To conclude the second cycle of our Frontière programmation, “Remix and Networks: Challenging Boundaries,” TOPO has been presenting the virtual reality work since January 13, 2021. Méandres by artist Stéphanie Morissette.

The web component

First an immersive virtual reality work, Méandres has been adapted to offer an online experience in the comfort of your own home.

We propose a phase II of the project with the Web component of Méandres, created with the interactive designer Yannick Guéguen. From the collaboration between the artist Stéphanie Morissette and the author Pattie O’Green 24 visual and poetic fragments emerged, revealed on social media and added to the web-based work over the course of several days, immersing us in the contemplative universe originally created for virtual reality.

Created specifically for the web project, Pattie O'Green's poetry takes the point of view of light to reflect on its different roles in the work and in life. To light can mean to open up a space or, on the contrary, to enclose it. Illumination can help us see something better, but it can also blind us. By exploring this polysemy, the author's texts underline and question the place of light in Stéphanie Morissette's work, constantly redefined through experience.

The original project (virtual reality)

Méandres offers an exploration of the connections between the brain's white matter in a virtual reality experience.

Stéphanie Morissette discovered brain imaging during an artist residency at Imeka, a Sherbrooke-based company specializing in brain imaging. Since then, she has been interested in the relationship between biology and technology, particularly medical research that studies how the brain works and the diseases that affect it.

We move through a mysterious universe. A labyrinth of fiber beams surrounds us like a forest waiting to be explored. But this environment is fragile; it is affected by our presence and our behavior.

The experience unfolds in three acts. A light probe invites us to observe from afar what looks like a planet made of filaments. We are then transported inside the architecture of the brain, at the base of the corticospinal tracts. A second teleportation takes us this time to the corpus callosum located between the two hemispheres of the brain. In this calm and peaceful space, interactivity begins.

Inspired by Imeka's research on free water as a biomarker of neuroinflammation, axonal loss, and demyelination, Méandres takes us into the age of the brain with a poetic interpretation. Our movements trigger bursts of particles and sounds. The dark space is swept by a light projected onto us. The more we move, the faster we age, which translates into an intensification of particle emissions, flickering lights, and anxiety-inducing sounds. Finally, sound glitches, particles, and tumors multiply until they invade us and saturate the experience.

Between the microcosm and the macrocosm, Méandres immerses us in the imagery of billions of axons that form the architecture of white matter. The brain is a world that remains largely unexplored, representing a new frontier to be crossed, aided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Conquering this territory involves reflecting on our relationship with biology and the impact of technology on it.

The project was born out of collaboration with the brain imaging company. Imeka, the center for contemporary art Sporobole and TOPO, it was made possible thanks to financial support from the CALQ and the City of Sherbrooke.

Meeting with the artist

A discussion with the artist and various individuals involved throughout the project took place on March 23 to mark the completion of the web component of the work.