The context

After having created a fishing school, the Pointe Rouge Yachting Club wished to acquire equipment that would demonstrate the abundance of sea-life in the Mediterranean.

The commission

Educational aquarium.

The artist Eric Samakh created an aquarium that included two mobile cameras (one camera integrated into the central decor of the aquarium and another camera placed behing one og the lateral surfaces). The visitors can then also observe the aquarium on screens, by manipulating the joysticks to direct the rotations of the cameras and to zoom in on details. The system allows for the visitors' frontal point of view to be supplemented by two points of view from inside the ecosystem. This way, visitors can not only look into the hidden areas of the recreated habitat (rocks, cavities), but also study the faces of the visitors themselves, which appear on the screens when the cameras are turned toward th exterior. 

Eric Samakh

Eric Samakh was born in 1959 in Saint-Georges-de-Didonne (Poitou-Charentes). He lives and works in Serres in the Hautes-Alpes Region. His work mixes new technologies and natural elements, in particular auditory elements. A large number of his works have been created in natural sites, such as regional parks or geological reserves (Lorraine regional park, Gorges du Riou, and the Tijuca forest in Bresil).