2 April 2024

13:30 – 14:15

Amphi 3

Jean Dubois

Jean Dubois experiments with new artistic aspects of digital imagery, whether fixed, moving or interactive. His creative approach addresses the relationship between images and body interfaces, random systems, in situ integration and textuality. He has been a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal’s School of Visual and Media Arts since 2000. He is a founding member and former co-director of the Réseau de recherche-création en arts, cultures et technologies – Hexagram. His creations and communications have been presented at several international events in Canada and abroad, including the Museo d’arte contemporanea Roma Testaccio (Rome); the Musée des arts et métiers (Paris); the Studio national d’art contemporain- Le Fresnoy (Lille); International Cyber Art Festival (St-Petersburg); Biennale de Montréal (Canada); Incheon International Digital Art Festival (South Korea); Experimenta – International Biennial of Media Art (Melbourne); eARTS BEYOND, Shanghai International Gallery Exhibition of Media Arts (China).

What role can energy play in artistic creation?

In the visual arts, especially when it comes to the use of media devices, energy can play many roles, from interacting concretely with matter and information to metaphorically stimulating the imagination. It propagates in the rays of a light projection. It transforms itself in all kinds of back-and-forth movements between mechanical forces and electrical signals. It also expresses itself in the bodies of spectators every time a work manages to stir them with emotion. Artist Jean Dubois takes a closer look at the roles that energy plays in his work, revealing the aesthetic premises and technical backstage of some of the media installations he has created in recent years. We discover how a mirror can sense and respond to the caress of a hand, how footsteps on a staircase can make words appear on the floor of a library, and how the breath of a single person can animate a public space.