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»À Fleur de Peau« is an audio installation
in which each member of the audience experiences both tactile and
auditory sensations throughout their entire body.
The loudspeakers are positioned symmetrically throughout the body – on
the back of each foot, in the spaces behind each knee, in the lumbar
region, on the back of each hand, at the elbows, on the shoulder
blades, at the neck, on the temples and at the forehead. Contact
loudspeakers are used because, in contrast to regular loudspeakers,
they are barely audible and vibrate clearly. They first become audible
when affixed to a resonating body which, in this case, is the body
of the recipient. The sounds are thereby transmitted via the bones
to the inner ear.
This 16-channel composition gives the impression that
the sounds, and even the vibrations which they produce, are wandering
around the body. The vibrations vary with the frequency of the sounds
and the effects they produce can be either rhythmic or planar. The
sounds are produced on a modular system through manipulation, filtering
and the overlayering of sinewaves, rectangular waves or sawtooth
waves: they possess an eccentric character like sounds in early computer
games. I chose these sounds not only for their acoustic properties,
but more for the variations in their vibrational quality, so that
the body is suffused with various tactile stimulations.
These sounds are then worked into a ten-minute composition, based
on spatio-rythmic, rather than melodic, criteria. Physically, because
of the sixteen channels scattered over the surface of the body, the
possibility exists to define through sound the binaries of above/below,
left/right, center/extremeties, in front/behind and more/less and,
thus, to create rising, falling, spiralling, accelerating and decelerating
movements.
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»À Fleur de Peau« brings together many interests,
which have previously been present in my work. From the ceiling of
an area separated off by lengths of material, various sizes of white
fabric hang from various lengths of white cable. Inside the white
fabric are hidden small speakers. The entire piece possesses a feeling
reminiscent of a laboratory and resembles an ECG device ; moreover
it is meant more to be heard and felt than simply to be observed.
My rôle is that of a nurse. After the guest has taken off his/her
shoes, I fix the loudspeakers to their body using velcro binding.
The guest inserts earplugs, in order not to be able to hear the surrounding
sounds. Then a ten-minute composition is played, during which s/he
feels vibrations on on his/her body and hears sounds from within.
In daily life there is the tendency to observe the space beyond the
body, to note at worst the sites of pain and comfort. Through this
audiotactile experience, one becomes suddenly aware of the dimensionality
of the body. After a short time, the subtle, tactile stimulation
forces the recipient to concentrate so forcefully that s/he shuts
her/his eyes and becomes aware of the inner self.
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In my work, I want to take the audience out of regular
sensory perception and create from them a sound resonator. This work
incorporates no interactive element ; I would rather it be seen
as « interpassive », that the recipient not
be stimulated by the action, rather that s/he be lulled into a peaceful
state of awareness. The entire structure leaves him/her in a boundaried
openness, in which free movement is possible. Through the varying
muscular tensions and the interrelationships between the loudspeakers,
the recipient can change the perception of the impulses and track
the path of sounds as they move.
This sound object has a relexing influence on its users. I have,
however, inserted a few suprises in the composition, which are not
generally considered comfortable and which consequently generate
other feelings in the recipient.
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