performance / sound installation / sound and participation
As a fellow at the French Academy in Rome, I became interested in the anamorphoses in frescoes found in Rome, such as those in Trinita dei Monti and San Ignazio. Seeing these works, I was inspired by this perspectual distortion, where the viewer must adjust their viewpoint in order to experience the full effect of the image. How could I imagine a sonic equivalent to this phenomenon, where the listener explores their changing perceptions within the sound field? This is the question that led to the creation of a series of sonic anamorphosis.
At the Frac Franche Comté, the audience was invited to attend a performance where the listeners had to explore the space to find the anamorphosis locations of 5 successive sound anamorphosis.
Each member of the audience was given a program, with the necessary informations for their quest.
Anamorphose #3 (the first in Besançon) is based on an idea developped Pierre Schaeffer : the nature of an instrument can only be guessed from its timbre AND dynamics. For instance, if you take a piano sound, remove the attack, and slowly fade it in, the listener will have a hard finding the origin of that sound.
In Anamorphose #3, there were 5 anamorphosis locations, each position revealing the nature of one sound (the sounds were piano, harpsichord, vibraphone, guitar and contrabass).
Here is a recording of me going from one anamorphosis area to another:
Guitar and contrabass were played live by Didier Aschour and Eric Chalan.
If the listeners could not find the anamorphosis location, answers were given on the backside of the program. To do so, loudspeakers were numbered.
The setup :
