Méta-Crâne

My interest in the subconscious and the formation of meanings based on non- narrative content stems from the analytical process, where we seek to dig over the truth wherever it crops up, in spite of itself. For Méta-crâne, I wanted the interpretations of charged images to create truths. What are we seeking in a work of art if not to find a little light in the depths of the forest? In Méta-crâne, we lose ourselves in the labyrinth of my thought, but the dream leads to a catharsis, a form of enlightenment. Through their combination, my images create meanings that are stronger than the sum of their parts. My desire, with Méta- crâne, was to work on the functioning of the subconscious and free association to create a dream machine. Méta-crâne is the result of two years of research with engineers from the Numediart Research Institute at the University of Mons, including the excellent Xavier Siebert. These engineers developed a programme to analyse and classify all of my videos through objective criteria (colour intensity and variation, speed, contrast, etc.). I cut up all of my films into thousands of “mini-clips”, which were then classified according to these criteria in order to be rearranged and compose another film, in which videos follow on from one another according to these formal criteria. In other words, it is the equivalent of the notion of free association for machines. Subsequently I created algorithms for automatic video editing, defining the editing methods, the types of alternation and evolution, but not the films used, in order to enable the computer to unendingly create a new film, drawn from the categorised database. This film, which is constantly being rewritten, was then projected in 360° on the concave roof of the Méta-crâne. Surrealist heritage is clearly present here. The result is a never-ending film, taking me out of my subconscious and at the same time bringing me very close to it. The spectator can make connections between these various films which he perhaps would not have done in his normal waking state, but which make sense in a dreamlike state. He dreams, escapes and builds his own logic, freed from narration imposed by the artist, who now only proposes associations; it was also the desire to be surprised by material that I nevertheless knew by heart—and to discover new meanings in this madness. I did the opposite of what is generally done in interactive art. An infrared camera observes the interior of the skull. If the public is too excited, the programme slows down the video mix so that the audience calms down and better understands the process. If on the other hand the visitors are calm, the mix speeds up, as they are therefore in a state to receive more images per second. It is an interactivity which is neither entertaining nor directly visible or central, but which places itself at the service of the work’s receptivity. It amuses me to see visitors, who are already accustomed to interactive art, making great gesticulations in the skull, in the hope of triggering a reaction of sequences, whereas the quicker they move around, the less happens.”

Thomas Israël, in THE MEMORY OF THE BODY Interview with Philippe Franck in Memento Body – La lettre volée 2013