Leading institution: HEAD – Genève

Applicant and Project Manager: Aurélie Pétrel

Project team: Yvan Alvarez, Garance Chabert, Aurélie Pétrel, Fabien Vallos, Laurent Schmid-Abt, Paolo Thorsen-Nagel, Manuel Sigrist

Project partners: ENSP Arles, Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne

Financing: HES-SO, HEAD – Genève, ENSP Arles, Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne

The "Vues & données II" exhibition will be at Confort Moderne in Poitiers from September 20 to December 15, 2024. (Aurélie Pétrel, Fabien Vallos, Dieudonné Cartier)

Shooting – Collecting data

“Although the opacity of the way in which a computer operates lies on a scale different from that of a camera, it nevertheless demonstrates the same relationship between the visible and the invisible. Uncertainty takes an active part in representations when the invisible very much participates in the visible which in return, always conceals more than it shows.”

— Pierre Barboza, “Imaginaire numérique: datamatics [ver. 2.0] de Royji Ikeda”, in: Gérard Leblanc, Sylvie Thouard (dir.), Numérique et transesthétique, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2012

The creative research project “Vues et données” (Shots & Data) analyses the implications of the concept of “data” in the field of art, and more specifically in the field of contemporary photography. Led by artist and photographer Aurélie Pétrel and based on her practice, the project addresses the deadlock with which every author/photographer has been faced since the rise of the web (1989) and mobile devices (late 2000s). Circulating in the form of files, i.e. data, photography has become more fluid and new practices such as sharing and remix are developing, as are relationships. In other words, in addition to representing the world we live in, photography now co-produces it (Roxana Marcoci, 2015).

The aim of the project is twofold:

• Analysing the concepts of “shooting” and “collecting data” based on an approach that combines readings with interviews and analyses of works in order to create a reproduction that might help shed light on the contemporary situation for a wider audience.

• Addressing the limits of the definition of photography through contact with digital technology via the sound medium, used here to create mental images.

The resulting visual creations and findings will be synthesised in a book designed in relation to a specific sound creation. The work will aim to generate mental images when listened to. Sound will thus help “show” the new regimes of photographic images.