POIESIS GENERATOR
Our1 project was selected as one of seven finalists in an open competition to design a communications monument which France wished to give to the people of Japan, celebrating both the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution (1789) and the 100th anniversary of the gift of the “Statue of Liberty” to the American people. It was organised under the patronage of President Mitterand.
The France-Japan Ring and the Poïesis Generator create a very unique combination of architectural hardware and communications software. Conceived by Poï esis*, it conveys a communication game constructed within an annular vessel of carbon coated woven titanium, floating completely, off the ground. It is 365 metres in diameter and is “levitated” 30cm by 40 square metres of supermagnets, developed in France, and ‘straddles’ three summits on the site. It is restrained by small diameter titanium rods.
Its “active skin” responds in colour to the very original global network game - the “poï esis generator” (copyright Olivier Auber). By telemetry (in this instance telephone and PC, or Minitel), any world inhabitant with access to this equipment, composes his/her individual coloured sign (hieroglyphic) and sends it to the poïetic generator - creating with others interactively an endless virtual image within the ring.
He/she also sees the overall image composition on his/her own screen.
‘Poiesis is the cause which makes whatever one considers change from non-being to being’ [Plato]
1 Ian Ritchie Architects; Olivier Auber; Jean-Louis Lhermitte; Guillè me Pratz; Peter Rice of Arup.