1+1=1?

Thibaut Camdessus

Interview by C. VanWinkle
December 19, 2023

Would you please describe the prompt you responded to? What was it? What did it make you think of?

The prompt 1+1=1 first sounds like an arithmetic challenge like in primary school. That was a place where, too often, I was a bit unhappy because of the austerity of the theorems that only fools would question. Progress in advanced math and computing proved that my questioning was not so irrelevant.

When we use a boolean expression, which is used in computer code to determine if a condition is true (1) or false (0), true + true + true = true. In which case 1+1=1.

Also, consider the fact that the fastest computers in the world using quantum physics work on the principle that a 1 could be a 1 or a 0 at the same time.

On a more romantic note, in my love life, 1+1 equals much more than 2.

How did you get started on the piece you created?

At first, I was puzzled by the prompt and it's only when I added the question mark that my mind began to wander creatively. In my daily life, I have come to perceive many social interactions as nothing more than people wandering in their own bubble. What should be an addition of souls often translates to 1+1=1.

In the country of my ancestors, Le Pays Basque, it is very impolite not to greet people you meet, even strangers. Hence, I am always eager to find small opportunities to interact with others with simple gestures such as “please go first.” I don’t want invade their privacy and these gestures sometimes lead to a smile or shared greetings.

I also use these commuting moments to sample objects, rays of light, or faces that I later use in my work. So I browsed the images on my phone and started to compose the final image.

How does this piece relate to your “Spiritual Commuting” series? How does that series relate to the rest of your work?

“Spiritual Commuting” is a form of utopia where more and more people would grant each other random acts of kindness. Being reminded that someone could be kind to you for no other reason than to prove the existence of a form of fraternity makes my day brighter and happier.

Thanks to Instagram, I often create pieces for followers that I have never met. After interacting with them, asking about their preferences for colors, round or angular forms, busy or zen compositions, I compile a series of numbers like the ones used in serial musical compositions. A new abstract piece emerges from the generative art code I write. It occurred a few times that the dialogue was pursued through exchanging printed or painted works via regular mail. I recently received a painting from one of these followers that is a response to a composition I did for him. No money is ever exchanged, my compensation is the happiness of the beholder and this is the fuel for my inspiration.

Now that Covid isn’t controlling our lives as much as it was, are you getting back into in-person socializing again?

I have a very limited group of friends spread around the world. I am glad to regain the opportunity to travel and pay them a visit.

Your piece made me think of online dating. Are humans losing our in-person social skills?

I fear that online dating creates a gratification system for people that make a virtual connection. The risk is that it becomes too much of a challenge to make a real-life encounter. Moments like the one portrayed in my image show three young folks that could have met, had they not been so focused on their phones.

What’s your advice for someone else approaching this project for the first time?

Learn the cue by heart and go take a long walk early in the morning.

Call Number: C87VA | C89VA.ca

Born in 1962, in St Germain en Laye, graduate of the École Supérieure de Réalisation Audiovisuelle (ESRA) in Paris in 1983, Thibaut Camdessus first directed cinematographic works on contemporary artists in Paris. From the 1990s, he graphically choreographed the flows of stock exchange data for the NASDAQ, financial, for the Morgan Stanley bank, editorial and statistical data for the Encyclopedia Britannica and cultural data with Culture Express for the Taiwan government. His professional experiences in many capitals (Paris, New York, Chicago, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok...), the need to respond to a wide range of requests and, as a result and, consequently, to deepen his skills in the digital and computer fields, made him a pioneer in these fields.