F
I am Éric and under the name of Fraction I exercise as a composer and producer of electronic music.
I am now in residence at the Society des Arts et Technologiques de Montréal
in the event of a cross-exchange between the French Institute and the CALC,
which allows French artists to come here to work and build a work in Montréal or in Quebec
and to these Quebec artists to do so much in France.
So in 2013-2014 I collaborated with the production of two immersive works,
which brought me to work and want to deepen everything about sound immersion.
So I thought about a project that I could propose to the Society des Arts et Technologiques
in the event of this exchange on the development of an ambisonic audio-sound model
that would be developed in the event of a production of a new work
designed for an immersive environment like the atmosphere,
which really allows to deepen the spatial aspects, including the sound.
This is something that I wanted to develop for a long time,
which is the work of Dromo, which I collaborated with, and which allows me to do it today.
So to explain what ambisonic audio-sound is in two words,
it is a technique of spatialization
that is very important in the work of Dromo,
which is very important in the work of Dromo,
which is very important in the work of Dromo,
which is very important in the work of Dromo,
which is a technique of spatialization
that rests on the decoupling, the decomposition of sound waves in harmonics,
which allows to deepen everything that is controlled and
of the acoustic space and played on psycho-acoustic effects
that do not allow a classical spatialization.
With ambisonic audio-sound, for example, we are no longer really a tributary
of the number of loudspeakers available in a place.
The place becomes unified from a sound point of view
and we spatialize the sources completely in a virtual space
as we could do on video work with a 3D space.
We access to techniques of spatial manipulation of the sound
as we can do it for a virtual 3D space for visual projection.
This manipulation of sound is done with tactile controls
of tablet or iPad and really allows to reinforce the immersion
illusion for the spectator. We can play with spatial movements,
with the depth, the distance in the space.
In fact, it allows to play with sound illusion
and more than that, it usually allows a classical spatialization technique.
The project is structured in three different artifacts.
There is the development of an ambisonic audio motor
adapted to the sound architecture of the atmosphere.
The other important point is how to control the 3D sound space.
For this work, the best way I found was to use a software
called Yanix which was developed in Paris
by taking the legacy of a composer called Xenakis
who was the first to think of sound spatialization
as an extension of an architectural vision of space.
This Yanix software allows us to write
a spatial partition of the sound, of the movements
and this allows us to reach the third point
which is the creation of the work itself with aesthetic design.
In fact, we have three points, the ambisonic,
the spatial partition with Yanix
and then the proper creation of the aesthetic of the work.
My dream is to be able to control and manipulate
the sound as much as possible
in all these acoustic and aesthetic components.
In fact, the ambisonic allows us to have this ambition.
The development of tools, in real time, must allow me to do so.
One of the other big parts is to develop
control interfaces to be able to play
and modify the acoustic space in real time.
Always with the Yanix software
which allows us to modulate the movements in space,
I will put in place a number of devices
such as distortion in real time, geometric curves
which will be composed with the Yanix team
which will follow the architecture of the dome.
This is a very important aspect in real time
on sound architecture.
This project is very focused on sound architecture
and at the end of the last point,
for what is aesthetic,
the treatment and the process will all be in real time.
The project is really oriented,
we are in a dome,
we broadcast a sound track and how we manipulate it,
how we control it and how we compose it.
The idea of the residence was to have
this technical and conceptual approach
which serves as an alibi for the creation of a new work
or the opposite,
a new work which serves as an alibi
for the development of an ambisonic model for the atmosphere.
And then the project will continue to grow
through all the visual development
which will complete the audio approach.
I will play on the notions of inertia, of gel,
so contrary to the enterprise,
to the enterprise with a rather extreme media disorder,
a rather radical aesthetic choice
with a work on sound quite pushed,
especially using the possibilities of the ambisonic system
and the work on a light device
which will give the visual skeleton of the wind.
The new project is called Anthropia.
It is an audiovisual piece,
a performance audiovisual which will be declared in the installation.
It was built around the idea of an architect
named Richard Fuehler who was the inventor of the geodesic dome
and a scientific species called Anthropia,
the principle that characterizes the augmentation of the disorder,
which is an ineluctable form that can be observed in the universe.
The project really slides on these two notions,
on the unity between architecture and sound spatialization.
With spatialization,
we can go to the account of a physical entity
playing on its limits by positioning the sound
precisely on the curves of space.
By using Yanix and the mathematical writing of curves,
of geometries which are still very symbolic,
my idea is to modulate the sound space inside this architectural unity
that gives the work of Richard Fuehler
and which draws attention to a theme,
on a subject that really holds my heart,
the sustainable development.
What does it mean today? Why don't we have a choice?
What is the augmentation of Anthropia?
Why does it apply to us, our development?
Even if we think it's better,
it's not as simple as that.
The augmentation of the disorder is a bit transversal today.
So it really is something that holds my heart.
But the dome doesn't exist without a reason.
It's a form that corresponds to a sort of energy efficiency climax.
It's the structure that requires less energy to hold on.
So Richard Fuehler said that it was the answer to the architect
with a lot of questions he had in the 60s and 70s
that it was the dome that could be a solution in architectural terms
to make the model of human development the most effective
in terms of the use of fossil energies.
So the symbolism of this dome is powerful.
I think it was really interesting to be able to reuse this symbolism
to create a work by unifying architecture
and the spatial dimension of the sound.
The idea is to create a scenography
or scenography, a luminous and reactive architecture
on the physical aspect of the visual part of the visual show.
I wanted something physical to be consistent with the architectural approach
and to have physicality because it's true that often when we work in audiovisual
we have works that can be virtual.
I needed to find a lot of physicality
because for me, the message is very physical and concrete.
So this visual part requires a lot of engineering work
to design a device that will accommodate the whole lighting system
and wiring.
There is a lot of development, design, work and construction.
It will take some time, but I think that in the second half of 2015
we will be able to present it in the next seven years.
Thank you.
