The monumental fifth on display all summer in Metz

The birth of the veme: the materialization of a sound

The Veme (pronounced vème) was created in 2015 by students and staff at the Arts et Métiers campus Arts et Métiers Metz in response to a request from two composers. Three years later, the idea of a gigantic veme was born: the "monumental veme." The project has attracted the interest of the city of Metz as part of its digital arts festival, Constellations. The monumental veme will be freely accessible and can be tested by summer visitors following the Art and Gardens trail at point number 6.

The monumental Veme: a project led by Arts et Métiers students

Even before the idea of a public exhibition was conceived, the monumental fifth wheel project was entrusted to a group of first-year general engineering students. For them, there was no question of reproducing the monumental fifth wheel identically to the original fifth wheel.

The specifications are different in any case, as Alexandre Guillerme, student project manager, explains: " The idea was to raise awareness of the veme, which therefore had to be recognizable. But the initial veme has a sound box that amplifies the noise of the metal plate being struck. However, with a 5-meter-high metal plate and a proportionally sized sound box, the monumental VEM would not have been able to be exhibited due to noise pollution in the neighborhood. So we removed the sound box and modified the design and mounting systems."

Virtual reality to aid design

Some structural modifications are difficult to grasp using CAD (computer-aided design) files. To get an idea of how the prototypes they design will look, students implement the monumental veme in virtual reality software.

With headsets on, they found themselves standing next to their life-size creation: " We were wondering how certain parts of the structure would look. Using the virtual reality headset, we realized that they were oversized, which was difficult to imagine with the CAD images on the computer. This allowed us to make design choices, " explains Alexandre Guillerme.

A formative project

Working on the monumental fifth for this group of five students was a great learning experience: "We were hired by the Metz City Council to provide a rendering. From there, we were placed in the position of service providers with deadlines and constraints to meet, rather than as students as we were used to. We also had to put together a financial plan for the project for ArcelorMittal, which financed the entire manufacture of the instrument." Itwas a real learning experience for what awaits them once they graduate!

Alexandre Guillerme mentions an obligation to achieve results, but above all emphasizes the importance of trust on the part of stakeholders and the development of a critical mindset regarding how the instrument actually works.

The fifth