machine for four operators

LES SIÈCLES
OBSCURS
machine for four operators
installation / performance - concert
a proposal by Judith Depaule, Julien Fezans, Laurent Golon and Tanguy Nédélec
MABEL OCTOBRE
artistic direction Judith Depaule
codirection Virginie Hammel
20 rue Rouget de Lisle - 93500 PANTIN
contact Virginie Hammel
+ 33 6 13 66 21 33 / + 33 1 41 50 38 10
[email protected] / www.mabeloctobre.net
cast and crew
concept and performance Judith Depaule, Julien Fezans, Laurent Golon, Tanguy Nedelec
development Sylvain Buffet, Guillaume Evrard, Olivier Guillerminet
voice training Valérie Joly
production
Mabel Octobre
subsidized by The French Ministry of Culture – the Drac Île-de-France convention and the Île-deFrance Region
with the participation of DICRéAM
creation and rehearsal residencies
“first version”: Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers – October 9th - 12th 2012, November 26th - December
1st 2012 / Atelier de Laurent Golon – August 26th - 30th 2013, May 19th - 30th 2014, December
8th -19th 2014
“second version”: ARCAL – May 26th - June 5th 2015 / Lutherie Urbaine Le Local – June 29th - July
3rd 2015 / Confluences – January 18th - 24th 2016 / La Muse en Circuit - Centre national de création
musicale – April 11th - 21th 2016
calendar
end-of-residency presentations
“first version”: Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers – December 1st 2012
“second version”: Lutherie Urbaine Le Local – July 3rd 2015
présentation during the Extension festival – La Muse en Circuit - Centre national de création
musicale, Confluences, Paris – May 6th and 7th 2016
performances May 6th at 6pm and 9pm and May 7th at 3pm and 6pm
technical needs
a concealable space with a minimum of 6m by 6m wide and 3m50 high
two 16A plugs idealy on two distincts phases
an internet connection
a sub
conditions
installation the machine can be programmed autonomous, continual and on a free access, in the
presence of a mediator
performance by appointment with the audience
the birth of the project
In June 2011, the Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers welcomed Gangplank for a residency. This informal and shape-shifting
collective brings together people from various fields of contemporary artistic production to question the relation between
technology and dramaturgy («dramatoolgy»). After this workshop, Julien Fezans, Laurent Golon, Tanguy Nédélec and
Judith Depaule met together again several times to continue with the experimental work, and to develop a collective
artistic object, somewhere between installation and performance.
intent and purpose
In today’s dependency on technology, its continuous need to reaffirm its control over modernity, each one of use is
compelled to acquire the latest equipment, ever more powerful and sophisticated than the last. However, we know that
without even mentioning “programmed obsolescence” or “planned disuse”, every piece of IT equipment bought at a T
instant becomes obsolete at a given T + epsilon moment. A computer, a camera or a phone becomes obsolete once it is
opened at the latest, and a microprocessor at the start of its serial manufacturing, among other examples.
Technological obsolescence and its exponential acceleration could remain a collateral phenomena of the evolution
of mankind, if with the rise of digital technological, they had not become synonym of future memory loss. Indeed, the
transition to digital exposes our memories to constant restructuration (a constant change of support, port, format, norm,
system…) and to material incidents (failure, energy outage, destruction...). Thus weakening them to the point where one
might think we are participating in the making of a new “Dark Age”, a period without memory.
If we have retained the historical concept of “Dark Ages”, it is because the foundation of every culture is based on
transmission and memory. Is a culture without memory doomed to disappear? By “Dark Ages”, modern historiography
designates the period between the 12th and 8th centuries BC, from the destruction of the Mycenaean civilization to the
emergence of the great Greek cities. Four centuries during which, memory has been consigned onto lost media (a characteristic of oral-based civilizations), opening the door to often apocalyptical hypothesizes and a long-standing “hole”
in History.
How can we not conceive that the media on which we consign our memory today are so easily obsolete, that there could
be nothing left? We have chosen to question this in a fun way by inventing a machine, an assembly of objects tied to
the IT revolution, and turned away from their conventional use. In our installation, we voluntarily associate “outdated”
material with “advanced” IT developments, in order to counter our compulsive relation to technology, whilst highlighting
the poetic and oneiric fields it encompasses.
