Client: Department of Culture & Information, Directorate of Art, Sharjah Government

Overview

Digital Arabesques 2014, Miguel Chevalier
Islamic Art Festival, Al Majaz Water Front, Sharjah (UAE)
Department of Culture & Information, Directorate of Art, Sharjah Government
Generative and interactive virtual-reality installation
50 m x 22 m
6 video-projectors 25 000 Lumens, 6 infrared video cameras for the interactivity, 1 computer
Software: Cyrille Henry and Antoine Villeret
Video-projectors : G-Force Arts, Dubai (UAE)
Technical production : Voxels Productions / Nicolas Gaudelet

Digital Arabesques is a generative and interactive virtual-reality installation created for Islamic Art Festival. It was projected on the floor of Al Majaz Water Front in Sharjah. It's a huge light carpet open into the city (50 m x 22 m)

Goals

“Digital Arabesques” takes inspiration from islamic art patterns. Arabesques, mosaics and latticework evolve in real time and interact with visitors movement under their feet. The result is an unprecedented interactive and visually immersive experience.
“Digital Arabesques” shows sophisticated geometrical patterns based on overlapping lines driven by mathematical logic. These moving patterns reveal a colorful living universe that is constantly renewed.
In the art of Islam, Miguel Chevalier discovered a decorative manifestation similar to his own language as well as a connection with digital algorithmic art in its characteristic use of geometry of forms and mathematical laws. He enhances these features by the use of computer software to enrich the designs in the realization of his piece.
The projection on the floor creates a vivid world of colors and forms with movement reminiscent of a kaleidoscope. It harks back to the idea of the trompe l’oeil technique in art, disturbing the perceptions of visitors while creating the sensation of a shifting floor that moves. The reference here is to Kinetic Art which predated the digital art. Miguel Chevalier’s artwork plunges us into the magical universe of “One Thousand and One Nights” and flying carpets.

Process

The Department of Culture & Information, Directorate of Art of Sharjah Government contacted Miguel Chevalier to create an installation on Al Majaz Water Front at the occasion of Islamic Art Festival. Miguel Chevalier proposed to create a huge interactive projection of the floor, like a huge carpet of light.
“Digital Arabesques” is Chevalier’s first truly open urban installation. The six video-projectors used are supported by a truss structure. This structure materializes a new architectural space within the city landscape.

Additional Information

You can watch a video by Claude Mossessian at the link below : http://vimeo.com/115559399