Cenote II
Residence at l'Image qui Parle, January 2021
in collaboration with Goupile
type: visual & sound installation interactive
materials: wood, sumi paper, video projection
stereo sound broadcast
control device for the spectator X, Y, Z
Goupile is a researcher and musician.
In his research, conducted in the past at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, the Institute for Acoustic Music Research IRCAM, and today at the University of East London, she is interested in communication and its emergence, in what is held
on the verge of words and allows us to learn and understand them.
File on the research-creation process to download:
In ornate caves in particular, study by voice comes before that by instruments which do not detect certain notable acoustic properties. A discipline called archaeo-acoustics has brought to light the importance of the resonance of stone in determining the areas to be painted or the production of symbols, and ritual practices. From 1988 Reznikoff & Dauvois shows the correlation and the conjunction between the resonance of the body and the resonance within the space of the cave. The voice guided the choice of early humans for the locations and motifs of many if not the majority of cave paintings. It is believed that the early cave dwellers used their cries and the echoes of their voices to find the resonating locations, and then mark those spaces with symbols. We therefore decided to materialize myths in our installation, by means of voices recounting myths in snatches. These voices were again modified, this time by working instead on the resonances of the voices mirroring those produced by the mineral cavities. These modifications are more or less drastic, creating a disappearance / appearance of the story. This time visitors were invited to modulate these sound parameters, bringing the story closer or further away, and creating different resonances depending on their action on the pad.
Sound collections & mixing: techniques used
The sound controller allows the user to interact with these sound tracks and to modify the audio gains of the tracks to vary the "sound emotions": specific to human beings.
A fresco was made on one of the sides of the cenote during the residency: 275/400 cm
Made in India ink - this fresco is a contemporary reminder of the illustrations and engravings of
legends and myths collected by the first folklorists and ethnographers.