Palais Augmenté is the first festival dedicated to artistic creation in augmented reality. Reality is what we perceive and interpret every day directly through our senses; this reality is always and already "mediated" by our understandings—even visual reality; it is our understanding that gives it meaning. Now, another layer, another wall, another screen can be added, interposed between our field of vision of reality and what we can see simultaneously. We thus broaden our "field of vision" by augmenting it.

This is evidenced by the understandable enthusiasm that accompanies the democratization of augmented reality tools and applications, and their initial successes, such as filters on social networks, but also for professional uses in industry. From this signal arose the necessity and the desire to bring together artistic disciplines and augmented reality practitioners, and to open up the field of artistic expression to the public.

Why now?

Artists are always at the forefront of techniques and social and cultural developments, embracing technology and its tools to experiment, to express themselves, and to create. Pixels today are the pigments of yesterday. Tools and their mastery are developing rapidly, and the range of possibilities for artists is expanding daily. Today, it is not only the tools of digital creation that are evolving rapidly, but also the possibilities of sharing them with large audiences. The arrival of smartphones capable of interpreting elements in augmented reality, or communication networks, particularly 5G, which allow for instant sharing, contribute to these technological advances. This is why it seems necessary to us today to take stock, to create a festival, to offer a space for expression for artists rooted in the present and aiming for the future; to bring together creatives from different backgrounds, to show, reflect, and share. From these signals arose the desire, necessarily collective and transdisciplinary, to address together certain essential questions: why and how do we augment reality? Why and how do we create and use these techniques and tools?

Artists

Théo Triantafyllidis

Mélodie Mousset

Manuel Rossner

Mélanie Courtinat

Lauren Moffatt