Topographie Digitale is an interactive installation by DataPaulette made up of pleated textiles that are sensitive to touch and interact with a video projection, a digital double of this landscape.

Topographie digitale is an interactive installation made up of two parts, one physical, the other virtual. The tangible entity is a volume landscape made up of textiles pleated by Lognon. On its surface, the folds and creases extend and lengthen. The landscape formed by the pleats is joined by scarlet motifs reminiscent of contour lines. The virtual entity, for its part, is video-projected and diffused through several layers of dark veils that give it depth. This ghostly-looking animation, made up of particles in constant motion, acts as a virtual twin to the pleated textile. This animated territory echoes the interactions played out on the textile surface: the touch of the hand on the different zones will disturb the slow, oscillating rhythm of the animation.

This project illustrates the hybridisation between a scientific discovery and a traditional craft, giving rise to a Creole technique, a fundamental research topic for DataPaulette. The collective collaborated with the Atelier Lognon’s pleaters to study the combination of in situ polymerisation, which gives the textile its conductive properties, and pleating. The result is new physical interactions and affordances introduced by the patterns and textures of the pleated fabric. This fabric-sensor, augmented by an electronic device, is a sensitive material with a mixed heritage, both technological and traditional, prefiguring an emerging craft.

The formal choice of this installation allows us to illustrate the principles of the meeting of different cultures, which served to create it, through a metaphor: that of the island. The physical part of the installation appears as a model of a new territory resulting from these successive exchanges. This island models the outcome of a research hypothesis, joining other experiments that are being developed, and together forming an archipelago.

Awards:

Nomination at STARTS Prize 2020 — STARTS (Science, Technology & the Arts) is an initiative of the European Commission, launched under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Its purpose is to support collaborations between artists, scientists, engineers and researchers to develop more creative, inclusive, and sustainable technologies.
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Publications:

De Bie, M., & Briot, A. (2021). Le textile électronique, un savoir-faire créole. Dans MàJ Design, environnements techniques & pratiques exploratoires (p. 29‑32). Cité du design/Esadse.
Ouvrage sous la direction de Gwenaëlle Bertrand, Maxime Favard et David-Olivier Lartigaud.
“MàJ regroupe un ensemble de témoignages, recherches et propositions graphiques questionnant des environnements techniques et des pratiques exploratoires du design.
L’ouvrage se veut un objet réflexif et usuel invitant à découvrir différentes approches actuelles sélectionnées par des experts du design et de ses pratiques émergentes. À destination des chercheurs et des professionnels du design ou des matériaux, il regroupe un contenu inédit et prospectif lié aux problématiques contemporaines et aux réflexions critiques, abordées par des designers et des chercheurs au cœur de ces questions.”
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Audrey Briot, Martin De Bie, Alice Giordani, Leon Denise, and Cedric Honnet. 2021. Topographie Digitale. In TEI ’21: ACM ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction, Feb 14–17, 2021, Salzburg, Austria. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages. https://doi.org/10. 1145/1122445.1122456
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Abstract:
Topographie Digitale is an interactive installation that illustrates a hybridization between science and traditional textile craftsmanship. It uses electrically functionalized and pleated textiles as touch sen- sitive surfaces for interacting with a video-projected visualization. The pleated fabric, augmented by our custom chemical process, and the electronic sensing system give birth to a material with a mixed heritage that is both technological and traditional, and prefigure an emerging craft. The combination of craft and technology, which gives a creole technique, is an alternative way of thinking about the place of digitalization in our society in a more resilient way.

Topographie Digitale in CyberArts 2020 Prix Ars Electronica. STARTS Prize ’20 Ed. Hannes Leopoldseder, Christine Schöpf, Gerfried Stocker, graphic design by Gerhard Kirchschläger, English, 2020. 256 pp., 500 ills. softcover, 16.50 x 24.10 cm, ISBN 978-3-7757-4761-5, p. 252
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Exhibitions:

Intangibles Losses, part of the conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI) 2021, February 2021 at Art Space 5020 in Salzburg, Austria.
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Ars Electronica 2020, In Kepler’s Garden, Festival for Art, Technology & Society. 9-13 Sept 2020, at JKU Campus, Linz.
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De toutes façons… Design graphique et textile, from October 2019 to March 2020, at Le Signe, Centre National du Graphisme, Chaimont, France.
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They speak about the project:

MIT Media Lab announcing Topographie Digitale at Ars Electronica Festival 2020.
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