Curator Statement

Exhibition usb #5 window(s) on course. St-Pierre-le-Puellier collegiate church and ÉSAD Orléans gallery, Orleans. March 30 – May 28, 2023

In 2020, as part of the CULTURE PRO call for projects from the Ministry of Culture, ÉSAD Orléans, with the support of its partners, is launching the CYBER_CAVE project.

With the containment measures following the COVID-19 pandemic, our societies have experienced remote social life made possible by the Internet. The question of physical distancing, at the heart of current issues, leads creators, cultural institutions and higher education establishments to invent or re-invent in terms of artistic and cultural production and dissemination.

ÉSAD Orléans therefore proposes to create a metaverse third place (that is to say a virtual place of creation, manufacturing and distribution for a community of creators, in particular young creators, who can interact socially with the aim of designing , develop, experiment and disseminate works of plastic art, theater, dance, music, architecture and design within this space itself or as an extension of the tangible (= physical) space

The creation is entitled CYBER_CAVE. The CYBER_CAVE crosses extended realities (virtual and augmented) and the Internet network (Web). It will provide remote access to a virtual universe of conception, creation and distribution in art, design, architecture, dance etc..

The CYBER_CAVE will be designed and developed at ÉSAD Orléans using the most recent technologies in terms of extended realities.

After the 1990s, pioneers in the field, the technology of extended realities (XR / Extended Reality ), virtual (VR/Virtual Reality) and augmented (AR / Augmented Reality), has now reached a form of maturity. We can indeed only note its development, beyond video games and science, within the world of art and design (in international fairs and biennials, European higher schools of art and design, events and exhibitions etc.), particularly due to the reliability of software and equipment.

It is today essential, within the Center Val-de-Loire Region and on the national territory, to allow access to these technologies to young designers, artists, engineers and collectives carrying projects renewed by the dynamics specific to generation Y or “digital natives” and generation Z (“post-digital native”, also called C – Communication, Collaboration, Connection and Creativity). While being open to all creators, the CYBER_CAVE will be mainly intended for young graduates and creators from Higher Culture Schools in the regional and national territory.

The young creators will be accompanied and surrounded by art and design professionals, entrepreneurs and engineers. Professionalization and the spirit of community between the creators and the teams associated with the projects will be at the heart of this system mobilizing local, national and international partners.

The CYBER_CAVE and its equipment will allow all creators with projects, in particular:

to create works of extended reality as such
to experiment, develop, test hypotheses virtually during the creation and design phase
to disseminate, show and communicate projects virtually (VR) or hybrid (AR)
for designers, to facilitate the prototyping stages by switching from simulation tools to digital manufacturing tools
for live performance artists, to extend the stage or simulate it, for example by articulating the tangible space with the virtual space…
https://cybercave.esadorleans.fr

Partners:
Certainens (Tours)
National Choreographic Center of Orléans
Contemporary art center Les Tanneries (Amilly)
École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre (Brussels)
La Labomedia (Orléans)
Pépite Centre-Val de Loire
Polytech Orléans
RCP Design Global (Tours) )
Scène nationale d’Orléans
Teslasuit (London)
Valesens (Tours)

Source: https://esadorleans.fr/projet-cyber_cave

• The Orléans School of Art and Design (ESAD) (Orleans, France) is a public art school with a specificity: Design and only Design is taught. Its approach is resolutely artistic and turns towards the most contemporary questions. Here, it is a question of the future of the printed and digital edition – or both together; of IoT and data sculpture, of ecological cohabitation and design commons, of media archeology and design of time. This gives the school a somewhat unique place in the educational landscape of Design in France and in Europe. https://esadorleans.fr/en