THE DURANCE: INTERLACED the Mediterranean climate, but the first now at stake. WATERS: ART-SCIENCE part of the course is typical of an Alpine We had to answer the question: what COLLABORATIONS AND torrent. The main feature of the Durance kind of audiovisual production could AUDIOVISUAL RESEARCH is its domestication and planning. His- effectively show the different aspects of Jacques Sapiega, Laboratoire Astram, torically considered as a violent and the river to a wide public? Often consid- water is in the air Aix Marseille Université. E-mail: unpredictable waterway, the Durance has ered as a link joining north and south of <[email protected]>. been responsible for many dramatic the region, the Alps and the Mediterra- floods and terrible summer droughts. nean Sea, the Durance reflects contrasts * This paper represents work presented at the Water Is in the Air worskhop organized in Marseille, Since the Middle Ages, men have and oppositions, but has also been used France, by Leonardo/Olats in collaboration with planned the river, especially in Provence, to build a regional identity. IMéRA, 25-26 June 2012, as part of the European for agricultural activities. A very sophis- “Interlaced waters” is a hydrological project StudioLab. ticated irrigation system was conceived concept. It means that the river flows on See <www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/leon/47/1> and built at the feet of the Lubéron the bottom of the valley with several for supplemental files associated with this issue. mountain, and is still in activity. This arms, like different plaits, separated from Abstract system is also a human organisation, each other yet sometimes all in the same “La Durance, parcours et regards” is the title of an founded on an equal and democratic bed. So we can say that the waters are audiovisual experiment (2003-2004) carried out in association with the laboratory “Environment, distribution of the water for different plaited. This is a river type, and the Du- genome, evolution” (EGEE/Aix Marseille Univer- uses. Associations and organisations in rance system is supposed to be the uni- sité). Conceived at first as a scientific documentary, charge of water management share old versal model. We started with this exact the project advanced mixing different approaches, including biology, biodiversity, eco-paleontology, knowledge, handed down from genera- image to find how to describe and talk history, geography, sociology and arts. The support tion to generation. about the river. of new digital technologies appeared a better way than a linear documentary to reproduce a multidis- During the twentieth century, planning It was 2003 and our conclusion was to ciplinary conception and the complexity of the became increasingly important. The experiment with the new possibilities of Durance River. Serre-Ponçon dam, built between 1955 digital technologies with DVD. The ad- and 1961, is the greatest example of the vantages of this technology compared The Durance has its source on the deep transformation of the river, with a with a linear documentary movie were Franco-Italian border at the Col de great deal of consequences. Downstream obvious: for the first time, it was possi- Montgenèvre and after more than 320 of the dam in particular, landscapes have ble to join and cross different points of kilometres flows into the Rhône near changed, with the emergence of new view with authoring techniques. Avignon. During its descent, the river industries (energy, tourism) and new On the same support, the user can se- crosses through several landscapes and agricultural systems. A new ecological lect a theme, each film dealing with an has what we could describe as “opposing system has appeared, because of the aspect of the river: history, country and lives”. Many spots are characteristic of control of the river, and biodiversity is landscapes planning, energy production Fig. 1. DVD Menu Screen. (© Satis / Astram.lab) 78 Leonardo, Vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 78–79, 2014 doi:10.1162/Leon_a_00686 ©2014 isast Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00686 by guest on 28 September 2021 (including distribution and water re- the commentary and the camera move- fun to visit the Durance area with the sources), biodiversity and environment, ments, controlling speed and camera possibility to exchange information with ethnology, climate and rural activities, elevation. (A sort of “do-it-yourself other users, or to add some media to the landscapes (cognitive geography), politi- Google Earth”, ahead of its time.) documentary. cal issues, land art and heritage. The The links between themes and films Another and recent digital technology restoration of the rafts, which transported suppose several levels of user activity. It called “transmedia” would also be a water is in the air wood, salt and all sorts of goods from became possible, for example, to match good way to deal with this kind of sub- the seventeenth century to the end of the biodiversity and artistic creation. In “La ject. Using smartphones or digital tablets twentieth century, stimulated a thought Durance, les hommes” we can see a with geolocation systems to inscribe about the concept of navigation. Chris mysterious fish, rare and very hard to sounds or video directly in reality opens Marker, in his CDROM “Immemory” observe because of its nocturnal activity, up the possibility of a high level of inter- [1], compares memory to cartography. called the “Apron” (Zingel asper). It is activity. Experiences of “immersive He sets up his “personal memory geog- considered as a marker of related water games” or new kinds of audiovisual in- raphy”, draws the maps of it (according quality parameters [3]. In “Energy art” stallations (soundscapes associated with to epochs and countries) and suggests [4], Andy Goldsworthy, an important video for “listening walkers”) appear as “guided tours” with “random naviga- figure of the land art movement [5], devices in which image and sound, mix- tions” between photographs, films ex- shows how he finds beauty in the grey ing past, present and future, could find tracts, texts, collages… The rafts of the colour of the river. The relations be- an innovative approach. In a way, car- Durance became a metaphor to explain tween the two sequences are deep: they tography and multimedia artistic creation how digital tools could be helpful to concern the invisible part of the life of could be the two faces of current con- describe the complex relations between the Durance that science and/or art can temporary art. past and present. The computer naviga- reveal. These examples show that the tion (switch from one film to another, river is the result of human spatial shap- using a personal exploration system) ing. References and Notes appeared as a way to show the traces of The concept of spatial shaping became 1. Chris Marker, Immemory, (1997), CDROM, past in the reality and to reveal interac- an interesting tool for us to understand Centre Georges Pompidou. tions between shapes and narrations.The and conceive a multimedia script based 2. See <www.crigepaca.org/geoportail.html>. fragmentary construction of the DVD on a multidisciplinary approach. 3. «The apron Zingel Asper (L.) is an endemic appeals to the user’s capacity to build his This project was a sort of prefigura- percid species of the Rhône river catchment. This fish inhabits the grayling zone and the upper barbel or her own itinerary. tion. Digital technologies give us the zone (Huet 1959). At the beginning of the 20th To complete the device, we added five possibility to conceive interactive century, the species was found throughout the short films called “géocinéramas” pro- scripts. Our project about the Durance Rhône river catchment but has since lost c.80% of its distribution range (Changeux & Pont, 1995) as a duced with the spatial analysis service would today probably be a web- result of habitat fragmentation (Labonne, 2002), and the geographic information system documentary on the internet. Enrichment hydraulic disturbance and pollution (Mari, 2001)». Cavalli L., Knight C.M., Durbec M., Chappaz R. & of the region of Provence Alpes Côte with texts, sounds, and photography has Gozlan R.E., 2009, "24 H in the life of a apron d’Azur [2], using different video soft- to be anticipated to allow navigation Zingel Asper. Journal of fish biology, 75 : 723-727. ware to calculate (with a Bézier curve) from one video to another, as if the users 4. Yann Marquis, Energy art, (2004), film (DVD) journeys with a virtual camera. We re- could build their own narration, choosing La Durance, parcours et regards. See the film on searched a scientific method to describe specific approaches (artistic or scien- <www.cimalpes.fr/Films-de-montagne-752-854-0- 0.html>. a geographical space by synchronising tific). It could be both educational and 5. The Scottish artist Andy Goldsworthy has de- Fig. 2. "Energy Art."( © Satis / Astram.lab) signed a ten-day walking itinerary (“Refuges d’Art”), near Digne, with the support of the Gassendi Museum and the Réserve Géologique of Haute Provence. Transactions Special Section 79 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00686 by guest on 28 September 2021.