Humanities to host exhibit celebrating centennial of Albert Camus

Beginning on October 15, UC Santa Cruz will be one of 500 venues worldwide to host an exhibit commemorating the 100th birthday of the French Nobel Prize winning author and philosopher Albert Camus.

The new digital/paper exhibit—which will be set up in the Humanities 2 building, Room 259—combines print editorial with QR code technology.  

The exhibit was conceived and produced by the Institut Francais, an arm of the French State Department in partnership with Camus’ publisher, Gallimard and Ecole Normale Superieure.

The 15-foot long and 3.1 ft. high free-standing, multi-media display panel has been designed to be a portal into the philosopher’s universe--enabling the viewer to spend hours exploring Camus’ life, work, and the context in which he developed his thoughts and ideas.

“There are over 100 images, and more than 15 minutes of audio and video recordings linked to the various QR codes,” noted Douglas Hull, a board member of the Silicon Valley branch of the Alliance Francaise.

“The exhibit works chronologically, and is divided into five major periods of his life. Some of the images were never published before, particularly from his life in Algeria,” Hull added.

Coded QR codes allow the viewer to select the nature of the information experienced (magenta equals context/background; codes with a symbolic eye equal zoom in; with a quotation mark equal citations; and with an arrow in a white circle equal audio or video).

Recordings include Camus’s Nobel acceptance speech in Stockholm, and zooms include articles he wrote anonymously during WWII for an underground paper and copies of manuscript pages.

Hull added that viewers will also have the chance to upload their own picture with a time and location stamp onto a  global mosaic which will be scrollable and accessible to anyone who has downloaded the exhibit’s app.

This exhibit is free and open to the public. It runs through November 14. Open hours are 9 a.m.to 4:30 p.m.