Le TOUT is an interactive installation created by TakT (Adèle Tilouine & Tyler Kaufman), inspired by a quote of Denis Diderot :

 

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"Tous les êtres circulent les uns dans les autres.

Tout est en un flux perpétuel.

Tout animal est plus ou moins homme, tout minéral est plus ou moins plante, toute plante est plus ou moins animal.

Il n'y a qu'un seul individu, c'est le Tout.

Naître, vivre et passer c’est changer de forme."

 

(All beings circulate within each other. Everything is in perpetual flux. Every animal is more or less man, every mineral is more or less plant, every plant is more or less animal. There is only one individual, it is le Tout. To be born, to live and to pass is to change form.)

 

Denis Diderot, Le rêve de D’Alembert 1830

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The interactive installation Le TOUT aims to decompartmentalize the different "reigns" (human, animal, plant and mineral) that Diderot mentions in his quote and to question anthropocentrism. Anthropocentrism (from Ancient Greek: ánthrōpos, "human being" and kéntron, "center") is the belief that human beings are the central or most important entity in the universe and that there is a hierarchy between species. It is a major concept in the field of environmental ethics and environmental philosophy, where it is often considered to be the root cause of problems created by human action within the ecosphere. Le TOUT is a symbiosis between these “reigns” and symbolizes the intricate system that links these different categories of beings between them.

 

 

Le TOUT is embodied by a bust, sewn with hundreds of different elements used to symbolize the four reigns: stones and gemstones, amber, seashells, pearls, seeds, wood, glass beads, metal, among other elements. This persona aims to create intersubjectivity between different categories of species and to symbolize their symbiosis by joining them into the one individual of Le TOUT. The bust is also accompanied by a smell diffused by a ceramic plaque placed under the bust (perfume can be adapted to the event), that the public can perceive when coming closer.

 

 

This handcrafted art piece is accompanied with audio and technological interactivity and mix traditional technics with new technologies to offer a global experience with visual, sound, smell and gesture.

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A 3D sensors and reliable hand tracking software allows the public to give life to Le TOUT by giving it a voice, symbolizing their own personal implication in the conservation of biodiversity and making them part of Le TOUT.

 

Audience members are able to shape the voice of Le TOUT that is emitted by a sound system (or headphones) to surround the public with the “presence” of Le TOUT.

 

Therefore, each “conversation” with the symbiotic individual will be personal to the audience member .

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This installation was awarded by the Prix des Amis du Salon d'Automne in Digital Art at the Salon d'Automne de Paris 2023.