Natacha Roussel
Transtechnology Research,
Room B312 Portland Square,
University of Plymouth,
Drake Circus,
Plymouth
PL4 8AA
www.experientiae-electricae.org
Natacha is an artist and PhD-candidate at Transtechnology Research, University of Plymouth, concentrating on augmented clothes as a collective environment. She creates organic like haptic interfaces involving one or several users that can be a body extension or come as close to the body to being a garment.
She develops independant practice in Canadian art centres where she has showed and been hosted in residencies (Dare-Dare,Est Nord Est, Théâtre la Chapelle) supported by Quebec and Canada Art Council bursaries (2001,2004,2006). In France, when pursuing a graduate certificate in interactive design, she developed interactive garments with a Bursary from CIAM (hexagram), showed at Digifest04 (Toronto). She currently investigates interactive clothing in participatory contexts, with a recent show at Paris Extra Sensory (Centre des Arts d’Enghien) and various publications (ACM conference series, CDA) conferences, Futuro textile (Lille).
In 2003 she co-founded the collective Experientiae Electricae, where she is associated with Michel Panouillot (graphic artist), Michael Roy (electro technician) and Julien Houiller (programmer). Experientiae Electricae integrates technologies based on rudimentary electronic principles, leading to multimedia work. We build immersive interactive installation for multi-users, such as Jeux: Vasistas (Montr√(c)al,2004), which leads us to question our intimate relation to the living being in: Organism: Western Front Vancouver (2004) Arborescence05 (Provence) Le Cube/Art 3000 (Paris, 2006) Art escapes (Valencia, 2007). We currently produce the PIXY, a modular display, with a Bursary from ARCADI (France) and the Canada Art Council, co-produced with numeris causa (Paris), SAT and Videographe (Montreal) in residency at Banff media arts.
Wearables as a participative proposition: Interac wearing
Keywords:
Wearable, Rhythm, Participative, Public
« Mobilis in mobile » says the Nautilus
Augmented clothes potentially become an interface that allows direct access to the body within one’s daily life. As displayed in previous wearable walking pieces, wearables can capture the rhythm of our actions. Wearables can also retransmit this rhythm according to our mobility, therefore making a bridge between our rythmic presence on earth and the duration of time.
In an attempt to sort out a dynamic relation to the ephemeral rhythmic presence on earth, I will give attention to group usage of augmented clothing. The new material possibilities of creating multiples of augmented clothes, communicant wearables, lets me envision a new axis to capture the interrelated rhythms of a group of walkers. For this purpose I will define the modalities of interaction between a number of interrelated rhythmic costumes in a particular momentum, proposing an augmentation of the body through a caption of the accumulation of paths of personal rhythms the retracing of the rhythmic connections between people. This permits us to create a flow between the walkers towards a disappearance of the individual path.
This project is taking place as academic research that is being actualised and probed within the art world, where all augmented clothing will be developed as multiple art pieces. Those augmented pieces of clothing will be proposed in a participative manner, offered to the public to try as costumes, as an art piece. Presentation dates are already scheduled in centre des arts d’Enghien-les-Bains (Paris), and have been presented by galery quang at FIAC Paris. The objects and research has received Funding from ARTEC to function as a research tool in collaboration with science researchers.