What do our machines become when they have served their time? They are merely hard-to-decipher artifacts. Should
we toss them over to rubbish? Can we recycle them to give them a second life? Can we assemble them to make a new
kind of material? Can we, with the help of today’s digital technologies, reassert their value so that they can become a
field of technological and artistic experimentation?
the machine
The visitors or spectators will discover an installation composed of an experimentation straw mattress of 1m90 by 1m90
wide and 2m90 high, on which is piled an accumulation of past century equipment: computers and printers, original
gaming stations, typewriters, audio cassettes, CDs, SyQuest.., cathode monitors, all sorts of amplifiers... A lit ceiling of
industrial-type fluorescent lights is suspended above this pile. Beneath this pile is a web of cables to supply it all. The
sounds and vibrations of all this old equipment, cables and fluorescent tubes are amplified with Piézo cells (pressure
sensors that serve as microphones), the whole thing leading up to a giant mechanized Organ.
The intent is not to lead a museum-type installation, but to take advantage of the internal organs of these machines,
which are still in working condition while no longer being compatible with today’s technological requirements. To achieve
this, the equipment has been completely taken apart to recycle its components, which were then selected for their sound
potential. Our apparatus has become a Machine, the organs of which have been extracted from their original equipment
and exposed as is, according to the principles of hardware porn, and then reconnected to command systems compatible
with contemporary digital technology.
The mechanized organ can exist either autonomously in installation mode while playing programmed light and sound
sequences; or “living” under its performance mode, activated directly by its operators, who become mad scientists, techno-archeologists, or obsessive geeks, struggling with a shape-shifting machine that sometimes escapes them. Visitors
or spectators are invited to circulate around the structure during the whole length of the performance and to change their
angle of vision.
the performance
4 performers intervene (by appointment with the audience) to interact live on the machine and make it «sing» upon 5
sequences: the technical rider, the obsolescence song, the binary song, the memory song, and the song of the future.
- The Machine, centered on itself, lists precisely its own technical rider, putting the emphasis on each and every one of
its components. This procedure responds to a memory preoccupation due to obsolescence: how do we preserve and
reproduce contemporary works of art in which more and more technologies are involved? To that end, art curators and
researchers have developed protocols inherent to the visual arts, similar to a technical rider in the performance arts.
- The Obsolescence song attempts to systematically list all of the computers that have existed until the year 2000. The
accumulative and repetitive effect of this list, in which everyone recognizes a model they have used and then forgotten,
highlights the question of obsolescence and provokes a nostalgic and comical dizziness.
- The binary song lets the machine speak of its memory and its status. The performers translate the phrase “ I do not
think but I am as long as I am updated” into binary language (“0s” and “1s”). This creates a paradoxical inversion effect.
- The memory song explores the rooting mechanisms of the -mnesia system by pushing the machine into a corner.
- The song of the future asks the question of a future reduced to the scansion of the word “tomorrow” backed by a
“raging” and finally apocalyptical music.
technological choices
We decided to write in MIDI language. MIDI converts musical commands into dimming commands for low-voltage motors (players, ventilators) as well as AC power equipment (lights, radio, computers, etc.). This language enables direct
manipulations that are closer to the musical gesture, thus controlling the sound emitted by the machine.
The connective software used by a newest generation computer are Ableton LIVE and Max/MSP. They offer the ability
to either launch pre-written sound and light compositions, or work directly on the behavior of the equipment and lights
with a MIDI controller, or even to combine both functions.
The Machine also comprises a soundboard, an equalizer, amplifiers and speakers. The soundboard takes in the signals
sent by the piézos sensors placed on the lights and the different components. It can isolate the elements throughout the
performance, make them resonate with one another, as well as transform their sound via a double equalization, which
selects and highlights a particular frequency. The sounds can be distributed towards four independent diffusion sources.
The speakers are placed directly into the machine. They allow a coherent hearing platform for the operators and spectators, as well as a direct interaction between the speakers and the various microphones (piézos sensors) by creating a
Larsen effect.
The choice of very specific instrumental amplifiers (guitar and bass), allows us to achieve different tonalities from the
same sound and to knead the sound with more acuity. We tackle it directly without having to use digital effects. More so,
amplifiers have the aesthetic of former technology that blends in with the other pieces of equipment.
All these elements enhance the sound possibilities of the machine and flesh out its polyphonic dimension, specific to
the concept of a mechanized organ.
