we are narcisses’ is an interactive project by bertrand lanthiez and chloé curé
that transposes legends and myths with the help of a few simple materials:
a mirror,some water, and a speaker. the more the viewers look at themselves,
the more their faces are deformed, leading them to question their relation to their
own image. this project is a response
a mirror,some water, and a speaker. the more the viewers look at themselves,
the more their faces are deformed, leading them to question their relation to their
own image. this project is a response
to a school subject around the theme of beauty. the designers immediately thought about the
reflective glass that hangs in the spaces of our homes, the myth of our own representation.
video courtesy of bertrand lanthiez and chloé curé
‘looking-glass upon the wall, who’s fairest of us all?’ like the evil queen of the
brothers grimm tale, we expect the surface to depict the picture we want to have
of ourselves. but more than in the visual, it’s in our eyes that we may find an
answer. lanthiez and curé said, ‘what particularly interested us in the tale of little snow white
is this interaction between the magic mirror and the queen. what if we create, us too, a mirror
that lives and reacts? a mirror in which, the more we look, the less we can recognize ourself?
a mirror that not only is not complacent, but invites us to look elsewhere, or ourselves.’
gif of the distortion
in addition, the duo found the elements necessary for the development of their
project in the myth of narcissus. according to the roman poet ovid, the main character’s
hamartia (a hero’s tragic flaw) is that he is bound to fall in love with himself. it is by looking at
an ocean that he stayed, struck by his own image, eventually dying of languor, starvation, and
drowning.
a portrait of a woman
based on this tale, water is used in its natural form rather than simulated by
numerical and graphical means. deformations of the liquid are physically created by a
subwoofer enclosure that is alive with low-frequency sounds. distortions intensify
progressively with the time spent above the construct and change appearance
depending on the intensity of the noise being played regarding the position and the
weight balance of the viewer.
poster of the installation
each picture is a distorted representation
diagram of the system