«Relief» - Exhibition by Julien Maire

Media Archaeology is a new science. It's not studying the history of cinematograph and gramophone, but how our perception of the world is transformed through the camera lens and the speaker. The audiovisual is like a soundtrack, a visual tracking shot moving in parallel to us; pictures and sound are visual fictions that moved away from reality, but disrupt and influence our relation to reality.

In French, "3D cinema" was also called "relief cinema" (relief as in "relief map" or "bas-relief"). The term went out of style when we were forced to admit that "relief cinema" didn't exist. "Relief" evokes materiality, while "3D" is commonly understood as a mathematical and computational concept. Through expanding & contracting pieces, and stereolithographic projections, Julien Maire's installations indirectly address new technologies, media archaeology and manipulate fiction.

For more than 10 years, Julien Maire has mastered and used in unexpected ways advanced technologies such as CNC mills, laser cutters, precision optics, etc. Today, 3D printers are naturally also part of his toolbox.
For these two new pieces, Julien designed and built all original parts, mechanisms and components using the whole range of machines available at Fablab.iMAL, from Ultimaker and Mendel DIY printers to the laser-based Form1 3D printer.