The “immersive and olfactory” meeting of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Sunday January 16 in Nantes, represents one of the rhetorical events of the weekend. 5,000 people were gathered in a cube enclosed by four giant screens, while scent diffusers took part in projecting the listeners into several successive atmospheres. Have we witnessed the future of electoral rallies?
This is not the first time that Jean-Luc Mélenchon has innovated in terms of technique, and often with success, it must be said. We are of course thinking of holographic meetings: a little gimmicky, certainly, but surprising. We also remember his Youtube and Twitch channels, which skilfully use the codes of these platforms. But we also do not forget his experiments on TikTok and his digital meeting last year, which bordered on the ridiculous.
So what about this “immersive and olfactory meeting”? With regard to the olfactory: according to the testimonies on the spot, it was not very convincing. Immersion, on the other hand, works well – at least on video. The four giant screens, arranged all around the listeners, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who spoke in the center of the room, really give the impression of an infinite horizon. Technically, it was very controlled, and even, let’s say it, quite striking.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon did not content himself with illustrating his remarks with pretty images: he created paintings with which he interacted. I take an example. The first theme was space. Viewers were suddenly teleported above the atmosphere, with the moon on one screen, the International Space Station on another, and the Earth huge across part of the room. This is what Jean-Luc Mélenchon said at the same time: “It’s the Earth, see. The Blue Planet. It’s not just our common home, now that we humans have set out to conquer the vastness of space. It’s the nest of humanity. And it is this nest that above all must be protected. Look at it!” So, on the form, we have a fairly classic rhetoric for Jean-Luc Mélenchon: as usual, he handles the direct address “look at the !”, the hyperbola “Humans set out to conquer the vastness of space”, and the metaphor with this image: the Earth as “nest of humanity”.
This metaphor is clever: a nest is both precious, reassuring, unique… and fragile, hence the need to protect it. However, the idea of the Earth as a nest, in an ordinary meeting, would have remained elegant, but relatively theoretical. Now, there, we have the impression of seeing the Earth on a human scale, and suddenly, this fragility appears with renewed clarity. I have the feeling that, here, the immersion helps to give substance to the metaphor.
For the third theme of the meeting, water, the spectators then had the feeling of being transported to an island bordered by the sea, with coasts licked by the waves. “The one that occupies 70% of the planet: The sea!, launches Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Thalassa, the cry of the Ten Thousand Expedition, re-seeing the Mother of the worlds, the Mediterranean Sea. Look at her. Look at his power, his strength. She’s there forever, night, day.” We find a succession of interpellations: “The sea! Thalassa! Look at its power, its strength!”. And, here too, it seems to me that the screens bring real added value to the discourse. While such exclamations might have seemed out of place in an ordinary room, here Jean-Luc Mélenchon really seems to be speaking against the expanse of the waves, which allows for additional emphasis. In short, for me, the immersive device is not just a gadget: it has a real rhetorical interest.
There are several limitations to this exercise. Already, in terms of speaking, this requires a speaker capable of managing a central stage, therefore a 360° meeting: many have broken their teeth there. Then, you have to be able to create real interactions with the illustrations, otherwise they are little more than a nice powerpoint, and the whole thing turns into an accessory, therefore anecdotal: that is in my opinion what is happened with the second painting, dedicated to digital. Finally, you will have to be able to repeat the exercise, otherwise it is very likely to go around in circles. Now, in rhetoric, the more the processes are visible, the less effective they are.
But despite these reservations, on Sunday, it seems to me that the exercise of the meeting was truly, and profoundly, renewed. This seems to me rare enough to be underlined!