As for the video, same as with the other components, we act directly on the mounted computers’ graphics boards (iMac
G3 et SE). We use the concept of circuit bending, which consists in short-circuiting the graphics boards using add-ons
of electronic relays. This also produces an alteration of the original images in order to compose new ones, according to
the principle of glitch art, which seeks to corrupt electronic data from an equipment to create digital mistakes.
Scan sequences then follow the glitch sequences in real-time with endoscopic cameras (video probes), the images of
which are then projected via the same computers. This is about prolonging the principle of hardware porn and showing
the interior structure of the machine, allowing the spectators to dive deeper into the heart of the apparatus.
Between activism and recycling, between installation and performance-concert, Les siècles obscurs questions our dependency on technology and the rise of an era deprived of memory.
excerpts for the text
Obsolescence song
text for 3 voices
1982
Atari 1200XL Commodore C64 Dragon Data Dragon 32
Grundy NewBrain
IBM 5322
Sanyo PHC-25
Sinclair ZX Spectrum SMT Goupil 3
Thomson TO7
1983
Apple // e
Atari 600 XL
Atari 800 XL
Bull Micral 90-50
Canon V-20
Dragon Data Dragon 64
IBM PC XT
Matra-Hachette Alice 4
Mattel Aquarius
Micronique Hector 2HR
Micronique Hector HRX
Oric Oric 1
Radiola VG-5000
Sanyo PHC-28L
Sanyo PHC-28S
Tandy Color Computer 2 ou Coco 2 Tandy TRS-80 MC-10
Tavernier
Triumph-Adler Alphatronic PC Video Technologie Laser
200
Yeno MX64
1984
Amstrad CPC 464 Apple // c
Apple Macintosh 512k Bull Micral 30
Commodore 16 Commodore Plus/4 Exelvision EXL 100
Golstar FC-200
Jistral Jispac 500 Matra-Hachette Alice 32 Oric Atmos
Philips VG-5000 Philips VG-8010 Philips VG-8020
Schneider CPC-464 Schneider MC 810 Schneider VG5000 Sharp MZ-800
Sinclair ZX Spectrum + Sony HB-75 Spectravideo SVI 728
Tandy 1000
Tandy 1000A
Tandy 1000HD
Tandy 1000 EX
Thomson MO5
Thomson TO7/70
Video Technologie Laser 310 Yamaha YIS 503 F
Yashica YC-64
(...)
Scene 6
text for 2 voices, binary translation of the phrase: “I do not
think but I am as long as you update me”:
01001010 01100101 00100000 01101110
00100000 01110000 01100101 01101110
01100101 00100000 01110000 01100001
00100000 01101101 01100001 01101001
00100000 01101010 01100101 00100000
01110101 01101001 01110011 00100000
01110101 01100001 01101110 01100100
01101101 01101101 01100101 00101110
01100101
01110011
01110011
01110011
01110011
01110001
00100000
the cast and crew
Judith Depaule
Wrote her thesis on theatre in the work camps under Stalin’s rule. In theatre, she has collaborated with the collectives Sentimental Bourreau (musical theatre: Strip et boniments, Les carabiniers, La grande charge hystérique, Va-t’en
chercher le bonheur et ne reviens pas les mains vides) and Aglaée Solex (theatre and video: Incidences, Accrochezmoi), assisted Robert Cantarella and Oleg Matveev, acted with Pascal Rambert, Jacques Vincey, Eva Doumbia, Arnold
Pasquier, translated from Russian for Yves Beaunesne, Bernard Sobel, Alain Fourneau, Ivan Viripaev, Irène Bonnaud.
With the Alternateurs Volants, she has created Illuminations (show-exhibition). She founded Mabel Octobre in 2001:
Desesperanto (multimedia interactive show); Matériau Goulag (reading, concert); Qui ne travaille pas ne mange pas
(Goulag theatre review); Ce que j’ai vu et appris au Goulag from interviews with Jacques Rossi (exercise in memory); La
Folie de Janus by Sylvie Dyclo-Pomos (Beach disappearances memorial); Qui a tué Ibrahim Akef ? (dream of oriental
dance); Vous en rêvez (Youri l’a fait) – epic chronicles of the first man in space; Corps de femme 1 - le marteau after
Kamila Skolimowska’s story (Olympic champion); Même pas morte – story of a war child; Oxygène by Ivan Viripaev;
Corps de femme 2 - le ballon ovale after stories by female rugby players; Le risque zéro, ça n’existe pas after In Situ
by Patrick Bouvet; Corps de femme 3 - les haltères after the testimony of Nurcan Taylan (female heavy weight lifting
champion); Civilisation XX (show-exhibition); Je suis moi, piece for an apartment; Année zéro, after Blackout by Nanni
Balestrini; Les enfants de la terreur; La bonne distance, after a text by Michel Rostain; La guerre de mon père, about the
Algerian independence war. Recipient of the Villa Médicis Hors les Murs residency.
