Who hasn’t dreamed of exploring the hidden cavities beneath the city of Montreal?
From August 5 to 16, 2024, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., head to the pavilion at Pie-XII Park to discover Cavernautes, an exceptional adventure created through the collaboration between the NXI Gestatio Lab at UQAM, the INIT Robots Lab at ÉTS, Spéléo Québec, and the City of Montreal.
When Art and Technology Go Hand in Hand
This artistic installation results from a new research-creation project by co-investigator members Nicolas Reeves, professor at the UQAM School of Design and a world-renowned artist, and David St-Onge, professor at ÉTS and expert in robotics and arts engineering. It offers an immersive experience in an unexplored aquatic section of the Saint-Léonard cave.
Discovering Unexplored Areas
Cavernautes uses a flying automaton, a cross between a drone and a dirigible, to reach the most inaccessible parts of the cave. Ambient sounds, captured by microphones and hydrophones, are played through semi-submerged speakers, creating ripples on the water. Aquatic movements modulate the lighting, projecting dynamic visual patterns on the cave walls.
The installation also features an immersive listening experience with three large screens, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the exploration. Audio and video captures will be broadcast live and on demand, offering a continuous view of the cave’s depths. These contents are now available online at cavernautes.nxigesta3o.org.
Scientific Developments
Since the spring of 2023, the teams of Reeves and St-Onge, in collaboration with Spéléo Québec, have tackled numerous technical and logistical challenges to prepare this installation. Their work has resulted in an accurate mapping of the cave, essential for both this project and future scientific studies.
Admission to Cavernautes is free.
Nicolas Reeves studied at the University of Montreal (architecture and physics) and at MIT (architecture). In 1995, he founded the NXI GESTATIO laboratory, dedicated to research/creation in arts, architecture, design, and computer science. He led the research axis in Artificial Life and Robotic Arts at the Hexagram Institute for Research-Creation in Media Arts and Technologies, before becoming the scientific director of the same institute (2001–2008).
David St-Onge is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at École de Technologie Supérieure. He holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering and space robotics from Université Laval, where he also completed a master’s degree in aircraft control. He worked for nearly ten years in the arts as studio production manager and interactive media R&D engineer. He has also completed a master’s degree in project management and is a certified pilot and flight evaluator for small aircraft (TC). He is the author of over 60 peer-reviewed publications in the field of robotics, mainly in human-computer interaction, structural design for flying vehicles and small aircraft control. He is the organizer of several events and publications demonstrating the relevance of transdisciplinary research, mainly combining art and engineering.
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