TEXEL

Artists Lyes Hammadouche and Ianis Lallemand present an art installation inside a railway station. Running against the acceleration of everyday rhythms, TEXEL invites travellers to step out of their bubble and their routines, to suspend the time of the daily commute and live a sensory experience that changes how they perceive their travelling time.

Ermont-Eaubonne station in the Val-d’Oise, designated a « laboratory station » by Gares & Connexions, is one of the busiest in the Île-de-France region, with 35,000 travellers a day. Presented to the public by the Forum Vies Mobiles, the interactive installation TEXEL challenges travellers on their perception of time. Admission: open to anyone holding a valid ticket.

TEXEL uses SICK TIM551 LIDAR units — light, or laser, detection and ranging — for real-time multi-user interaction. The LIDAR returns a live point cloud of the people around it, up to ten metres away, which is what allows the piece to respond to several visitors at once rather than to a single tracked body. Lyes Hammadouche and Ianis Lallemand, both SACRe / PSL Research University doctoral candidates, made this project as part of their doctoral research in the Reflective Interaction group at EnsadLab, the research laboratory of the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, under the direction of Samuel Bianchini.

Colin Bouvry: software design of the interactive system. Didier Bouchon: motor control design. Lyes Hammadouche: photography.