Exhibition at Ygrec-ENSAPC Art Center
2 – 16 March 2024
Opening March 1, 2024, 6-9pm
Sands of self
Exhibition : Alina Izmailova, Elouan Le Bars, Hanieh Yekta.
Game Design : Ines Bahraoui, Sarah Bernay-Lefrancois, Gesu Chauhan, Maximilien Curtis, Nadia Ermakova, Abhinav Gola, Manon Hernani, Alina Izmailova, Ayush Jacob, Hugo Katzenmayer, Harsh Khandelwal, Elouan Le Bars, Théau Lerma, Xiaowen Ma, Nicolas Martinez, Malone Perrotey, Hima Sadanandan, Alexandre Sadoun, Pierre Saidy, Muskan Taneja, Yixin Tang, Lipika Tiwari, Mrinal Vaibhav, Jingwen Wu, Hanieh Yekta.
Based on a proposal by Mounir Ayache, invited by Guillaume Chevillon and Jeff Guess.
Curator : Guillaume Breton
Sands of self is a collective project in the framework of a joint course offered by Guillaume Chevillon (ESSEC Metalab for Data, Technology & Society) and Jeff Guess (École nationale supérieure d’arts Paris-Cergy) with guest artist Mounir Ayache who proposed to create a video game using Artificial Intelligence in all aspects of production. A group of four ENSAPC students created the exhibition and put the finishing touches on the game.
This project has received government funding managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) under the France 2030 future investment program, under reference ANR-17-NCUN-016.
Set in a simulated version of the city of Cergy – to which the students are closely linked – the game revisits the idea of the Ville Nouvelle in an indeterminate future, characterized by the increasing embeddedness of artificial intelligence in all aspects of urban life.
The generative AI models used for the game’s design, programming, soundtrack and narration produce an environment with blurred boundaries, that the player can explore by interacting with an omniscient voice echoing through the exhibition space.
The installation extends the game by associating objects found in Cergy – residues of urban metabolism – with recovered fragments of décor, creating a juxtaposition of different narratives.
