Following in the footsteps of the Deluc brothers, two Genevan scientists of the late 18th century, three historians from EPFL’s Laboratory for the History of Science and Technology made the climb up Mont Buet, a mountain in Haute-Savoie, where they reenacted past scientific experiments.

This archive weaves together reproductions of historical documents with visual testimonies comprised of Olga Cafiero’s photographs, Pascale Favre’s drawings and paintings, and Joell Nicolas’ sound piece. 

In addition to a simple listing, the website offers the visitor to discover the different media documents through three types of visualisations giving multiple points of view on this specific mountain.

The first one is a 3D spatial visualisation, an abstract topographic map where the archives are geolocalized along the paths leading to the top of the mountain, the second one is topic view and the last one is temporal one (by date) offering the possibility to make links between similar archives produced at differents times.

Additionally the visitors can sort out the content by: type of expeditions (Deluc brothers' expedition, Bourrit's expedition, Saussure's expedition, EPFL reconstitution, Public expeditions), type of media (print, drawing, photography, text, sound, gravure), thematic tags (Infrastructure, human, flower etc) or type of routes (N, S, E, W).

Other features such as live weather data (in the form of icons), the position and information of key infrastructures on the mountain as well as a geolocalized sound field recordings complete the experience.

Finally, by accessing a form, the public is invited to upload his own content captured on the Mont Buet to enrich the “public expeditions” category.