La Cour des Miracles

Abstract

A <i>COUR DES MIRACLES</i> (The Court of Miracles) is an interactive robotic installation, an unusual multimedia environment reacting to viewer's presence. This installation follows our approach of creating fictitious spaces designed for machine populations and cybernetic organisms societies which express metaphoric behaviors, spaces that are surrealistic immersive sites where viewers become both explorers and intruders. By creating this universe of faked realities loaded with "pain" and "groan", the aim of this work is to induce empathy of the viewer towards these "characters" which are solely articulated metallic structures. Therefore, we want to underline the strenght of the simulacra by the perversion of the perception of these animats, which are neither animals nor humans, carried through the inevitable instinct of anthropomorphism and projection of internal sensations, a reflex triggered by any manifestation that challenges our senses. Six of these characters have been created originally to populate the installation: - The Begging Machine - The Convulsive Machine - The Crawling Machine - The Harassing Machine - The Heretic Machine - The Limping Machine