Exploring informed virtual sites through Michel Foucault's heterotopias

Francis Rousseaux (1) , Indira Thouvenin (2)

1 IRCAM - Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique
2 Heudiasyc - Heuristique et Diagnostic des Systèmes Complexes [Compiègne]

This papers starts with some mysterious contribution by Michel Foucault (1967) about heterotopias as special epistemological sites. With a recent case-study — an immersive virtual reality art project dealing with some ancient abbey reconstruction and managed by a French engineering school — we analyse the successive attempts to satisfy the system users by extending Foucault's heterotopology, which appears to be useful and creative for the Virtual Reality research communities.

Mots clés: Artificial presence; Michel Foucault's heterotopias; Realism vs Provocation; Ancient abbey of Compiègne-France; Imaginary space; Informed virtual environment; Immersive art

Domaines: Synthèse d'image et réalité virtuelle [cs.GR]; Héritage culturel et muséologie

Francis Rousseaux, Indira Thouvenin. Exploring informed virtual sites through Michel Foucault's heterotopias. International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing, 2009, 3 (1-2), pp.175 - 191. ⟨10.3366/E1753854810000595⟩. ⟨hal-01084707⟩