1Arrival in the Center of Cosmopolis
The visitor to Cosmopolis enters a cylindrical room made up of twelve largescale  screens. From the inside, he or she discovers a continuous panorama which reveals a surprising urban landscape.
Wherever the visitor turns, the panorama reveals new perspectives, with the apparent continuity of a 360-degree landscape.

2Panorama of a Composite, Dynamic City
Careful observation of the landscape  allows the visitor to realize quickly that what he or she thought was one city is actually an agglomeration of cities. The combined fragments of Asian and Occidental cities constitute a spectacular landscape, a subtle or provocative mix of the most remarkable urban features. Upon close examination, the landscape seems almost alive. Indeed, new fragments blend into the existing view, conveying an unexpected transformation and making this city into a palimpsest which continually rewrites itself. The sound used within the space of Cosmopolis seems to be made up of an infinite number of sound samples arising from the atmosphere inherent to each city and to each culture, assembled in a unique musical environment suitable to the dynamic transformation of the landscape.

3The AVR binoculars*
The visitor sits down, taking the time to observe these transformations, or perhaps, comes closer to the image to take in the details. That is when he or she notices, between the screens that make up the large panorama, behind the central hall, the silhouettes of other visitors who seem to be busying themselves with a field glass of the type that is used at tourist sites to observe the surrounding landscape. The visitor approaches and looks into one of the twelve AVR  inoculars*. He or she can thus observe, at leisure, five panoramas of the same city in succession.

4Urban landscapes: Views of the Contemporary City
These are not traditional tourist-attracting panoramas, but rather, unique viewpoints that shed a new light on one's perception of cities that seemed familiar, at least from pictures. Chicago seeks to rehabilitate its center with the installation of new public equipment and the organization of cultural events; Paris unites road and river networks in an unceasing attempt to conciliate transport and fluidity; Shanghai juxtaposes contrasting landscapes which testify its desire to build modernity on deeply-rooted historic foundations.

5The Key to Cosmopolis
Only later, coming back to the central panorama, does the visitor realize that his or her gaze, having scanned 12 cities and 60 different panoramas through the AVR binoculars*, is painted in real time on the large central landscape; in fact, it
constitutes the very principle of the development of Cosmopolis: “Overwriting the city”, made up of intersecting gazes, of
shared moments of attention.

6A Virtual Excursion through the Cities
Moving from one AVR binocular* to another, the visitor discovers new urban environments, new lines of questioning
about the city and its development. While awaiting his or her turn at a new AVR binocular*, the visitor can observe, on a
plasma screen, the preceding visitor's path of exploration, thus benefiting from the experiences of others.

7Deciphering: Reading Cities, Development Issues. The Scanner
The sounds seem to change. A sweeping visual and audio effect, like a scanner, moves across the large central panorama which the visitor continues to see from the other side of the translucent screens.

8Reading Cities
He or she returns to the centre of the large panorama and finds that he or she is now surrounded by a “true” city.
Then a new sweeping effect displays a depiction of this city, superimposing a scientific gaze upon that of the
photographer. The key words, the emphasis on certain zones, and photo or video zooms all provide clues and information which allow a “reading” of the city. The sound effects also contribute to the comprehension of this didactic landscape.

9Two Different and Complementary
Readings
A new sweep provides a new reading. Whereas the first one pointed out features, crisis zones, and lines of questioning, the second one indicates solutions found, practiced or planned by inhabitants or urban planners. Solutions that are different everywhere, and which, in contact with different cities, viewpoints and readings, contribute a synthesis of a comprehensive reflection on the urban future of our planet.

These moments of deciphering follow moments of calm contemplation for the visitor in the centre, and moments of activity for the visitor at the periphery. Each visitor thus circulates freely from one viewpoint to the other, from discovery to contemplation, from questioning to explanation, from surprise to analysis.

cosmopolis: overwriting the city
cosmopolis: sobrescrevendo a cidade

maurice benayoun

The urbanization of the planet seems to have become an inexorable process. The issues linked to controlling it with a view to sustainable development have become civilization-wide issues. Advancement, fuelled by empiricism, opportunism, and pragmatism, has led to this transformation, which has now reached a pace that makes it necessary to plan the future of cities while constructing their present. Cities are vital melting pots of cultural and social diversity, of industrial and human issues. They are an active, structured or chaotic expression of “community living.”

Cosmopolis endeavors to examine urban realities through people's eyes. It is an artistic, recreational and scientific interpretation of urbanization, making a visit to this exhibition an exciting and memorable experience. The visitor enters a big, moving panorama of a constantlychanging city. Twelve AVR binoculars*, much like those found at scenic lookout points, allow one to be surrounded 360° by twelve urban universes. Seven Occidental cities and five Asian cities: Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Chicago, Johannesburg, Cairo, Sao Paulo, Beijing, Shanghaï, Chongqing, Chengdu, Hong Kong, can thus be discovered, each from different viewpoints.

Bearing no resemblance to the touristic landscapes one may expect to see, these scenes lay out major urban issues simply through a choice of viewpoints: transportation, environment, architecture, energy, health...

Only later does the visitor realize that his or her viewpoint
through the AVR binoculars* is “captured” and used to create the big panorama of Cosmopolis at the center of the exhibition. Little by little, a surprising city is built, both strange and familiar, the fruit of visitors' intersecting gazes and visual experiences. The visitors seated in the center of the exhibition witness this action, which is both artistically stunning and symbolically crucial: the City of Tomorrow must be the fruit of intersecting gazes and experiences.

At regular intervals, the big panorama is replaced by one of the urban landscapes, depicted via a scanning action that sweeps the entire circumference of the central space. It displays key areas in the form of words, sounds, and video images. In various spots, it points out the limitations of a urbanistic course or the solutions found that can be adopted elsewhere.

Cosmopolis is therefore a space for exchange and analysis, contemplation and action. It presages new ways of confronting major urban tendencies and makes Asian and Occidental viewpoints converge in a symbolic and useful way.

Maurice Benayoun é mídia artista e pesquisador, professor na Universidade de Paris 1, co-fundador e diretor do Centro de pesquisa CITU: Création Interactive Transdisciplinaire Universitaire. Interessa-se pela pesquisa e criação de formas emergentes de Arte.

Maurice Benayoun is a midia artist and researcher, teaching at the Université de Paris 1, and is co-founder and director of the research centre CITU: Création Interactive Transdisciplinaire Universitaire. He is interested on the research and creation of emergent forms of art.

sobre objetos interativos
about interactive object

nomads pesquisa
nomads research

cosmopolis: sobrescrevendo a cidade
cosmopolis: overwriting the city
espelhinho, espelhinho meu
little mirror, little mirror on the wall
do nada ao nada: (como) através de uma cebola
from nothing to nothing: (as) through an onion!
as chaves de alice
alice's key