Virtual installation

Slow Walker, Peder Bjurman

Visual arts and multimedia | Virtual and geolocalised installation in augmented reality

Slow Walker is a sculpture and an augmented reality experience imagined by Swedish artist, director and writer Peder Bjurman. In this piece, a microscopic tardigrade appears as a gigantic being, visible through the screen of your mobile device, floating in the sky over Place du Parlement de Bretagne.

Tardigrades are living organisms with extraordinary resistance and adaptability. Invisible to the naked eye, they are everywhere on the planet, from the top of the Himalayas to the Sahara desert, including the depths of the oceans. They have an incredible ability to survive radiation, vacuum of space and extreme temperatures (ranging from -273° to +340°) by entering cryptobiosis (i.e. dormancy). However, this resilient species is highly sensitive to and threatened by climate change, as the fast rise of temperatures alters the environment of its natural habitats.

With Slow Walker, Peder Bjurman focuses our attention on the importance of these microscopic creatures by transforming them into a colossal beast that hovers and moves slowly above us, interacting with the audience as it moves. By pointing the screen of your mobile device towards the sky, the fascinating and monumental tardigrade comes to life thanks to geolocated augmented reality technology. The artwork is accompanied by a soundtrack created by Abul Mogard and a twenty-minute voice-over that raises questions about the philosophy of existence and the cycle of life.

To take full advantage of this experience, download the free Promenad app, available for Android and Apple, and bring your headphones or earphones.

• Download on PlayStore (Android)
• Download on AppStore (Apple)

DISTRIBUTION :

Concept, text and direction: Peder Bjurman
Music: Abul Mogard
Translation: Lucie Smith and Anastasia Philippe
Original voice-over: Anne Ingemann
French voice-over: Laure Lefort
French voice-over recording and processing: Iris Delayre / Canal B
Development : DVA Creative Technology Studio
Production: FMR Produktion
Thanks to Ingemar Jönsson / Kristianstad University
Supported by the Swedish Arts Council

Presented for the first time at the Otherworldly festival in Uppsala (Sweden), in November 2023. In partnership with Canal B for the recording and processing of Slow Walker’s French-language narration.