A history of institutionalisation…

Video mapping is a recent technique, born around two decades ago. The 2003-2010 period was above all one of initial experiments, in the field of VJing, with musical scenography (Cube by 1024 Architecture, in 2007) contemporary arts (with the approach developed by Bertrand Plane since 2006, which he names “bumpit!”) and monumental projection (Cosmo AV, Easyweb.fr, etc.). During these first few years, there is also the emergence of what might be referred to as ‘bedroom video mapping’: small individual experiences, more or less confidential, some of which are shared on video platforms, others on computer forums.

The 2010s see the launch of the first software programs dedicated to mapping: a sign that mapping is no longer perceived as solely an offshoot of VJing or live programming. After the VJs and digital artists, it is the light scenographers and large-scale projection artists who cut their teeth between 1975 and 2000 (Skertzò, Spectaculaires, Nathanaëlle Picot, etc.) and then subsequently turn to video mapping. Alongside the music scene and that of contemporary art installations, the constellation of events organised by communities to enhance heritage and night-time cultural events and other urban festivals during previous years (1990s and 2000s: the Festival of Lights in Lyon, Les Allumées in Nantes, La Nuit Blanche in Paris and Chartres en Lumières), constitute the foundations for the success of video mapping with large audiences. In 2018, the first festival dedicated to video mapping — the V ideo Mapping Festival, organised by Les Rencontres Audiovisuelles — takes place in the Hauts-de-France Region. Two years later, the first edition of the MAPP_NTS video mapping festival is held in Nantes.

Today, video mapping remains just one form of technology among many others for most artists, scenography agencies and visual creation studios, but many feel it corresponds to its own creative category. It is also of interest to advertising agencies and the communication and corporate sectors, which represent a major source of financing for these studios. In this developing, and competitive, economy, some mappers are producing their own creation and diffusion tools and, sometimes, marketing them. In parallel, the question of whether video mapping is an art is now being asked, literally, in the specialised press: in January 2020, the Journal des Arts devotes an article to it entitled “le mapping, entre spectacle et forme d’art” [Ndlt: mapping, between spectacle and art form], written by Stéphanie Lemoine.