Urban Explorations Paris
Intersecting art, science and design, the Urban Explorations project serves as a laboratory for a group of participants to experiment and make custom-built instruments that collect phenomenological data in a metropolitan landscape. The information gathered is then used as raw material for the conception and fabrication of a static or dynamic artefact. After its first iteration in 2012 in Singapore, the second exploration took place in Paris in May and June 2015.
Following the first exploration in Singapore (2012), Urban Explorations: Paris is undertaken by nine explorers across disciplines from Singapore, France and Germany to initiate a new investigation of urban phenomena in the city of Paris. In this transnational setting, the explorers question the varied points of departure behind the notion of exploration and the constituents of urbanization. Profiting from a plurality of artistic, scientific and Do-It-Yourself approaches, the gathering of artists, researchers and designers also led to the re-imagining of what homemade tools can accomplish not only in terms of data collection but also functional capability.
In their projects, the nine explorers study a spectrum of urban conditions from micro, organic elements such as pigeons, mosses and snails to discarded waste matter found on the streets. They trace invisible fields of energy such as electricity and broadband connectivity; detect perceptible forces such as sound waves and tectonic or man-made vibrations; as well as evaluate experiences of the human body in its habitual modes of mobility on foot or transportation machines.
Their creative inventions combine methods used in their regular practice with simple technology to enhance the capacity and sensitivity of the human senses. The underlying intention is to empower everyday citizens through the application of technology towards auto-production while enabling a better understanding and discovery of the various aspects of contemporary urban life.
This exhibition features the tools, objects and artefacts that have been conceived, designed and built in this atelier by Andreas Schegel, Patrick Kochlik, Antoine Bonnet, Sylvie Bonnot, Weixin Chong, Cindy Lin, Muhammad Dhiya B. Rahman, Ong Kian Peng and the collective Atelier Damien Valero: Damien Valero, Sébastien Tessier, Jérôme Cognet and Jerome Pougnant. They are accompanied by video presentations and exhibits of artefacts previously created from the first exploration in Singapore.
The result is Urban Explorations: Snapshots of two cities, a joint exhibition that offers a fresh and playful perspective, like snapshots, of daily life in Paris and Singapore.
Continue browsing more documentation of this project at ue-paris.tumblr.com.