Meet Alexandre Tamisier

Transition, Alexandre Tamisier

Alexandre Tamisier is a French motion designer and 3D artist whose artistic universe echoes his passion for science fiction visuals that fascinate him and inspire him to create scenes of lost civilizations, crazy natures and extraterrestrial planets. Alexandre’s work has already been exhibited in the United States (Baltimore, New York), in China (Hong Kong), and in his hometown, Clermont Ferrand.

Alexandre Tamisier

How would you describe digital art?

“It’s a very broad term because in reality there are many digital forms, whether it’s digital drawings or 3D for example. You can also combine different mediums of digital art, and even combine physical and traditional art with digital. But overall, I think that the main characteristic of digital art lies in its ability to bring the work to life. Digital art allows you to put the work in motion, which is something I like because I’ve always been fascinated by motion animation.

Bio Hacking, Alexandre Tamisier

It is also possible to add a musical dimension to the animations, I have already made some collaborations with sound designers for my creations. Finally, the fact of being able to give the illusion of a texture and to add depth and relief to the work are all things made possible by the digital technology and which reinforce the field of the possible as regards imagination and creativity.”

Why did you decide to do digital art? What do you like about the exploration of new media?

“I was particularly attracted to 3D animation because I felt it allowed me to create a wider variety of styles and was an ideal medium to work on the notions of texture. I like to play with optical illusions and the way we perceive reality to give my work a realistic and fantastic dimension. I like it when viewers look at an element of my work and wonder if it is hard or soft, viscous or liquid, soft or rough…

In my animations, I also like to try to reproduce elements that can be found in nature, such as the movement of wind for example, water, fire … In short, I have always tried to reproduce a form of nature 2.0, to find life through computers. And I think that there is only digital art which allows to do that because, even if some artists manage to transcribe the fire very well on a drawing for example, there is not this side animation. It is very complicated to have something that does not seem static through an image.“

What are your tools as a digital artist? What is your technique?

“My creative tools are my computer, the codes and the software I use. When an idea comes to me, I will first have to set up the shape of its simulation or scene, not at all in detail. Then, as I experiment, I will work in more detail on the textures, the play of colors, the shapes… It will be a question of playing with the material and transforming it according to the desired effect.

For example, we can require certain particles to react like fluids, sand, etc. It is rather simple to play with the elements through a simulation because we can for example simulate the beginning of an ocean before adding a viscosity parameter.

A very plausible ocean is then added to a surreal dimension. We can also add specific forces to the elements of our choice and thus create a work radically incompatible with the universal law of gravitation. We can also replace the color of blue water by red or whatever, create variations of color, and why not make the water marbled or metallic! In short, it will be a question of recreating organic, scientific and real mechanics on a computer thanks to particular codes, and then to apply them to art.”

Air, Alexandre Tamisier

What is your background? Did you follow a specific training?

“I started by doing a professional baccalaureat in visual communication. I then followed a training in design and graphic design that focused on 2D very oriented communication (webdesign, posters …).With time, the content of the training interested me less and less. With time, the content of the training interested me less and less. I then lost interest in 2D as I became interested in 3D. I trained myself in 3D creation softwares, and that’s when I really found my way. .

I became a professional new media artist and started working on very different projects. For example, I quickly had the opportunity to work on projects related to electronic music, I realized visuals for live shows, album covers, looped visuals for some kind of mini clips…“

What are your sources of inspiration?

“I find my inspiration from different places, different sources. For example, the Fond Régional d’Art Contemporain (FRAC) is an important place for me because I discovered there artists like Sara Masuger, Ivan Seal or The Caretaker. These artists greatly inspired me when I started to make my first works..

Lately, I have also been fascinated by looking at science fiction visuals that propose scenes of lost civilizations, crazy natures and extraterrestrial planets. This first inspiration is in line with the fascination I have for nature in general, especially for the living world. I love how nature has declined so many species, whether animal (mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, mollusk, insect, eukaryote, arachnid, nematode etc) or plant. I like to spend time looking at new discoveries, encyclopedias that visually present little known and amazing species. In this regard, Ernst Haeckel’s work is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for me.“

Describe a particular work/series.

“The first work I would like to talk about is called Vellum Human Comp. I thought of working on the human body quite late because initially it was a visual that seemed complicated to me and I preferred to work with other natural elements such as smoke or water for example. What finally pushed me to create a work around the human body was a pressing desire to go further into the fantastic. I wanted to bring this unreal and disturbing touch to a banal medium. I say banal in the sense that bodies are given to us to see every moment in our daily life.

Vellum Human Comp, Alexandre Tamisier

Moreover, I found it all the more interesting to work on a body as it is an element that has been represented so much in the history of art, but which has never been presented and perceived in such an innovative way as that offered by digital tools. The prospect of radically reworking the texture of the body therefore seemed particularly exciting to me.

In particular, in this work, I chose to work on the draped side to echo the Renaissance paintings in which the characters very often cover their nudity with these drapes. It’s pretty, it’s solemn, it’s aesthetic, it’s often important characters on whom the drape is placed. I also wanted to add a quirky side to the work by making the body itself become the drape that until then had so often dressed it. I found it funny and disturbing.“

Primavera, Sandro Botticelli

“Another work I would like to present is Personality. Here, it is no longer a sheet that is a body but a mask that dresses a head. This work consists of a multitude of replicas of the initial face. The name of the work “Personality” is there to support the idea that each of us has several facets and is rich in contradictions. These masks are in short a visual metaphor. Behind the mise en abîme of the cloned faces on the initial face is indeed the concept of layers, different and multiple, of which each of us is made up. Layers of the self”. But in the end, it will always be up to the viewer to make the interpretation he wishes.

Personality, Alexandre Tamisier

I liked to add details on the textures, for example the grain of the skin visible even on the mask, the colors which interact with the light and the movement like an iridescent matter. This is where the magic of the computer medium comes in.“