Chiromancy is an interactive and immersive work of art, a reverse shadow play where shadow gives way to light in order to explore alternative future through video art. Once the visitor enters the room, he finds a chair to sit on and a table dimly lit with an object evoking a crystal ball. By moving his hands over the “crystal ball”, the shape of his hands appear like in a shadow play on the one meter diameter sculpture facing him a few meters away. Depending on their position, the hands reveal different video clips about alternative futures (3 different clips are potentially accessible at any given time), so he can mix the videos, juxtapose them according to his own choreography creating a patchwork of images, a true cadavre exquis.

The video art is composed of 19 minutes of original work made of 75 short videos. Through the use of special effect, music, interview and text in different languages, the videos address environmental issues, challenge a model of society only based on overconsumption, question virtual reality, explore the possibilities of living on other planets, with irony and humor while relentlessly asking the question “Do you think we can predict the future?” 

As stated before, Chiromancy is also an immersive work of art. Indeed, the sculpture which is used as a screen is made of 280 mirror facets designed and made using the technology of 3D printing. This technology allows us to create carefully crafted angles that will reflect light onto the environment but which won’t dazzle the audience.  Depending on the hands movements of the visitor, the video will be projected by reflection under the form of multiple colored abstract shapes moving across the walls and the ceiling, creating an intimate experience for the visitor in interaction and a collective and immersive experience for all to share.

Chiromancy is the claim of foretelling the future through the study of the palm. The set up of the installation is to make the visitor suspend his disbelief, to create for him a magical experience. But at the same time, the work reveals itself as an ironic comment on the practice of Chiromancy: the hands do reveal signs, but they are so numerous and constantly changing that you can’t make sense of them. The foretelling of the future appears to be an illusion, a magic trick, an empty hand gesticulation. The visitor is the only creator of his future. And that is exactly what he becomes, a creator, when he interacts with the virtual reality of “Chiromancy”. He creates an ephemeral and unique work of art and becomes in the eyes of the other visitors a performer choreographing a ballet of light with his hands.

Chiromancy has been commissioned by the city council of Paris for La Nuit Blanche Paris which took place on the 6th of October 2018.  The digital duo N2U was asked to create a work of art in-situ in a classroom of an elementary school in Le marais, a historical quarter in the center of Paris. The installation was picked as best installation among 200 works by the contemporary art journalist Julien Baldacchino from France Inter (French national radio) and by social media influencer "La rébellion artistique", Bav(art)dages and Bulle d’art.

La chiromancie est l’art de deviner le futur en lisant dans la paume de la main. Le concept de cette œuvre interactive repose sur cette définition. En effet, grâce au mouvement de ses mains, le visiteur découvre plusieurs futurs possibles fragmentés sur une sculpture écran réfléchissante composé de 280 miroirs, et cela dans un jeu d’ombres chinoises inversées où l‘ombre  laisse place à la lumière sous forme d’art vidéo. 

Chaque visiteur a ainsi la possibilité de créer son propre patchwork d’images à partir de plus de 70 vidéos créées par N2U. Ces vidéos, grâce à l’utilisation d’effets spéciaux, de musique, d’interview et de textes, questionnent notre rapport à l’écologie, à la surconsommation, au développement technologique avec ironie et humour, tout en ne cessant de poser la question « Peut-on prédire le futur ? »

Mais tout ne se joue pas seulement sur cette sculpture-écran. La sculpture étant réfléchissante, suivant les gestes, sont projetées simultanément sur l’ensemble des murs environnants (sol et plafond inclus) des myriades de couleurs et de formes abstraites et mouvantes pour une œuvre à la fois intime et personnelle à chaque visiteur en interaction et une expérience collective et environnementale pour tous. Un moment magique, inclusif et convivial.