Jeremy Oury is a French artist who explores the boundaries of reality and our connection to the digital realm through video, sound, and virtual space. His work delves into the creation of illusions through geometric distortions, the synesthesia between sound and visuals, and the use of immersive environments that place the viewer at the heart of a virtual universe, challenging their perception of space.

Oury's innovative approach has earned international recognition at video mapping and fulldome festivals, with exhibitions at prestigious digital art venues worldwide, including MUTEK MX, Mapping Festival, ISEA, FILE Festival, and more.

Beyond his creative practice, Oury is also a passionate curator and organizer, promoting immersive art through initiatives such as the Sous dôme Festival in Paris and the DomoArte touring project in Latin America (LATAM).

We asked Jeremy about his art, creative process, and inspirations.

Can you tell us about your background as a digital artist? How did you get started in this field?

I’m a French digital artist combining audio and visual skills to make singular digital forms as architectural mapping, fulldome and original creation for theater. I like to question our perception of reality and our relationship with the digital world through video, sound and virtual space. I focus my artistic work on the search for illusions based on geometric distortions, on synesthesia between sound and video, and on immersive forms to place the viewer at the center of a virtual universe in order to disrupt his or her perception of space.

2019 - DIVA avec Thomas Voillaume - Illuminate festival

Since 2014, my artwork has been recognized and awarded at international video mapping and fulldome festivals, and exhibited at prestigious digital exhibitions worldwide, such as MUTEK MX, Mapping festival, ISEA, FILE festival, and many others.

I started out doing VJing for student parties, then for club in Lyon (France). I started projection mapping on buildings with the 1Minute Projection Mapping competition in 2014 which takes place every year in Japan. The duration of the competition seemed to me a reasonable opportunity to start this kind of project. It was awesome to watch the streaming and see my project selected among the 16 finalists.

I pursued this practice through other competitions and collaborating sometimes with some friends. We won, as ARCAAN Collective team, the amateur category at the FIMG festival in Spain and I won also the amateur prize at the FIMA in Mexico in 2015 with an unforgettable travel there. The real recognition of my artwork from professionals was in 2017 when I won the jury prize at the Luz Y Vanguardias festival in Spain with the mapping PRISM.

With all this contacts, I participated to severals light festival with large scale video mapping, mesmerized artworks at 360°, fulldome artwork (for geodesic dome), or by projecting on giant sculptures (DIVA, a low poly female body of 4 meters by the artist Thomas Voillaume). While continuing time to time to participate to international video mapping competitions as IMAPP, video mapping festival, Zsolnay Light Art, 1Min PM, …

I met a lot of artists and festival directors. That's why I also created the Facebook page LIST OF INTERNATIONAL VIDEO MAPPING OPEN CALL & CONTEST 2025 (4,9K members). to share information on opportunities (open call and competition) for video mapping. I also write an analysis of the results of video mapping competitions, the last one is available here. There's a whole international eco-system built around this practice. Every year, many of us meet up at the video mapping festival and the IBSIC professional meetings in Lille.

Parallel to all these activities in digital art, I collaborate on theater projects in sound or video with french companies such as Jeanne Dark by Marion Siéfert, Killing Robots by Linda Blanchet, Destin(s) de Jérôme Cochet, Je suis la bête by Julie Delille, Fracassés by Gabriel Dufay, Mesure pour Mesure de Karim Bel Kacem…

Most recently, I developed the 360° work Exo-Cortex for several immersive spaces and rooms, including the Paris Planetarium, the Kazakstan National Museum, Foro Allende in Mexico, and now the Artechouse in New York.

I also promote the production of immersive works by curating and organizing the Sous dôme festival in Paris and the DomoArte itinerary project in LATAM since I’m based now in Mexico City.

Your work often disrupts viewers' perceptions of reality. What draws you to explore illusions and geometric distortions in your art?

I was deeply impressed by the Fondation Vasarely in Aix-en-Provence, where this "architectonic museum » is an artwork in itself, integrating dozens of the artist's monumental pieces. Vasarely's optical works initiate in painting the distortions of perspective that we now apply in architectural mapping.

More generally, I am a big fan of minimalist artists from the 1960s. With simple plays on shapes and the use of clean lines, they manage to create a sense of discomfort in our vision. I feel that digital tools allow us to explore an additional layer of reality in the works of these pioneering artists. I was also deeply influenced by the work of the AntiVJ collective. They embraced the early stages of digital tools to create visually stunning works.

With immersive spaces (CAVE, dome, or VR), we sometimes manage to “shift” the perception of reality, making the viewer forget where they are. This works particularly well in planetariums, where it can make the hemispherical screen above us disappear. However, achieving this effect requires a great mastery of balance and the contrast between the different projected elements.

