Turba

by Nicolas Gourault, produced by CNAP - Centre National des Arts Plastiques

2021

Turba

by Nicolas Gourault, produced by CNAP - Centre National des Arts Plastiques

2021

Digital art

Video game

Video art

Generative art

Installation

Artificial intelligence

Sports

Science and technology

Digital art

Video game

Video art

Generative art

Installation

Artificial intelligence

Sports

Science and technology

Turba is a generative video installation of infinite duration, which means the images never repeat themselves. A software generates a real-time crowd simulation inspired by the phenomenon of pitch invasions in sport in general and football in particular. The avatars that make up the virtual crowd are taken from archive images found on the Internet. Crowd simulation software, usually used to populate virtual stadiums in advertisements, is hijacked to recreate a phenomenon where the crowd escapes all control and recreates a community.

Screen, Computer, Video projector

Suitable for all audiences

Without dialogue

Update : 26/02/2024

Exhibition view, "Simulation Against the Grain", Gnration, Braga, Portugal

Exhibition view

Exhibition View

Exhibition view

Still image

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The same digital tools used to create zombie hordes in movies or to train riot police are used to populate digital stadiums in advertising. What if these tools were instead used to recreate past events during which the crowd escapes its designated place and becomes impossible to rule ?

Turba (a latin word depicting both crowd and trouble) aims at hijacking such crowd simulation software in order to generate digital riots within advertising images of contemporary football.

Using a custom real-time crowd simulation, the video installation shows an endless and carnavalesque parade of resistance. The avatars who make up the digital crowd are taken from archival footage of historical pitch invasions, a phenomenon which used to be common in the 70s but has become a tabou in today's sports entertainement, at a time when unwanted fans are banned from stadiums. Turba aims at reclaiming the contemporary imaginary of the multitude in order to bring back those who have been expelled from it. Can we imagine a simulated mass that escapes its own algorithmic logic ?