L’arbre qui cachait la forêt

Sisyphus in the anthropocene hamster-wheel.

L’arbre qui cachait la forêt is a multimedia installation originally proposed for the Festival of Lights of Lyon (FR) happening on december 8th. The theme was about ecology and artists were encouraged to make use of little and/or renewable energy.

The installation consists of an interactive video projection of a tree, with the screen placed precisely where the filmed tree is located. The screen offers a view that corresponds to the perspective of the global environment. In front of this screen, a giant hamster wheel awaits a visitor. The rotation of the wheel causes the video to progress from the current date of the festival, close to the winter solstice, when the tree is apparently dead, to the summer solstice at midday, when the tree is fully green against the deep blue sky. But as soon as the visitor stops running after that desired blue summer sky, the video rewinds to the cold winter night.

Prior to the installation, the tree has been shot with timelapse photography technique during a whole season.

Vincent Goudard - L'arbre qui cachait la foret - Project preview
On-site installation preview.
Giant hamster wheel draft for the project
Giant hamster wheel draft design by Ulysse Lacoste.

Author: Vincent

Independant R&D engineer and artist, crafting digital instruments for audio/visual live performances, installations and interactive applications. I post some of my works and news on this site.