Participatory digital installation for video stream, visual interfaces and computer
Perturbatio is a participatory installation that aims to make visible the emergence of cumulative effects of individual actions on our environment. The public is invited to reflect in terms of scale and on the difficulty of linking supposedly banal activities to their global consequences. Perturbatio aims to reflect and to provoke a collective discussion on our entanglement within broader social, technical and cultural systems.
Etymologically, Perturbatio designates “the introduction of irregularities into a system.” Variations are a fundamental process of life that allow biological evolutions and physical dynamics. However, beyond a certain threshold and a certain scale, these perturbations endanger the fragile balance of life on Earth to which we belong. Like an imprint of our collective busyness, Perturbatio reflects the decentralized and collective nature of the ecological crisis.
In Perturbatio, a digitized image in the form of a 3D point cloud is connected to the video stream (live or recorded) of a highly frequented place, such as a public square, a pedestrian area, a shopping center, a transport hub, etc. Each passerby, with their movement, introduces a small additional disorder, generally too small to be perceived. However, over the hours, the combined effect of hundreds or thousands of individuals becomes apparent. The image of the point cloud, initially figurative, intuitive and concrete, gradually transforms into a blurred, impressionistic and ultimately abstract chaos.
[Concept and artistic direction] Charles Ménard-Wendling [Concept and digital development] Tim Schneider
