Fuck DanCe Let'S ARt

Testing Grounds was a great evening of performances. I performed with the public a musical football game.

permanent gallery - no ball game

No ball game is not really about interactivity but about the relation between the gallery, the artist and the public trough art. Performance generally is about having the public focusing on the artist and his actions. I wanted to merge the performer, the public and the prop.

Mainly, I wanted to bring back the joy of playing/experimenting in the gallery.

A football game is what occur to be the best way. It’s simple, ancient and childish. I programmed a wiimote in a soft ball to trigger musical elements and structures. I used processing with two libraries, proMidi and the wrj4P5 from Classiclll. Processing was triggering midi notes and controllers by using the wiimote movement and accelerations. The program was really basic and not that accurate because my point was more on working on the “ménage à trois” that are the public, the gallery and the artist.

It was not about creating a proper musical tool but a catalyst or extrapolation of the action, energy and gallery’s atmosphere.

permanent gallery - no ball game

Still, there are some principals I kept in mind while programming and creating the musical architecture. The permanent gallery is a small and quickly crowed space. So I kept the interactive and sound layers simple. There were 3 steps accessed by how hard you kick the ball. As for the sounds I wanted to created a ruff, blunt, dramatic, romantic and emotional soundscape. I wanted it to be proper music as well as sound poetry.

That was really experimental as I didn’t know how people were going to react to the proposition, if the ball was going to handle all the kicking and if the “soundtrack” would match the performance.

Testing Grounds was organised and curated by Nadege Derderian at the Permament gallery.

You can also watch the long version (11:19) or another short version filmed from the ground (2:41).

Make music with a disc of 510 067 420 km² = the Earth

Ato, a.k.a Antonin Fourneau, created OTERP and presented it at the Digital Art Festival, 6-11 dec in Tokyo at Shibuya Tokyo Wonder Site.

OTERP - by Ato - feat music by TM

OTERP is a psp game using a magnetic compass. The game plays/mix differents music loops and sounds depending on your latitude and longitude. Ato made a few side-projects ( cardinal turntable ) related to this main concept of mobility, music and spatial interface.

Ato ask a few sound artists ( including me ) to created or let some loops and sounds. The project is at its first version but is already giving a great experience.

it’s my sounds on the video

More information, picts and video at http://atonews.blogspot.com/

Flyer for the exhibition at the Blank Gallery

You have to play to hear…

The samples gathered were processed as little as possible to retain the original characteristics of the sounds. The Sonic Body is not only a installation. It was first a intimate experiment and private performance, with all sounds recorded from the artist Harry Neve and his partner’s bodies. The result is a spectrum of bodily acoustics beyond what we can usually hear; a lung that sounds like a baby crying, an intestine that sounds like a rainforest, and even the anatomical sound of a female orgasm that sounds like high-pitch whistling. The project creates a unique way of thinking about and experiencing the body, through sound. 

Often people are scared to look ridiculous when confronted with interactive art, where it’s usually explicit that the piece can only function if the spectator uses it. The physical sensuality of the Sonic Body, however is something uncommon to interactive art, and as such allows people to feel comfortable with interacting and participating in public by offering an intimate space where the user is free to interact and enjoy.

The Sonic Body was first presented at the Blank Gallery, Brighton, 1 – 8 November 2007, and was part of the Brighton Digital Festival 2007.

This is one segment of a recording, but merged into stereo. Download link There is the background layer made of a sub rumble that goes trough slow and suttle variations. On top of this you will hear most the different sounds that was triggered/generated when touching or rubbing the textile shapes.

sonic body - blank gallery 07 - interior

I made this video for AVERT as part of the Stop AIDS in Children campaign. I used After Effects, Photoshop and illustrator. It’s my first try with after effects and I only had a week to produce it, using only pictures. That was a nice challenge.

I’v been working as a designer/web designer for AVERT for more than a year and a half now. I am in charge of all the design/code of the website, plus all the printing side of AVERT ( T-shirts, adverts, etc…). In a few words, avert.org it’s more than 260 pages, a average of 155 000 visits every weeks (64 500 just on World AIDS day ) and one of the most popular aids website.