Dés-Affectations

Dés-Affectations is an installation featuring three robots that draw on a window. The drawings take shape in the same way as those traced with fingertips on a misted-up window, capturing this spontaneous act. Dés-Affectations is the automation of this act.

The robots move across the glass, leaving marks behind. These marks are randomly selected from a collection of fingertip-drawn images gathered in abandoned places, on dusty surfaces, car windshields, or any other medium where messages can be inscribed with an index finger. The robots move slowly. The “bestial” nature of the installation makes the scene resemble a zoo or aquarium display. It is a space where the creation of a kind of robotic species is being explored.

The window serves as a boundary between two worlds, an interface where machines try to communicate with the outside world through a gesture. Touch evokes a sensual quality, inviting the audience to follow the robots with their eyes and perhaps even attempt to interact or communicate with them.

The installation questions technological mysticism. We often see marks in the dust, on windows, or in the snow, but we rarely witness the moment they are created. This fictional element is at the heart of the artwork. The project playfully addresses the idea that overestimated robots may ultimately serve only to play and pretend to be animal-humans.