Julien Fezans
After studying images and sound at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale in Brest, he has worked at the Université
du Québec in Montréal next to Daniel Courville, creating tools to work with the ambisonic format. He has then worked
as chief operator and sound assistant in fiction and documentary. In parallel, he has participated in different projects as
sound engineer or designer, first for theatre with Clara Chabalier - Les Ex-citants, Elzbiéta Jeznach - Miettes de spectacles, Judith Depaule - Mabel Octobre, Jacques Dor - Désordre alphabétique, Noelle Keruzoré - Dellie Compagnie,
Sarah Oppenheim - Le Bal Rebondissant, Katia Ponomareva - L’ Ensemble à Nouveau, then for radio with Longueur
d’Ondes festival in Brest and with the team of 37.2, a radio show on Radio Campus Paris. In 2011, he took part in
the Gangplank research group, which gathers lighting, sound, and video technicians, musicians, and stage directors,
around the interactions between technology and dramaturgy in our scenic ventures, supported by the Laboratoires
d’Aubervillers.
Laurent Golon
After some technical theatre experience (La Salamandre, Lille; Le Lucernaire, Paris, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris) in the 80s,
he has gone back to his first love: visual arts, especially with Kites, then with machine-sculptures. The sounds produced
by these animated sculptures have quickly aroused the curiosity of musicians — Jean-Marc Chouvel (Mouvements,
Mécaphonies), Phonogenistes (Parti(e)s de Plaisir, Kinosong), as well as poets (Alain Robinet, Isabelle Krzywkowski).
These collaborations have led to various performances or installations, solo or collaborative residencies (Césarée,
Reims – 2008; Pecs, Hungary for Pecs European Capital of Culture -2009-10; Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers Ma
première fois avec un Chorégraphe, with Jenifer Lacey 2010) or festivals (Eaux ditives, Barjols -2008; InOuïr, Montreuil
-2008; Ostrale, Dresden -2009; Lindenow, Leipzig -2010, Temporary Cities, Pecs 2010, Rhizomes, Paris 2012). For the
needs of these performances or installations, he has developed automated command systems as well as the capturing
of sound via Piezo sensor cells (the same as with the present Machine).
Tanguy Nédélec
An eclectic academic route between cinema, German studies and social sciences finally led him to theatre. From 1999
to 2006, parallel with an internship as stage and props tech with the Comédie Française, he has co-developed an artists’
urban wilderness in an abandoned warehouse: «les Ateliers du Vent» in Rennes, Brittany. Alongside his stage management work, he has collaborated as a scenic designer for theatre with Benoît Sicat, Natascha Rudolf, Luc Jaminet; exhibitions with «Périscopage», independent comic-books in Rennes. He has participated in the creation of the collective
“l’impossible, l’autre pas”, with which he has initiated biannual artistic and festive encounters. Finally, in the context of
collective exhibitions, he has created installations-performances such as «INRI un mystère d’aujourd’hui», «la pommade», «le tardigrade», «vigilance-propreté». From 2008 to 2012 he was general stage manager for the Laboratoires
d’Aubervilliers.
links
website
www.mabeloctobre.net/creations/les-siecles-obscurs/
teaser
vimeo.com/140113229
sound excerpt
www.mabeloctobre.net/audio/ExtraitSonore_Les_siècles_obscurs.mp3
contacts
MABEL OCTOBRE
20 rue Rouget de Lisle – 93500 Pantin
Virginie HAMMEL – administration and production
+ 33 6 13 66 21 33 / + 33 1 41 50 38 10
[email protected]
Fanny SURZUR – communication and diffusion
+ 33 7 50 35 42 38 / + 33 1 41 50 38 10
[email protected]
www.mabeloctobre.net