Joëlle Bitton is a French artist creating interactive installation works with digital media. Even though she uses advanced technologies, she created her works and events with themes of organic communication such as mutual understanding of humanity or culture.
Visiting several times in Japan, Bitton came into contact with Japanese culture and found its elements in the Japanese garden. This inspired her one installation work called "Abstract".
The artist says:
"Looking at the Japanese garden and its vision of the surrounding, aesthetic and philosophical world, this project is inspired by the tension between elements intentionally thought of here as in a contradictory dialogue: abstraction and texture, concealment and disclosure, empty space and framed space. My intention is to seize a certain aesthetic, spiritual, even playful essence of the Japanese garden in the context of an interactive experience but not to build a virtual garden nor to reinvent it."
The venue is an old warehouse built in the end of Edo period that has survived aerial bombing and urban development. It has a profound atmosphere generated by 140 years of history. In this installation, images of Japanese gardens in the four seasons emerge in response to audience and reverberant tones fill the space. Joelle Bitton's work connects two Japanese spaces, garden and warehouse.

OUCHI

OUCHI is presenting artistic Japanese seasonal kitchen that seeks intelligence and sensibility in everyday life
http://www.ou-chi.com

INTERVIEW with Joelle Bitton >>

REVIEW by Tokyo Art Beat >>

collaborators
Vincent Roudaut | Programming
Ailadi Cortelletti | Drawings
Rupert Huber | Music

sponsored by

video projector

with the support of
Service culturel, Ambassade de France au Japon
DICREAM/CNC (Ministère de la Culture)

Joëlle Bitton biography

As a media artist, Joëlle Bitton co-founded in 2000 an online experimental platform,Superficiel, to hosts interactive and digital works, which explore elements such as the screen, the surface, sound interfaces and the art of programming.
These projects include "Palpitations" on sexuality and memory; "Plakatieren Verboten" based on the Viennese RePlay exhibition; the award wining "Kindergarten" installation; and "Passages process [1_6]", a series of pieces on the theme of architectural passages that helpto frame the concepts of the "Passages" installation linking people between Paris and Strasbourg during the Nuit Blanche 2005.
Between September 2002 and January 2005, she worked as a research fellow at Media LabEurope in Dublin, Ireland. "Human Connectedness", the research group in which she worked, is exploring the question of intimate and social relationships as mediated bytechnologies. In particular, her "RAW" project treated impressions of everyday life through cultural exchanges between Ireland, France and Mali.
Also, her professional experience as an international free-lance author and interactiondesigner involved designing and carrying out multimedia projects, mainly for museums and cultural institutions.
Joëlle Bitton completed her DEA, a post-graduate degree from the University of Sorbonnein the history of techniques, in 1999. Her thesis, "the Machines of Imaginary" describes the influence of the emerging technologies and networks on European society during the 19th century.
To date, Joëlle Bitton’s research has centered on the themes of cultural identity andimmigration heritage; intimate interfaces and love relationships; everyday life and triviality; urban and private environments.
She has also taken part in various conferences and festivals including numer.00 andnumer.02 in Paris, ISEA in Helsinki and Venice's Operatotale. Her work has been exhibited in Paris's Centre Pompidou, as well as other venues.

LINK to Joëlle Bitton