Flesh waves

 

One hears a sound. One listens to murmurs and chants. But can one feel those sounds? Perceive them differently?

 

The human skin is sensitive to touch, but for it perceives intensities and warmth, it can also be aroused by the vibrations of sound and light. Notes and sparks mark their stories on the body. The skin is a land to write on and the flesh is a river to enter.

 

Flesh waves is an augmented reality performance/installation exploring the relationships arising from the interaction between the body in movement and technologies of sound spatialization in real-time and lighting. Artists of this piece integrate technologies in their artistic research as a means to reach unpredictable sensory experiences, unknown territories:

 

Under a faint glow appears a three-dimensional human sculpture: five women, bodies intertwined, form a Collective Body. Transported by the chant of their own murmurs, they slowly carry one another into a continuous wave. Bodies and breaths entangle, the women are simultaneously five bodies and one same mass, five voices and one choir.

 

The Collective Body is a carnal one and a mediated one; from the different dynamics of movement emerges an organic electroacoustic soundscape. Lively traveling in space, the soundscape grazes the performer’s skin and resonates in their movements. Acting as the sixth performer of the piece, the sound also surrounds the spectators, integrating them in the live sound form. The audience is immersed in the flesh, confronted to the extremely intimate.

 

This research/creation project involves the development of a unique processing software allowing the organic real-time capture and spatialization of the performers’ voices in space. This research promises the creation of a performance/installation piece where the ritual meets the virtual, where technology deploys the feminine flesh in all its sensuality.

 

 

CREDITS

 

Project designers

Conception du projet

Ricardo Dal Farra

Isabelle Choinière
Audrey-Anne Bouchard

 

Sound design and music (composition; real-time performance)

Conception sonore et musique (composition; performance en temps réel)

Ricardo Dal Farra with

Karim Lakhdar (assistant)

 

Technological development

Développement technologique

Kevin McDonald and Karim Lakhdar