Simone Veil, Hubertine Auclert, Manon Tardon… the Snap AR Studio has designed virtual statues for March 8 which will be displayed, via the smartphone screen, alongside real statues in Paris, Lyon, Nantes or Marseilles.
Resistance fighters, politicians, writers, philosophers, artists… on the occasion of International Women’s Day on March 8, Snapchat wanted to pay tribute to eight female personalities who, each in their own way, marked the history of France. The social network will erect statues of Simone Veil, Simone de Beauvoir, Joséphine Baker, Olympe de Gouges, but also of the resistant Manon Tardon, the royal portraitist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, the woman of letters François de Graffigny and the feminist activist Hubertine Auclert in Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Marseille, Lille, Metz and Bordeaux.
But don’t look for them in the street: these statues are entirely virtual. To see them, you will have to brandish your smartphone next to the – very real – statues of Charles de Gaulle, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Montesquieu or even Jean Moulin. Using augmented reality technology, the 3D statue will then appear on the phone screen, through the Snapchat app. The illusion is almost perfect: you can turn around the statue, zoom in, and take photos and videos.
In Marseille, the virtual statue of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, portrait painter of Queen Marie-Antoinette, to the right of that of the sculptor Pierre Puget Snapchat
“ Female figures, which are often allegories, represent approximately 10% of the statues present in public space in France. We wanted to highlight this discrepancy“, explains Donatien Bozon, director of Snap AR Studio. To warn onlookers, Snapchat will send demonstrators to the streets of the cities concerned on March 8. But the operation is intended to last over time. The augmented reality filter allowing to see the statues will appear on Snapchat when the walker is geolocated near the Grand Palais in Paris, place Kléber in Strasbourg or place Bellecour in Lyon.
A showcase for Snap AR Studio
This operation, entirely carried out in-house, will have required three months of work and the dispatch of employees to the eight cities “to scan the premises for several hours under different light conditions“says the director. She is also a showcase for Snap AR Studio. Opened last September in Paris by the American group, this center of about fifteen employees aims to “To push the development of augmented reality ecosystem. When augmented reality glasses hit the market, there will have to be thousands of apps for them to be worth using. We invest in the future.»
Snap AR Studio is moving forward on two fronts. The first is training in the creation of augmented reality experiences, intended for beginners as well as experienced 3D developers and designers. These face-to-face training will begin by this summer, on a weekly or monthly basis, and will be free. “In France, studios specializing in augmented reality are struggling to recruit, while a Parisian studio like Atomic Digital Design, which employs 60 people, works for major advertisers“, emphasizes Donatien Bozon.
Partnerships with cultural institutions
The second front is thatthe democratization of augmented reality, demonstrating that this technology goes far beyond fun filters for selfies.Snap AR Studio works with the world of cultural institutions to offer them free experiences. He has partnered with the Center Pompidou to virtually transform the facade of the famous museum of contemporary art into a musical instrument. “We had put QR codes on the floor of the forecourt of the Center Pompidou so that passers-by could try the experience. The success was beyond our expectations, both in number of uses and in time spent playing with this filter.“, continues the director. One out of two testers already had the Snapchat app on their phone.
Another partnership took place with the National Library of France. “Snapchat is used by a young and popular audience that interests these institutions», explains Donatien Bozon. If the first experiments concerned the facades of museums and libraries, the next ones will also take place inside these buildings, in Paris but especially in other French cities.
Where to see the virtual statues?
ParisSimone Veil: Champs-Élysées roundabout, next to the statue of Charles de Gaulle
LyonsSimone de Beauvoir: place Bellecour, next to the statue of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
MarseillesÉlisabeth Vigée Le Brun: Parc Borély, next to the statue of Pierre Puget
BordeauxFrançoise de Graffigny: Place des Quinconces, next to the statue of Montesquieu
NantesManon Tardon: Square Amiral Halgan, next to the statue of Philippe de Hauteclocque
MetzJoséphine Baker: Central station, next to the statue of Jean Moulin
StrasbourgOlympe de Gouges: Place Kléber, next to the statue of Jean-Baptiste Kléber
LilleHubertine Auclert: Place du Théâtre, next to the statue of Léon Trulin
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