2Roqs in MCD magazine
Digital creation and social ties
/We are 2Roqs, an interactive design studio based in Bordeaux, France. Since 2005 we have been actors of the digital creation and interactive communication scene. Co-founders Michaël Zancan and Julien Gachadoat, and Julia Gache compose the team. On one hand, the creative thirst of our team has produced a few programmed concepts (such as giant video-projections on buildings for instance), while conducting experiments or animating workshops around the themes of technology, interactivity and visual arts. On the other hand, we are commissioned to direct and build interactive projects for museums, institutions or businesses .
//Our series of interactive installations («Gravity» , «Expression» , «Aquatypes» , «Textopolis», «Calligrammes») is based on the participation and the interaction with the public. Integrated to the urban space, our installations call out to bystanders who are then able to participate in the making of the images by sending messages with their phones.
Gradually, during those shows, some groups gather next to the projection that becomes some kind of homefire around which conversations — both written and spoken—go well. In a way we are letting individuals speak out loud in the public space. Showcasing their messages can engage, denounce or amuse the spectators who can react accordingly.
//Since 2006, Julien works as an instructor on tools such as «Processing» or «Openframeworks». Those are environments which further the access to programming and help to control the various functions of a platform (computer, mobile phone, web browser, mini-computers like Raspberry Pi) thanks to simplified interfaces. Those tools are free as the result of a collaboration between developers and users, communities that constantly help each other so that the tool itself improves or to start up some creative projects. By the way, it was through the Processing forum that we had met Hudson-Powell, a graphic design studio based in London and with whom we have teamed up for several projects since then — projects mixing graphic design and programming (Responsive Type and the branding of Barbican center for instance). Animating workshops has also allowed us to meet people from various fields : artists, filmmakers , musicians, architects, which lead to a number of fruitful collaborations. For instance, during a workshop in Mains d’Œuvre in Paris we were able to meet Stéphane of studio Chevalvert, with whom we just finished the project «Murmur», an hybrid installation involving object design, graphic design, sound design and programming. Since 2010 2Roqs is also the co-organizer of Processing Bordeaux sessions in collaboration with Free Art Bureau and i.Boat. These meetings aim in showcasing on a short period of time one artist who uses code as a creation tool. These conferences allowed a rather eclectic public (students, teachers, graphic designers, programmers, hobbyists) to gather around those digital practices.
////From our perspective, this dynamic of "digital creation / social ties" is not really a purpose, but an ingredient that we integrate to our work. To allow the people who watch our installations to participate in a playful, yet constructive way, is a component that we breath into each one of our creations. Computers have allowed to integrate the interactivity by treating datas in realtime; we benefit from this modern power by adding a collaborative and participative dimension to our artworks. In the beginning of 2013, we have exhibited in Enghien-Les-Bains [near Paris] a short movie named «Calligrammes», an animated travel through the folklore of Christmas, in representations built out of typographic objects . For those sequences, a writing workshop had been organized to collect sentences from the inhabitants of Enghien-les-Bains and insert them into the movie's settings. This approach was different though consistent with the previous installations of the typographic series like «Gravity» or «Expression» where the animations were rendered in realtime and the messages collected in a uninterrupted flow.
/////Currently we are teaming up with a number of design studios (Chevalvert, Polygraphik and Splank) on «Murmur» , a project that was showcased in Reims last May as part of X-Light festival. It gathers various skills that complement each other : graphic design and sound design, object design and programming. Each studio brought not only its savoir-faire for the specialty it is proficient in, but also its fresh look at the other disciplines. «Murmur» is made of a prothesis linked to the wall thanks to a light-up cable, in which people can whisper and talk. Their voice is transformed into a luminous wave that propagates until it reaches the wall's surface where some geometrical shapes appear, reflections of the emitted sounds. We have just introduced a social dimension to the device, meaning that several murmurs can be connected together, provoking some graphical interferences onto the projection's surface.
