“Barcode was born of an encounter between Arte and the NFB – two public cultural institutions that have taken a lead in interactive creation. The common goal is to employ interactive media in an exploration of the everyday objects that surround us…Featuring 100 short films form, the work of 30 directors from Canada and France, Barcode is a trilingual interactive website, iPhone app and gallery installation – an ambitious exercise in transmedia and transcontinental culture.” –  http://codebarre.tv

Here is the last part of a project I worked on this year.  At Departement, we were involved in the project since the beginning. We designed and developed all three platforms used by the project: 1) website, 2) iPhone app and 3) installation. I personnaly worked on the iPhone app with Elie, and I created the installation.

This installation was recently presented at IDFA DocLab in Amsterdam. Here is a video of it.

photo credits : Vandoorn Photography

For the installation, I wanted to bring forward the barcode. This is why the structure, monolithic and pure, takes the form of a giant barcode. As a reminder of the 14 categories of objects of the project, the structure consists of 14 bars of three different sizes. This barcode is used as projection surface for the films and simple animations.

photo credits : Vandoorn Photography

To interact with the installation, you grab one of the objects on the ground and drop it on the stand at the centre of the room. Using RFID, the object is detected and a film from the corresponding category is played. The objects made of EVA foam were designed by Rita Studio. In the absence of scanned objects, the installation moves to standby mode. The Barcode is mapped with colourful flashes and animations synchronized with the audio tracks of the project.

photo credits : Vandoorn Photography

Credits for the Barcode.tv installation:
Co-produced by the NFB and Arte France
Producer: Hugues Sweeney / NFB
Design and conception: Hugues Bruyère / Departement
Software development: Hugues Bruyère / Departement – Built with openFrameworks
Set construction: Lucas J. Wareing
Objects design and production: Rita Studio

Elie and I were invited to install Peptone at FILE Festival 2011 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Again, thank you to the FILE Festival crew for putting together a great festival and to MegaPhone Labs for their time and help with Peptone. This trip was in part made possible by the Canada Council for the Arts from who we obtained a travel grant.

We met a lot of interesting people and had the chance to see the behind the scenes of many great projects. Here is a short list of the talented people we had the pleasure of sharing more than a few drinks together - André Rangel – 3KTA, Elliot Woods and Mimi Son [kimchi and chips], Francois Wunschel [1024 Architecture], Karina Smigla-Bobinski …

Elie and I had really good time in this massive city, mainly food oriented . And viva the beer kept at -4C. Brilliant! This time around I saw more of the endless Sao Paulo, mostly by loosing our way in the city few times!

We were one of the top three most visited studios with 590 visitors during the Design Montreal Open House. Once again, we showcased work produced during the past year as well as with additional interactive prototypes.

One of the prototypes was a small projection mapping installation using live animation presets that visitors could trigger using a simple yet colourful controller.

The projection mapping was designed using a custom tool built using openFrameworks. One useful add-on was ofxFenster, as ‘it simplifies the handling of multiple windows…’. In our case, we had one window for the controls, and an other for the projection. The control window simplified the creation of a mesh, to edit a previously saved mesh, etc…. It also allowed us to record sequences of keys in phase with an audio track in order to produce synched animations presets.

Here are some snapshots showing the process of building the physical structure in a half day. Mathieu Léger and I started with a 2D flat plan and then we recreated it using a 3D modelling tool.

Our next step was to use Pepakura to generate an unfolded version of each pyramidal shape from their 3D data.

Once all these unfolded patterns had been traced on paper, Mathieu and Moko built the structure. I watched the process while drinking a beer.

Mathieu and Moko admire their hard work. Pas pire!

And voilà, the first quick mapped mesh.

Here is an edit of the projection mapping I did for Sam Robert’s Band “I Feel You” official music video. The video clip was directed by Dave Pawsey and Jonathan Legris and produced by Sacha Baylin-Stern.

The projection mapping was created using a custom tool built using openFrameworks, and controlled live on set. The massive structure was designed and built by Lucas Wareing and Oopey Mason.

My cubic structure from my first projection mapping experiment was given a second life for this video clip.

Sam Robert’s Band “I Feel You” official music video credits (short list).
Directors: Dave Pawsey and Jonathan Legris
Production: Antler Films
Producer: Sacha Baylin-Stern
Art Director: Jean François Clément
Production Designer: Lucas Wareing
Projection Mapping: Hugues Bruyère / Departement
DOP: Bobby Shore

For more info : vimeo.com/24759293
Link to the official music video

Quick video of Peptone at Place des Arts for Nuit Blanche Montreal, last Saturday (2011.02.26). We got around 900 calls from approximately 400 unique players.

Cells, Phoned: Peptone
“Local design firm Departement, specialists in interactive media, plugs in and powers up Peptone, their digital “ecosystem,” on big screens in the halls of Place des Arts. Using your cellphone, you (like several dozen others, concurrently) dial up to create a lumpy little organism and whoop ’n’ holler into your phone to keep it alive—but beware, the same noise that sustains the lil’ bibitte also attracts toxic bacteria! Special “combo” numbers afford extra life points to keep the creature wiggling and wandering.” – Rupert Bottenberg – Montreal Mirror – February 24 2011

A game by Elie Zananiri, Hugues Bruyère, and Mathieu Léger. Sound design by Chris Olsen. Produced by Departement.

Peptone is built with openFrameworks and MegaPhone.

peptone.departement.ca.