PARIS:
INVISIBLE CITY |
2004 & 2007
Web based Sociological Diorama
Included in the Airs de Paris exhibition
at Centre Pompidou, 2007
Client: Bruno Latour/Ecole de Mines (2004) & Centre Pompidou (2007) |
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Paris: Invisible City | Paris:
Ville Invisible existed firstly as a french publication written by
Bruno Latour with photography from Emilie Hermant and designed by
Susanna Shannon. The book presents us with a new way to approach
sociology, namely through a series of of 'dis-locals', or small elements
of the functioning of the city that are not apparent when using conventional
sociological approaches. The book takes us through a simultaneous
photographic and written exploration of Paris, and leaves with a
question as to what holds this collection of dis-locals in tact -
what is the binding Plasma?
The web version of the book which exist
for both English and French speaking audiences uses the chapters
in the book as differentiators of sorts, which allows for varying
interface possibilities. The first section of traversing, uses an
ambigous image navigation system, similar to the feeling of wandering
and being surprised by the images you see as you turn a corner in
the city. The entire screen contains hit zones which generate an
animated image sequence, resting upon one, which is the destination.
The second section [proportioning] refers to a
lateral scaling, where every image appear the same size, even though
the actual scale of the images is greatly varied. Through the lateral
movement of the images as they enter the screen, when gain a short
glimpse at the relations between the images, before one fills the
entire screen, thereby showing only a fragment of the sequence. Movement
is lateral.
The third sequence [dimensioning] takes us through an
archive where there is the movement of leafing through old files
and documents. In this leafing through one image comes abruptly after
the other and dominates our view - hiding the other either recently
passed or near to come. When transferring this sensibility into a
web platform the act of clicking was too certain a gesture to activate
the interface, so the user simply runs their mouse across the tabs
of the 'files' in order to swap positions and have a new image dominate
over the other. Movement is leafing through, or for a screen environment,
z-depth swapping.
The last sequence takes us back to a panorama,
an updated version. in this sequence the question is posed as to
what the connective plasma is in this configuration of 'dis-locals'
we just experienced. Since this space is undefined, the user is free
in this section to modify the rhizome structure which binds the images
together. Upon activating a node of the structure, the background
image switches to correspond to the selected node. Movement: sprawling
and variable.
***This project was slightly revised in 2007, for inclusion in the
Airs de Paris exhibition at Centre Pompidou, Paris.
URL: http://www.bruno-latour.fr/virtual/index.html
Text: Bruno
Latour
Photography: Emilie Hermant
Client: Bruno Latour / Ecole de Mines (2004) | Revisions 2007 - Centre
Pompidou |
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