Julie Stephen Chheng

Water Eyes began in Montrond-les-Bains, at the Passerelles media library, with a residency period that allowed the artists to soak up the atmosphere of the place, talk to the locals and let the area influence their creative process. Discovering the spa towns enriched the symbolic understanding of water, particularly the idea of ‘roads’ connecting living beings and territories.

The result was Water Eyes, a modular augmented reality fresco by Julie Stephen Chheng built around a character: water. Using a free app called Fortune Teller AR, visitors animate the eyes and access its deep, resilient and poetic vision of the world through an aquatic filter.

The narrative is inspired by different philosophies of water (Wu Wei, Mizu no Kokoro, Panta Rhei, etc.) and numerous expressions from around the world that reflect universal wisdom. Throughout the experience, the voice of water shares advice and reflections.

This structure allows for two levels of use: a mural for the public and workshops where visitors can create their own guardian and continue to receive daily advice.

The project combines narration, animation, music and images to create an immersive and enigmatic universe. Accompanied by Thomas Pons and Julien Hognon, the experience uses AR filters to offer an embodied vision of the character of water. Visually, the felt-tip pen drawings evoke visible and invisible waterways, a metaphor for the links between places and people.

The whole work addresses the multiplicity of perspectives: the possibility of broadening one’s perception by adopting that of another being, another culture or another sensibility through an understanding of differences.