Je infini, (I infinite) is an interactive installation resulting from the exploration of the online community of magic mushroom growers shroomery.org.
It is a forum where one can learn from experienced users on how to grow your first batch of psychoactive fruits from scratch with a makeshift farm.
Another section is archiving trip reports linked to various "levels" of intoxication, making the whole idea of the psychedelic experience, video game like.
Through media collage in the 3D space and avatars, the true manifestations of the digital self, I propose a reflection on the visibility of mental wellbeing in the connected world.
Online found photography is gathered and processed by altering and collaging it into 3D space. With a process somewhere between digital collage, 3d sculpture and 3d glitching, I produce distorted avatars and surreal visions revolving around mental health issues.
These processed fragments are then sent back to the internet via social media.
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"There will be so much light that you will have to wear shades" was born after monitoring a french YouTube channel called «Cosmic consciousness» and the community interacting in the comment section.
The audio stream of one of their YouTube video loops around, straight from the esoteric channel. Here and there, concrete notions of science are crushed and strangely distorted. The flow is fast, emotionless words melt together, poured by a machine with a tireless breath.
This work took the form of an installation and later of a reading performance.
Electronic scavenger was born after monitoring the activities of two separate online communities. A part of the internet is trying to cool high-end gaming PCs with sunflower oil and builds strange composite machines, while the other tries to create software able to adapt to hybrid computers built from recycled parts in a post-collapse world.
At the center of the room, a frail structure hangs from the ceiling. It is reminiscent of a makeshift dew collector used in difficult environments. Inside lies a custom computer system submerged in vegetal oil.
Immersed in a post-collapse scenario, the audience interacts with the installation via a wireless controller. In the next room, the experience is displayed onto a wall for a larger crowd.
Based on investigative work, the experimental narrative puts into conversation anonymous testimonies found on a forum known as 4chan, with a coaching YouTube channel.
Internet users express the troubled sensation that their existence possesses a singular dimension, while the YouTube channel makes absurd efforts to reinforce these feelings and encourage the consumption of its content.
The past glows.
Yesterday’s light came back with tales of an ever vanishing now.
Crystal clear backlit memories frozen in time try to dissipate the fog clouding my self continuity.
Is this me?
Was I really that person?
The engine of my electronic time machine purrs.
I lived with a record button strapped at my fingers’ tips and tonight I am the wizard scrolling through time.
The future has still yet to disappear but
The past glows.
Romain Thibault was born in Toulouse southern France, from where he currently works as an international visual artist.
His work reflects on how much of ourselves we pour into our digital devices and our virtual worlds and on the permeability of these spaces to our psychic universes and their events: thought patterns, emotions, sense of identity, turmoil.
Romain’s introspective process pushes him to conceive work to better understand himself and the world around him.
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