About bis

1024 designs architectural and digital works in which sound and light scores are orchestrated within the space and controlled by lines of computer code. These immersive installations combine art and architecture, physical constructions and digital tools, giving rise to evolving temporary or perennial experiences that interact with their environment.

1024 = 2¹⁰
1024 equals 2 to the power of 10.
1024 is a recurrent number in computer science.
1024 is a screen resolution.
1024 bytes = 1 Kilobyte.

1024 is a creative studio.

Cities and buildings are not immobile, they are inhabited and people circulate within them; they are immersed within a climate and suffer the ravages of time.

The lighting, video, or audio installations that heighten a given venue assume the role of architecture.

Pier Schneider and François Wunschel met at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Strasbourg. They cofounded the EXYZT collective in 2002 as part of their undergraduate degree, experimenting with hybrid and collective architectural practice, going so far as to build their own projects.

After various noteworthy interventions under this name, the duo founded 1024 architecture to focus on the creation and production of hybrid works and installations, combining architecture and visual arts.

Ever since, the studio has designed and produced projects both in France and abroad. From Vancouver to Tokyo, from Paris to Mexico, 1024 has developed stage designs, performances, and architecture, from the small scale of the object to vast installations within public space. The creative studio works with many associates from various different spheres: developers, designers, architects, and artists, to create an immersive world made up of geometry, light, sound, and movement.

1024 does not believe constructed environments are synonymous with frozen monumentality. On the contrary, they are evolutive spaces whose systems may be derived from kinetics. Lights, waves, pixels, lines of code, rhythms, and music form the raw materials of spatial, visual, and sound installations.

1024 cut its teeth on the stages of electronic music festivals.

For seven years (2007-2014), a 6-metre-wide cube built out of scaffolding, heightened by lighting and video projections, accompanied Étienne de Crécy on tour. A minimalist and geometric aesthetic, SQUARE CUBE set an ephemeral and nomadic architecture in motion, through visual screenings triggered live as the musical compositions progressed.

1024 soon made a name for itself in the field of the digital and visual arts. It has participated in numerous international festivals: Mapping in Geneva, Mutek in Montréal, Barcelona, and Buenos Aires, New Form in Vancouver, Cerventino in Mexico, Digital Choc in Tokyo…

TESSERACT (2013), an immersive architectural lighting structure, has toured to Prague, Bordeaux, Eindhoven, Strasbourg, Vancouver, Mexico City, and Paris. In this hypercube – or four-dimensional cube, with time being added to space – audiences find themselves immersed in a physical “cathedral” of constantly evolving light and sound.

1024 plays with temporalities: fleeting one-hour performances, the ephemeral Nuit Blanches (Paris, 2004 and 2010), the temporary Grand Tables on Île Seguin (Paris, 2010-2014), or the permanent Vortex (Darwin Écosystème, Bordeaux, 2014), 24 Lignes (Centre d’Art La Panacée, Montpellier, 2013), and Delta (Porte de la Villette, Paris, 2018).

DELTA, a sculpture made of wood and LED lighting connects Paris, Pantin, and Aubervillers through a dissection of movement inspired by the chronophotography of Étienne-Jules Marey. A spatial and digital artwork, it was installed under the Paris ring-road in order to redefine the transition between intramuros Paris and its close suburbs, within the framework of the Reconquête Urbaine programme supported by the Paris mayor’s office.

Each project provides the opportunity to develop a customised computer program.
In other words, it works out how to bring code into conversation with sound and lighting, via an intimate relationship with space.

1024 develops its own tools of production, from digital software to hardware. This was how Madmapper was created, in association with GarageCube. This mapping software (visual and lighting projections onto three-dimensional structures) released in 2011 is now a reference on the visual arts scene and brings together a vast community of users. A wonderful digital toolbox, Madmapper enables the studio to be autonomous in the creation of its projects.

In association with GarageCube, 1024 developed MadMapper, mapping software released in 2011 and that went on to win the Innovative Software Award.

This base for applications (Framework) enables customised plugins and shaders for each project to be encoded, ensuring the stability of the program over the long term. The studio’s branch of research and development focuses mainly on the infinite evolution of MadMapper.

1024 devises its projects through the combination of an artistic approach and an architectural method. The artworks are designed and tested in the studio, then built, adapted, and refined in situ.

PULSE (2010-2015) was set up inside the Estacade Tunnel in Bordeaux, under two new railway tracks built for the high-speed line. To mark the end of this monumental construction site, 1024 devised an installation in which sound and light travelled through space, spanning over 250 metres. The installation produced was dynamic: the synchronisation of the sound and lighting content was adapted to the scale of the site and the amplitude of the space, so as to create an immersive, dynamic, and kinetic environment.

Immersive experiences are attentive to individuals, pedestrians, city-dwellers, and communities.

1024 encodes, designs, experiments, composes, and even dances outside of the habitual frameworks.
The studio focuses on its projects, rather than on falling squarely within a particular discipline. Its founders, Pier Schneider and François Wunschel are trained architects and untrained artists, developing performative architectures and architectural performances, immersive installations and interactive immersions…

VORTEX (Bordeaux, 2014) is an architectural element that interconnects the two buildings of Darwin Écosystème. VORTEX is a wooden sculpture that is deployed dynamically between the two stone walls. VORTEX is a stage lighting device that accompanies concerts. VORTEX is a partition that can be synchronised as events unfold. VORTEX is unclassifiable.

1024 operates with the help of its associates and developers and expands through its “madmapper” community.

1024 draws its inspiration from quantum physics to electronic music, from digital arts to live performance, from architecture to painting.