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The growing place of digital culture in society is being explored during a unique hybrid concert, exhibition and collaborative podcast, as part of a French global festival.
Novembre Numérique, which means Digital November in French, is being held from next Sunday until the end of the month and aims to provoke discussion about how modern digital technologies are used to create art and tell stories.
“Since 2017, we have been organising this festival around the world,” said Saïd Nourine, director of Alliance Francaise, Bahrain (AFB).
“Digital November is an invitation to question the place of digital cultures in our societies.
“Usually, art and technology are showcased separately but we want to highlight the relationship between the two.
“We also want to demonstrate new uses of digital technologies, while discovering the richness and diversity of digital creations, ranging from virtual reality to video games, from media art to new forms of digital narratives, from immersive theatre to interactive music, from educational technologies to entrepreneurship.”
Organised in collaboration with the French embassy in Bahrain and Institut Français, one concert and three exhibitions will be held at the AFB premises in Isa Town, with free entry for the public. In addition, a collaborative podcast will be released on AFB’s SoundCloud platform.
French digital art group Adrien M & Claire B, led by Claire Bardainne and Adrien Mondot, have created the first exhibit, called Acqua Alta – Crossing The Mirror.
It is a pop-up book whose drawings and paper structures become the set for a story that only comes alive when seen through a smartphone screen, using augmented reality.
“Looking through a tablet or a smartphone, the 10 double-pages of the book Acqua Alta - Crossing The Mirror become the stage for a short dance performance - thanks to a custom-made augmented reality application,” explained Cécilia Altieri, AFB’s communication manager.
“In a simple graphic stroke in black and white, ink drawings and white folded paper come together to reveal the virtual life of dancing miniature beings and their dive into the imaginary realms of water.
“The experience is at the crossroads of theatre, dance, comic book, animated film and artistic video game.”
The second exhibit, Tiny Ocean, has been created by computer scientist turned new media artist Kaspar Ravel.
Kaspar is known for integrating programming, hacking and artificial intelligence into his pieces, with the audience that views his artwork becoming part of it. The end result is often simultaneously bizarre and beautiful.
“It’s the very first time Kaspar is exhibiting this project,” Cecilia added. “It will be exhibited in a dark room, people will be immersed in sound and lights. The public will create the movement within the artwork.”
The third exhibit, Machine à Bulles, which means “bubble machine” in French, pays homage to 2020 being declared The Year of the Comic by Institut Français with a curated selection of interactive comic books.
Panama Al Brown, L’énigme De La Force, which translates to Panama Al Brown: The Enigma of The Force, drawn by Jacques Goldstein and Alex Inker, tells the story of the first Latin American world champion in boxing.
You, Robot is an interactive comic book collaboration between professor of cognitive neuroscience Emily Cross and artist Emmanuel Espinasse.
The comic takes an in-depth look at how our brains would perceive, and what society would look like with, the arrival of social robots, through the lives of Lucy, Anastasius, Nadir and Pavel.
Ici Tout Va Bien, which translates to “all good here,” a common refrain used by backpackers when speaking to loved ones is an interactive ‘swipe-only’ comic created by Sophie Taboni and Nicolas Catherin to chronicle their adventures in Australia in a blended photographic and digital art story.
It won the Digital Challenge award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.
On November 28 at 7pm, Bahrain-based DJ and violinist Kayan will perform a socially-distanced concert for up to 30 people blending French and Bahraini music, pending approval from the authorities.
The concert will also be livestreamed on AFB’s social media channels.
And finally, a collaborative musical experience showcasing a blend of Arab and French music, featuring Kayan, as well as Adrien M & Claire B will be released on AFB’s SoundCloud platform later this month. The art exhibition will be inaugurated next Saturday by French ambassador Jérôme Cauchard and will be open to the public from November 15 until the end of the month, daily from 9am to 5pm.
For more details, follow @af.bahrain on Instagram.
