Creating new artistic territories through advanced technologies

Art and technology have a complex but substantial history of influencing one another. Today, technology is increasingly impacting how art is made, displayed and sold — playing a fundamental part in its development and evolution. It’s also giving rise to questions like “How can machine learning algorithms, ambient sensors and new forms of human machine interaction transcend creativity and enable new perceptions?” and “What dialogues will those new tools for expression create?”

Focusing on the intersection of art and technology, we invited four cutting edge creatives from various disciplines — Christelle Koché, Refik Anadol, Mathieu Peyroulet Ghilini and Cyril Lancelin — to experiment with Soli, a miniature radar that captures human motions of varying scales, from your heartbeat to body movement.

“Do hoodies dream of beautiful sunrises?” is the name of the collaboration we undertook with KOCHE, a nod to Philip K. Dick and his dystopian universe. It is a way to ask — as a thought experiment — can clothes be sensitive to the beautiful environment that surrounds them? What is the future of clothes and can we redefine the interaction between clothes, humans and machines?

Driven by those questions, KOCHE created four hybrid pieces combining artisanship, couture and technology, which can transform by reacting to sensors or touch. KOCHE’s vision was to seamlessly blend technology with craftsmanship. In a way, most of the electronics had to be hidden, leaving only the luminous interactive elements, almost as if the elements themselves were part of the textile. For our team at ATAP, this meant making the driving electronics invisible, flexible and robust enough to withstand body movements, and supporting KOCHE’s application of craftsmanship techniques regarding the integration of luminous components.

We used Soli within the scenography of KOCHE’s Paris Fashion Week show to give it a deeply interactive dimension. We imagined different levels of interaction between the models, the clothes, the audience and the show space; each influencing the others with its presence alone or movement. In this way, the garment becomes connected to its environment; the garment transforms, and is transformed by, its environment. Together with KOCHE, we created visuals that illustrate Soli’s unique and abstract perception of its environment — a digital shadow, as perceived by Soli.

Upcoming collaborations with Refik Anadol, Mathieu Peyroulet Ghilini and Cyril Lancelin will be revealed in 2023. Stay tuned for more magic!