The Voice of Things — 2004/2005

Materials : wood, aluminium, brushes, paper, motors, microphones, electronics, video camera, amplifiers, loudspeakers, MIDI interface (miditron), audio interface, MaxMsp, Soft VNS, computer.

Dimensions : 3,3 m X 2,2m x 1m

Two huge overscaled mechanical brooms are suspended and see-saw in the middle of a space. As they teeter totter they sscratch, stroke and brush against a heap of newspapers, aluminium and others. Their rhythms, sometimes very slow, convey a feeling of suspension in time and their excess size, a sense of frailty and loss of balance. Microphones inserted in the brushes pick up the paper’s vibrations and reveal to all the acoustic wealth of these familiar everyday materials.The visitors’ movements are caught on videocamera and then interpreted in realtime thus affecting the mechanical brooms’ movements, the sound signals and their scattering throughout the space. Visitors can shape the acoustic territory in real time. They can choose their own temporality. The visitor is vital to this environment’s operation: without him The voice of things will remain silent.

The voice of things is entirely controlled by MAX/MSPand Soft Vns software: interactive applications creation tools in real time. This programming environment by object allows us to create a computer program which carries out assigned tasks: positioning of motors and robotised brooms, recognition of video camera positions management: realtime processing of the audio signal and scattering of sound events. The sonic universe generated by The voice of things isactivated when a presence is identified; it is broadcasted by a multichannel system which includes four loudspeakers strategically positioned in the space, therefore creating a sound spatialization. The sounds emitted by each restitution speaker are defined by various elements: position of the mechanical brooms, their micro-contacts and readings; textural (paper), amplitude (sound level), density (number of simultaneous sounds) and pitch (high and low frequency sounds). Sounds are directed on four channels and spread out through the space creating a sound environment where we listen to The voice of things. We wish to invest the space through sound, movement andwe highlight the encounter of various materials with each other. The resulting space let’s us listen to the music of sounds produced by various materials occupying our daily experiences. These amplified micro-sounds inhabit the space, weave a tale about the precariousness of time and also put in perspective our experiences and relations with our surroundings.

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Presentations

2006 Maison de la culture Mercier, Montréal, QC
2005 Action Art Actuel, St-Jean sur Richelieu, QC
2005 Aceartinc. Gallery, Winnipeg, MB Critical distance Vol 11:2
2005 Galerie Graff, Montréal, QC

Collaborators

Étienne Grenier — programming MAX/Msp et Jitter
Patrice Coulombe — programming MAX/Msp et softVNS

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Text

Catherine Béchard

Translation

Kathryn Casault

Financial support

Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Conseil des arts du Canada

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Video

Catherine Béchard & Sabin Hudon

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Periodicals

2006 Maison de la culture Mercier. « La dérive de l’intant », Journal MHM, Montréal (Québec), fall, p. C8
2006 Koch, Phil. « Send & Receive: A Festival of Sound », Border Crossings, Winnipeg (Manitoba), numéro 97, p.127-129
2006 « Les choses prennent voix chez Action Art Actuel »,
Le Canada Français, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (Québec), March 29th
2006 « La voix des choses », Le Canada Français, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (Québec), April 12th
2006 « La voix des choses», Culture Haut Richelieu, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu (Québec), March
2005 Rach, Jach. « Installation relies on interaction » , The Projector, Winnipeg (Manitoba), November 7th, p. 21
2005 Roberts, Lorne. « Viewers create artistics sounds », Winnipeg Free Press (Manitoba), October 27th, p. D5
2005 Smith, Kenton. « Have you ever heard the sound of… », The Uniter, Winnipeg (Manitoba), October 20th
2005 Viau, René. « L’art des bruits », ETC. Montréal (Québec), no 70, p. 43-45
2005 Lisa Marie, Noël. « Les murs du son », Montréal (Québec), volume 8 no 3, February 20th
2005 Delgado, Jérôme. « Sons urbain», La Presse,
Montréal (Québec), February 13th, p. 10

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Publications

2006 Paradis, Vivianne, « La voix des choses », Éditions Action Art Actuel, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, 7p.
2005 Radford, Deanna, « Between Sounds and Abstractions », Aceartinc Edition, Winnipeg, 5p.

Catalogues

2008 « PaperWait Volume 8+9 »,  text by Deanna Radford, Aceartinc Edition, Winnipeg, 92p. (pp.13-16)