»Eau de Jardin« 
Light Box
Light Box
© 2004, Christa SOMMERER & Laurent MIGNONNEAU
Keywords
Information
(collective) Sommerer / Mignonneau >
»Eau de Jardin«, 2004 - 2004
Co-Workers & Funding:
Commissioned by the House of Shiseido, Tokyohttp://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/christa-laurent/WORKS/CONCEPTS/EauDeJardinConcept.html
http://www.youtube.com/user/MediaArtTube#p/search/2/8sI1P-cF1vM
Technology
Hardware
6 living plants6 suspendible flower pots
1 plant interface for 6 plant
1 computer for 2 to 3 projection screen
1 large panoramic screen (curved if possible)
2 to 3 video projectors
Interface
6 living plants6 suspendible flower pots
1 plant interface for 6 plants
Electric field amplifiers
Active filters
Galvanic isolation
Analog to Digital conversion
Serial transmission
Software
3D Plant growth algorithmvirtual water drops algorithm
Descriptions & Essays
"Eau de Jardin" is an interactive installation which transports visitors into the imaginary world of virtual water gardens. The image of "Eau de Jardin" consists of a triptych, a three-sided projection screen onto a 12 x 3 meters vaulted screen that creates an immersive and reflective virtual water garden. 8-10 glass amphorae hang from the ceiling of the room. Their form reminds to old Greek or Egyptian transport vessels. They are completely transparent and contain water plants such as lilies, lotus, bamboo, cypress and other aquatic plants. Through the glass we can also see the roots of these plants.
When visitors approach themselves towards the amphorae, the plants capture the visitors presence and use the occurring tensions to draw virtual water plants on the large projection screens. The virtual plants on the screen resemble the real aquatic plants in the amphorae.
The images of the virtual plants are reflected through a virtual water surface and a merging between virtual plant imagery and reflected plant images occurs.
The more visitors interact with the real plants the more the virtual scene of aquatic plants builds up on the screen and all changes in the users' interactions are translated and interpreted. This leads to constantly new water garden images as their composition reflects the visitors' amount of interaction with the real plants.
Christa Sommerer is an internationally renowned media artist working in the field of interactive computer installation. She currently holds positions as Professor for Interface Culture at the University of Art and Design in Linz Austria and at the IAMAS International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences in Gifu, Japan. Since 1992 Sommerer collaborates with French media artist Laurent Mignonneau. Their interactive artworks have been called "epoch making" (Toshiharu Itoh, NTT-ICC museum) for pioneering the use of natural interfaces to create a new language of interactivity based on artificial life and evolutionary image processes. Their collaboration has been influenced by the combination of their different fields of interest, including art, biology, modern installation, performance, music, computer graphics and communication. Sommerer and Mignonneau have won major international media awards...
More info: http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/christa-laurent/
Christa Sommerer 13-11-2020
Eau de Jardin Concept
" Imagine a circular room, the dado below the wall molding entirely filled with a plane of water scattered with these plants, transparent screens sometimes green, sometimes mauve. The calm, silent, still waters reflecting the scattered flowers, the colors evanescent, with delicious nuances of a dream-like delicacy.“ Claude Monet
Keywords
Nature, Transparency, Water, Reality/Virtuality /Reflection, Water Lillies, Vital Force
Background
Inspired by Monet’s late “Water Lillies” paintings and their panoramic setting at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, we constructed a large 3–sided vaulted projection screen that builds a triptych. The wide horizontal screens mentally immerse the viewers into the virtual picture of the water garden.
“Eau de Jardin” Description
“Eau de Jardin” is an interactive installation which transports visitors into the imaginary world of virtual water gardens.
The image of “Eau de Jardin” consists of a triptych, a three-sided projection screen onto a 12 x 3 meters vaulted screen that creates an immersive and reflective virtual water garden.
8-10 glass amphorae hang from the ceiling of the room. Their form reminds to old Greek or Egyptian transport vessels. They are completely transparent and contain water plants such as lilies, lotus, bamboo, cypress and other aquatic plants. Through the glass we can also see the roots of these plants.
Interaction
When visitors approach themselves towards the amphorae, the plants capture the visitors presence and use the occurring tensions to draw virtual water plants on the large projection screens. The virtual plants on the screen resemble the real aquatic plants in the amphorae.
The images of the virtual plants are reflected through a virtual water surface and a merging between virtual plant imagery and reflected plant images occurs.
The more visitors interact with the real plants the more the virtual scene of aquatic plants builds up on the screen and all changes in the users’ interactions are translated and interpreted. This leads to constantly new water garden images as their composition reflects the visitors’ amount of interaction with the real plants.
Reality-Virtuality-Reflection
The virtual lake in “Eau de Jardin” becomes a mirror to the reality of virtuality. As Monet succeeded in creating two layers of virtuality by blurring the borders between “real” interpreted plant images and their reflected image in the water’s surface, “Eau de Jardin” tries to create several layers of virtuality by blurring the borders between real plants, virtual plants on the screen and their reflected virtual image in the virtual water’s surface.
Christa Sommerer: Eau de Jardin, 13-11-2020, in: Archive of Digital Art Eau de Jardin Concept
" Imagine a circular room, the dado below the wall molding entirely filled with a plane of water scattered with these plants, transparent screens sometimes green, sometimes mauve. The calm, silent, still waters reflecting the scattered flowers, the colors evanescent, with delicious nuances of a dream-like delicacy.“ Claude Monet
Keywords
Nature, Transparency, Water, Reality/Virtuality /Reflection, Water Lillies, Vital Force
Background
Inspired by Monet’s late “Water Lillies” paintings and their panoramic setting at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, we constructed a large 3–sided vaulted projection screen that builds a triptych. The wide horizontal screens mentally immerse the viewers into the virtual picture of the water garden.
“Eau de Jardin” Description
“Eau de Jardin” is an interactive installation which transports visitors into the imaginary world of virtual water gardens.
The image of “Eau de Jardin” consists of a triptych, a three-sided projection screen onto a 12 x 3 meters vaulted screen that creates an immersive and reflective virtual water garden.
8-10 glass amphorae hang from the ceiling of the room. Their form reminds to old Greek or Egyptian transport vessels. They are completely transparent and contain water plants such as lilies, lotus, bamboo, cypress and other aquatic plants. Through the glass we can also see the roots of these plants.
Interaction
When visitors approach themselves towards the amphorae, the plants capture the visitors presence and use the occurring tensions to draw virtual water plants on the large projection screens. The virtual plants on the screen resemble the real aquatic plants in the amphorae.
The images of the virtual plants are reflected through a virtual water surface and a merging between virtual plant imagery and reflected plant images occurs.
The more visitors interact with the real plants the more the virtual scene of aquatic plants builds up on the screen and all changes in the users’ interactions are translated and interpreted. This leads to constantly new water garden images as their composition reflects the visitors’ amount of interaction with the real plants.
Reality-Virtuality-Reflection
The virtual lake in “Eau de Jardin” becomes a mirror to the reality of virtuality. As Monet succeeded in creating two layers of virtuality by blurring the borders between “real” interpreted plant images and their reflected image in the water’s surface, “Eau de Jardin” tries to create several layers of virtuality by blurring the borders between real plants, virtual plants on the screen and their reflected virtual image in the virtual water’s surface.
Literature
Exhibitions & Events
2016
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2014
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2014
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2012
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2011
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2007
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