Interview with Antoine SCHMITT
Technical Director on Carton

- Technical Director, what does that mean ?

- On this work, CARTON, I took part in and I realised the interactivity. Interactivity is what reacts, what gives materiality, presence. It allows the conversion of images and sounds into objects or universes, making them tangible, giving them a materiality.

  That's what I do. There is no word yet to describe this role in an interactive production, so people call it technical director, even though the technical side does intervene at every stage and is mastered by everyone, graphists and musicians. I especially tried to give an existence to the ideas of Jean-Jacques Birgé and Bernard Vitet. They were the conceptors, Étienne Mineur was the good witch who gives the appearance and the Hyptique people were the godmothers. I was a kind of ostretrician or midwife, adding the final touch of behaviour.

- What is the future of this job ?

- There are probably numerous. It will range from the interactive scenarist, already intervening in every video game, to the programmer of AI (Artificial Intelligences) in the future interactive soap-operas. I think that we are attending to the birth of a new medium, comparable with the cinema at the beginning of the century and that we are going to witness both a standardisation of the models and experiments on the vehicle. This is full of promises.

- What characterises the "presence" of CARTON ?

- For me it is the sense of touch. You touch the image, you touch the sound. You explore with touch. You happen to be in small universes inspiring curiosity. Their materiality is simple and identical everywhere, you glide, you click, it reacts or doesn't, but every universe is different and has its own personality. And they are real multimedia universes, in which the sound and the image interact one with the other.

- Is it different to work with musicians as without?

- On this work, Jean-Jacques Birgé and Bernard Vitet are rather cineasts and poets, in their music as well as in the multimedia parts. They have invented universes. They had very precise ideas. They were directors and knew well the medium. I have realised the interactivity on another experimental CD-ROM, just from Cynthia, instigated by Alberto Sorbelli, which will be shown at the Pompidou Center at the exhibition Made In France in February 1997, where I also present two personal pieces. The 30 artists who collaborated to this CD-ROM were discovering the medium CD-ROM and interactivity, thus the result is quite chaotic. With Carton, we achieve a remarkable sobriety and consistency.

- You are talking about personal pieces. What does Carton represent for you ?

- My research explores the notions of time, presence, destiny, narrating. With Carton, I was very interested by the idea of universes related to songs. It goes in the same direction. Further more I had already worked with Jean-Jacques and Bernard, and with Étienne also. We share common and complementary visions. Finally, I really like the concept of the CD Extra as an object.

- What is the edge of the CD Extra compared with the CD-ROM for you ?

- First, the CD Extra is a nice object. The music and the interactive parts interact one with the other. It is something that makes sense. It is also a nice product. It deserves an good place on the shelves. Finally, unlike the CD-ROMs that are more and more institutionalised, it is a new field of expression, where it is still possible to feel free.

- What are your current projects ?

- First, to finish an engine for interactive scenarios, in collaboration with Pierre Laffargue of the S.P.E.C.T.R.E. And the "just from..." adventure continues. ... And there is always this presence inside the machine...

Antoine Schmitt

He was 35, still lives and works in Paris, he had been making software for 20 years. He wrote his first video games when he was 15 in 1976. Engineer at Telecom (ENST 1984), he studies and works with artificial intelligence (1985), neural networks (1988), interactive video (1988), CD-Roms (1989), geographical information systems, graphical interfaces, groupware (1991). He works with several innovative companies (Act Informatique, NeXT, Hyptique...), in Paris and in the Silicon Valley. In the last two years, as freelance, he collaborates to original projects (DTour, At the Circus with Seurat, Nuit Noire, Carton...)
Since 1991 he has been doing artistic researches, using computer, video and photography. He takes part to several collective exhibitions (just from Cynthia in X/Y at Centre Georges Pompidou in 1995, Margalit at Atau in 1996...).

Much more recent informations : gratin !
www.Hyptique.com