This Means More juxtaposes statements by football supporters with the technical tools utilised to represent virtual crowds. The latter are usually used to create an image of an ideal crowd in adverts, or to manage crowd flows in space by anticipating the movements of the bodies. As a counterpoint to these virtual images, supporters of Liverpool FC recount an experience marked by a tragic event. Simulation technology is transformed into an archaeological tool for exploring the supporters’ recollections. The juxtaposition of two forms of knowledge about crowds, one distant and analytical, the other based on physical experience, raises the question of what constitutes the self-expression of a community and evokes the way in which this living, fluid form collides with the infrastructure intended to contain it.
Nicolas Gourault is an artist and director trained at Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy, but also at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. His work is marked by this twofold background and seeks to create connections between artistic technique and politics by providing a documentary critique of the new media. One of his interests is the way simulation can be used to transform modes of representation and to control spaces in order to limit unpredictability.
Cursus2017 / EHESS, mémoire de master 2 sur les techniques visuelles de l’agence Forensic Architecture,
sous la direction de Cécile Boëx
2015 / DNSEP, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy
