This interactive sound installation attempts to further a study begun a few years ago, which questions the sound and the visual relationships between a part and a whole, between the production and perception of sound. Whereas earlier works were static in their presentation, this one places the spectator in the position of explorer. Drawing on the precedent of «acousmoniums» or loudspeaker orchestras, the work aims to materialise a more dynamic listening experience by basing it on movement. The space occupied by the installation is a given, but it may be perceived according to variable operating modes. It is first marked by a fixed point - the wall of loudspeakers that forms the visual and sound background. The different layers of sound intensify this spatial organisation. From a fundamentally complex chord which forms a base, the reaction to the spectators’ movements determines the changes of intensity, ignites solos which stand out from the sound mass. To approach is to listen, but also to provoke a differentiated sound response. The recorded music has been orchestrated for a chamber ensemble by Gaëtan Gromer based on the artist’s proposals. Influenced by works as that of Giacinto’s Scelsi’s, it is given to be heard as a complex chord in which the spectator, like a speleologist, will direct the beam of his attention towards a music stand or a part of the orchestra, travelling inside the sound as well as the self-contained space of the installation. The movement, whether it be visual or sound, will not disrupt the continuity but alter the balance and the perspectives. To paraphrase Wagner: here, the sound becomes space.
Stéphane Valdenaire
Creation : Zahra Poonawala
Music : Gaëtan Gromer / Flûtes : Ayako Okubo / Clarinettes : Adam Starkie / Violon : Marie Osswald / Alto : Antoine Spindler / Violoncelle : Anne-Catherine Dupraz / Contrebasse : Elodie Peudepièce / Programmation : Benoît Jester, Gaëtan Gromer /
Robotique : Antoine Rousseau / Détection : David Lemaréchal / Construction : JM Delannoy.
Détection informatique : David Lemaréchal
Construction : Jean-Marc Delannoy
En partenariat avec Métalu et Les Ensembles 2.2
