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Topographie Digitale - Ars Electronica 2020

DataPaulette.org

Topographie Digitale is an interactive installation. This landscape uses electrically functionalized and pleated textiles as sensitive surfaces reacting to touch to interact with a video-projected digital clone of this scenery.

The project is an illustration of hybridization between our scientific discovery and traditional craftsmanship as a “creole” technique, a fundamental subject of research for our collective. We have, in this case, collaborated with the pleating specialist Maison Lognon, to investigate the combination of augmenting a textile both with new electrical functionality using in-situ polymerization, as well as the new physical affordances introduced by the patterns and textures of the pleated fabric. The pleated fabric, functionalized by this chemical treatment and the electronic system give birth to a material with a mixed heritage that is both technological and traditional, a prefiguration of a potential emerging craft. The combination of crafts and technologies is an alternative to rethink the place of the digital in our society in a more resilient way.

Credits
DataPaulette: Audrey Briot, Martin De Bie, Alice Giordani, and Cédric Honnet
Visualizations: Léon Denise

DataPaulette is a multidisciplinary collective, based in Paris, focused on research and development in textiles and digital technologies. Founded in 2014, DataPaulette has taken the form of an independent laboratory, operating as a hackerspace: DataPaulette.org

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