It was designed for “listening to” sensations, and going through, seeing and touching sounds.
A TRANSDISCIPLINARY APPROACH :
A MUSICAL CONCEPT :
THE REAL VS. THE VIRTUAL SCORE
AN ART CONCEPT :
STAGING THE OBJECT
A PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT :
GILLES CLEMENT'S "MOVING GARDEN" THEORY
Garden of Sensations :
An Immersive Expérience
This joint aKousthéa production was made with cooperation of : GRAME, Musée Gadagne – Lyon, Ville de La Courneuve (93), ville de Savigny le Temple (77),La Ferme du Buisson Scène Nationale de Marne la Vallée (77), le Val d’Europe (77).
Une co-commande du GRAME et du Musée Gadagne.
Tt received financial support from the French ministry of Culture through
(DRAC Île de France), the General Council of Conseil général de Seine et Marne, the Cinema National center
DICRÉAM
This installation was played at : Musée Gadagne - Lyon; GRAME, Biennale musiques en scènes - Lyon; Parc Floral de Paris, Festival Classique au Vert - Paris; Festival Plein les Z'Yeux - Marne la Vallée; Fondation Albert Kahn - Boulogne; L'Heure Bleue - Saint Martin d'Hères; La Nuit de la création - La Motte Servolex; Jardins en Scène - Abbeville; Journées du Patrimoine - Laon, Pontoise, Meaux, Île de Ré; Le Métaphone - Oignies etc.
Design, music and execution: Alexandre Lévy
Design, installation and videos: Sophie Lecomte
Computerized musical programming: Max Bruckert
Stage props and lights: Jean-Louis Esclapès
Sound engineer: David Thomas
The music played throughout this installation comes from a real score. At the interactive level, the music is reorganized and uploaded into modules that create a “virtual score”. By means of its interactivity, the installation encourages participants to add their own touch of imagination, at least in part, giving reality to the virtual score.
At the end of the real score performance, listeners are invited to experiment with the same, but reorganized music. Each participant dances, using his or her body to brush up against, touch or just pass by the various modules. The audience-turned-performers thus add their own fancy to the installation, and instinctively and playfully redefine it.
The installation modules make use of ordinary objects found in gardens. Beyond diverting them, the artist sublimates their everyday role by staging them musically and poetically. Their symbolic value is emphasized through this shifted perspective.
Two people must sit together on a bench to trigger a sound cloud. The sound material is made up of words from the Roland Barthes work, A Lover's Discourse (Fragments du discours amoureux,) and soundtrack excerpts from famous movies. The artist assembled dialog scenes from movie scenes that took place in a park or close to a bench. Words of love, separation, intimacy, and reunion compose a sentimental and impulsive atmosphere around the bench and the public.
In this tree are suspended interactive natural vines: When participants either brush up against or go through them, they trigger epidermal sounds. Each gesture or movement makes them feel as if they’re suddenly drenched in sonic rain, a kind of living matter that breathes along with its visitors.
Two objects face each other: a door and a mirror-cube. They represent various kinds of passages we see in gardens and parks and symbolize transformation. Sound creations play within these modules: Whenever someone goes through the doorframe, the music within completely changes, while following the person to the other side. The mirror-cube is set in the door’s axis and discretely melts into the environment, allowing participants to observe their own reflections going through the door.
Two people must sit together on a bench to trigger a sound cloud. The sound material is made up of words from the Roland Barthes work, A Lover's Discourse (Fragments du discours amoureux,) and soundtrack excerpts from famous movies. The artist assembled dialog scenes from movie scenes that took place in a park or close to a bench. Words of love, separation, intimacy, and reunion compose a sentimental and impulsive atmosphere around the bench and the public.
GARDEN OF SENSATIONS :
A 2-PART WORK
LISTENING TO A MUSICAL PIECE
INTERACTING WITH THE AUDIENCE
How it works :
In Part 1, music is performed in a closed space for listeners. The 5-module interactive installation is set up outside this space, but in close proximity. The five interactive modules in the “Garden of Sensations” are: The Lovers' Bench, Tree-Brushing, Birdhouses, The Door and The Mirror, and the Territory of Fireflies.
The various performance types include piano + electroacoustics, percussions + electroacoustics, ambulatory flute + electroacoustics, as well as combinations of these.
Sequence of Events :
Instrumental and electroacoustic pieces are played at different times of day. The audience can first access the closed space where these are played, and then discover the interactive garden. Or the other way around. The type of interactivity and sounds heard in the Garden of Sensation change along with each musical performance. The public can thus experience two distinct temporalities : short and continuous with the performances, and diffuse with the installation.
This installation is made of 5 interactive modules :
Lover's Bench
Tree of Caresses
Territory of Fireflies
Birdhouses
Door and the Mirror