Industrial evolutions

Images projected on large screens set the scene and situate us in time. From London's historic pea-soupers – a mixture of fog and coal smoke – to a digital cloud represented against a blue sky, the contrast is striking. Transformed landscapes, standardisation and accumulation, industrial locations, images of workers and networks show us the complexity of today's industrial world and the lack of clarity that surrounds situations of great change.

Two installations then reveal the increase in production and consumption and the changing face of industry. An augmented apartment demonstrates the enormous scale of the production lines and the complexity of the industrial sectors behind everyday objects. Further on, a lenticular installation shows the transformations over a century of a major site in French industrial history, PSA-Sochaux.

The steam engine, the washing machine, the smartphone, the tin can, the drone, the contraceptive pill and the T-shirt are reminders that the production of objects is one of the purposes and reasons for existence of industry. We transform the world by making objects, which in turn transform us.

From the mine to the factory to the digital platform, this space underlines the fact that employment and industrial activity are intrinsically linked. It reveals the transformations in the organisation of work and the metamorphosis of industry, while showing
the coexistence and proliferation of production methods.

What if Karl Marx talked to Steve Jobs? And Elon Musk to René Descartes?
A film stages a debate between historical figures whose ideas and speeches have marked the history of industrial activity. These narratives correspond to two different visions, depending on the teller: technology and industrialisation are either perceived as threats to mankind and sources of enslavement or, in contrast, as solutions to all our ills and a means of emancipation.

Visitors then discover a large suspended sphere illustrating the rebound effect (or Jevons paradox). This installation shows how technological improvements, which increase the efficiency with which a resource is used, lower its cost and consequently lead to
an increase in the total consumption of that resource. Instead of consumption decreasing, it never stops increasing.

The exhibition ends with a curtain-raise on the new hyper-industrialised world. This highlight presents the gigantic, invisible infrastructures of digital technology: satellites, undersea cables and data centres. A spectacular 270° video projection reveals these fascinating infrastructures, with their high environmental cost, and unveils a new world state: the hyper-industrialisation of the planet.