois robardet, marcos serrano, and antoine schmitt.

three of the artists are students and researchers at the ensad lab at paris’s national school of decorative arts, where fournier also developed the prototype for ‘augmented window’ as part of the ‘sensitive areas’ axis devoted to synchronization across a tactile object, visual display, and video recording.

— thierry fournier: fenetre augmentee (augmented window)

infiniti digital art competition currently, designboom in collaboration with INFINITI is offering an international competition asking participants to design spectacular or interactive digital artworks,to be installed and displayed throughout europe. participation is open to applicants from every country in the world: to professionals, students, vjs, and design-enthusiasts.

registration is free and now open, through july 8th, 2011. for more information about the competition and how to register, click here.