For this is one of the distinctive features of the studio Jason Brugesstudio, founded in London in 2002, is to propose site-specific creations, imbued with the history, culture, people and environment of the place in which they are to be installed, in order to create a veritable narrative that will enrich the relevance of the work and its impact on the public.
Made of light, sound and movement, the works often incorporate sensors, real-time control systems and cutting-edge technologies to create installations designed to be immersive and engaging, offering viewers elegant and singular sensory and interactive experiences.
The studio attaches great importance not only to the aesthetic qualities and artistic value of its creations, but also to the sustainability and environmental impact of its projects. This is achieved through the use of sustainable materials, the integration of energy-efficient technologies and the design of temporary or modular installations that can be reused.
What’s the first thing you do when you take on a new project?
As the work will be specifically designed for the site, my initial aim is to immerse myself in the general environment of the site, to grasp its various components by crossing approaches, such as its history, its raison d’être, its place in the territory, its functioning.
The aim is to identify what makes it a unique place, one that allows us to feel that, in a globalized world, we’re in a special, unique place. And look at how the community of users interacts with this site, what its uses are, and how they evolve over time.
All these elements combine to create a very specific piece of work for this site. Something that tells a story and involves its users. At a time when work is becoming nomadic, when it can be carried out in any place and in any part of the world, working for a particular site means creating somethingabsolutely unique in connection with that place.
This requires an understanding of the place in all its facets: its geography, its history, the human and economic activities that take place there, the interactions of all kinds that arise and animate the place. From these observations, something emerges. From this particular place, from the people you meet who make the place, who inspire this emergence through their testimonies, their practices, their presence; this is the creation of a site-specific work.
How would you define your relationship with the audiences for your works?
The interactivity of the works arouses the public’s curiosity, bringing out moments of joy, wonder and playfulness. Audiences become involved in their environment and enjoy playing, because after all, like children, we all like to play with our environment.
The works are also catalysts for expression and generate discussion within the audience. What interests me in these cases is that, in reality, the audience is part of the work, a constituent part of it.
In the case of an installation on a public square, different audiences rub shoulders: visitors, tourists, locals. People of all ages and from all walks of life. They interact simultaneously, or rather, interactions are created between a very broad spectrum of people, spontaneously.
Unlike the experience of visiting a museum, where the public is predisposed to seeing works that are likely to evoke an emotion, in a conscious and voluntary process, the experience provided by an interactive work in the public space is unexpected, provoking surprise.
Light Shadow in Toronto, for example, is an incredibly playful, interactive work that arouses curiosity. It confronts the viewer with a form of mirror, inviting them to give free rein to their creativity. In this particular case, users set about creating with the work, including videos for social networks; dance videos, skateboard performances and more generally performances of all kinds.
Bringing the environment to life, offering an installation where the public can choose to come and perform, creating their own works and generating urban interactions, are tangible signs of the success of this work in the public space.
How do your works relate to the living world?
The living world around us – plants, birds, insects, etc. – is full of extremely inspiring phenomena.
It’s fascinating to observe the shapes and movement of clouds, water, flames… And to be inspired by the calm that comes from walking in the forest, watching the light through the foliage of the trees.
Our animated world stems from a fascinating history that goes back millennia. And in contrast to naturalistic painting, for example, which gives a static result, generative art engages movement and the senses, achieving a calming effect. It’s all about meditative patterns; stimulated in this way, the brain goes into meditative mode, into a meditative state.
Works inspired by nature and the living create an abstraction of the living. A meditative abstraction that positively affects health and also tells us the story of living things. Many of my works, for example, feature growing plants, and watching plants grow invites us into this meditative state, guiding us towards a form of self-transcendence.
In my creative process, these are the benefits I’m looking for. Water, for example. It was while walking around seaside resorts, notably Eastbourne for a project I was doing there, that I was led to reflect on the effects of the coastal environment on people, which led me to work on the effect of water on human beings; this effect we call in English blue mind.
The aim is to identify how the elements, nature or extracts from these elements, produce effects on us, and how, from there, it is possible to create an abstraction of this effect, possibly an interior one, thanks to the play of light and sound ambiances, such as that of water.
There are an enormous number of possibilities and solutions for recreating the presence of the living with very simple technologies. For some works, this means a direct link with nature, as in the installation Rotation Index installation at CSU SPUR in Denver. A datavisualization installation that connects us in real time to the future of food production: “combining a data set from the University’s growth chambers, greenhouses and green roofs with live local weather information, it presents a palette of generative animations representing a system of growth, decomposition and renewal “*.
Another project based on live data visualization, Energy Dynamics “consists of 593 light arcs […each of which] represents a Ukrainian city, power plant, renewable facility or weather model, which are then brought to life by live data links that send pulses of energy across the entire surface – a stylized map of Ukraine – in the form of rippling waves of light. The effect is a real-time “power map” that also mimics the behavior of atoms – the simplest form of energy.
Tragically, the war gave this work of art new meaning and emotion. From a work originally commissioned to show Ukraine’s decarbonization, the large-scale invasion of February 2022 transformed Energy Dynamics into a symbol of endurance and a visual statement of DTEK’s mission to literally keep the lights on. “*
To return to the living world, we could cite a large number of installations we’ve produced that are inspired by it. These installations raise our awareness of the cycle of life, the cycle of water, and ask us how we wish to live and inhabit our natural environment.
These devices are highly resonant, with the various technologies used – visual effects, movement, soundscapes, textures, optical components, etc. – mobilizing the viewer’s senses in the service of a meaningful experience.
These experiences bring the world to life as we experience it, and enable us to convey the major issues of our time. To communicate, through the works, on all the challenges we face, linked to energy, water, tensions over supply, technologies, our relationship with materials, consumption and so on. And at the forefront of these reflections, man’s imprint on his environment.
Interview by Josée Brossard
