AR-Lumen is the collaboration between designer Tom Hebrard and artist Paul Vivien. Accustomed to new technologies and monumental projections-mapping, they want to take the opposite side of a “race for innovation” that is hitting the art and design sectors. Forgetting software, energy-consuming video projectors and nights spent in front of their (soon to be obsolete) 2018 computers, they are concentrating on low-tech, recovery and diversion.
They are hacking into old school overhead projectors (those with layers), transforming their optics to increase their power tenfold, while reducing their energy consumption thanks to an optimised LED. Using a solar-powered car battery, the system is mobile and energy self-sufficient.
Paul & Tom use a variety of DIY techniques to create mechanics and layers on which they paint, engrave and sculpt visuals to be projected onto the facades of castles or buildings, while playing with their relief. In this way, they apply the methods of digital video-mapping, but in the form of analogue projection.
The story tells the visions of the witch AR-Lumen: an uncertain future for humanity, where resources are exhausted, but where a people has managed to find the solution to its salvation, through degrowth, recycling and exchange. We see methods for transforming waste, inventions and machines, some of which are drawn by the children and adults who took part in a workshop the afternoon before the show. This time of convivial exchange is important, creating a link between the show and the audience, showing that this technology is much more accessible and sustainable than the digital whole.
The project is in development, the last stage of creation at the eco-responsible festival La P’art Belle, in Sarzeau on 10.08.2019 and at the Aurillac festival on 25.08.2019.