The same goes for VR, where a carefully crafted narrative and setting can create this illusion. I’m thinking of the experience at the FILE Festival in Brazil in 2018 with the work Unlimited Corridor by Keigo Matsumoto, Yohei Yanase, Takuji Narumi & Yuki Ban, or Outrospectre by Frank Kolkman & Juuke Schoorl.

It is in these rare moments that we manage to disrupt the senses, to evoke a feeling of vertigo, of falling based on illusion. This is one of the goals I seek to achieve in my work.

How do you approach the challenge of creating immersive experiences that engage not only visually but also emotionally and intellectually?

Immersion is achieved not only through 360° projection surrounding the audience but also by creating a connection between the artwork and the viewer. The use of a voice-over is a great example. It allows us to establish a kind of dialogue, fostering a sense of closeness with the audience.  Rhythm is also essential. Visual animation is often built around the soundtrack, which is a crucial element sometimes overlooked by artists. It’s also important to play with the spatial field we are given. How can we activate the viewer’s vision? making it active and not passive : by multiplying perspectives, shifting horizon lines, and so on.  It becomes a sort of game that unfolds throughout the piece.

But I feel that everything is decided within the first few seconds — whether we manage to establish that connection that will draw the viewer into the artwork.

Do you have a specific piece where the interplay between sound and visuals surprised even you?

The first one, Exo-Cortex, features my wife’s voice (in multiple versions — English, Spanish, and Portuguese - she is very talented!). It’s quite amusing to spend so much time just with her voice while working on this project. But adding a tangible element like the human voice, amidst electronic sounds and digital visuals, creates a powerful contrast that makes the work feel… human.

The second one is Next, a project developed using various AI Stable diffusion tools. I generated a jazz piece about the apocalypse. The voice and lyrics are truly gripping — especially when paired with the projected visuals. There’s an innocence and softness in the voice, acting as a counterpoint to the apocalyptic imagery, where one might expect deafening sounds of destruction and chaos.

But something was missing in the track. So I asked my father (a true family business!) to improvise a few trumpet notes. This addition heightened the sense of gentleness and melancholy, functioning almost like an off-screen element in relation to the visuals.

Lastly, I remain a huge fan of works where sound generates visuals, as seen in Ryoji Ikeda’s work or with the duo Nonotak. At that point, it’s no longer just music — it becomes a true exploration of sound material.

You’re based between France and Mexico. How do these different cultural environments influence your art?

It’s a bit of a gap… between France, where there are many resources (residencies, grants, festivals) and opportunities to create in different contexts, and Mexico, where you have to hustle to find funding, most of the time from private sources. There’s this kind of anarchic aspect, but it works because there is very talented artists here. And big festival like MUTEK Mx. It makes the art feel more alive and human, which I also appreciate.

With our festival DomoArte, we try to bring these two worlds together by inviting European artists to LATAM and fostering collaborations between artists.

As a curator for the "Sous dôme” festival in Paris and “DomoArte" in Mexico, what criteria do you use to select works that best represent the potential of fulldome art?

Curating may seem easy, but through the festivals, I’ve realized just how difficult it is.

It’s about finding the right balance for the audience — giving a space for women artists, the order/arrangement of selected works to ensure rhythm, and the variety of styles or the questioning of a theme. It’s also about putting yourself in the audience’s shoes, anticipating their reactions. When I see people leave before the end of a session, I think I should have reversed the order of the projects, started with something smooth or more rhythmic. It’s like creating a work of art; you need to find the right rhythm for the all program.

For the dome, there are still too few works… it can be quite difficult to find new content to explore other creative types. There’s a lot of groundwork to be done. We also try to support the creation of new works by offering opportunities to artists who have already worked on immersive pieces (but not necessarily in a dome). It’s really exciting to offer these artists a blank canvas to create. It’s a bit of a risk, because sometimes the works don’t quite work as expected, but the new technical discoveries will help evolve the field.

2023 *Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab* photographer LIN Hsuan-Lang

But one of the criteria is that the work must be designed specifically for the dome format and play with its unique characteristics. There needs to be a narrative, not just a sequence of random visuals; we want the audience to be transported into the artist’s universe.

What new ideas or technologies are you excited to explore in your future projects?

I think the “artificial intelligence” tool is an interesting element to incorporate into the creative process.

We need to find ways to repurpose it for use in contexts other than traditional image generation. Specifically, in dome or immersive environments, and even in light installations. AI can offer new ways to push the boundaries of creativity, not just by generating static images but by exploring dynamic and interactive possibilities that enhance the immersive experience. The challenge lies in finding innovative ways to blend AI with other artistic tools, and used it on these not standard formats.

 What is a fun fact about you?

It all started with studies in sound. I have a master's in sound design for theater and a degree in architectural acoustics. But right from the start of my studies, when I was in an audiovisual BTS focused on sound techniques, I was immediately drawn to the friends who were doing visual creation and how the video process works. As soon as we started organizing student parties, I bought a projector and began VJing.

A passion that has led me today to do mapping and light installations at prestigious festivals!