Crossfading

The latest addition to the book/disc collection Zagzig, published by DisVoir, CROSSFADING is an unprecedented sound experience created as part of an installation by the artist Loris Gréaud during the participatory sessions he has been organising for five years in various museums around the world.
Conceived for a binaural sound diffusion system – a process discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Dove in 1839 – this installation consists in sending into each ear, by means of headphones, frequencies very close to one another, creating a beat capable of generating Alpha waves. These waves characterise a calm state of consciousness, and are mainly emitted when the subject has their eyes closed. They occur in meditative states, notably at the moment of falling asleep, so that the mind remains awake but the body asleep, as in a state of deep relaxation and meditation.

CROSSFADING thus plays on this perceptual phenomenon to lead the listener gradually to the threshold of sleep and allow access to waking dreams and to both auditory and visual hallucinations.

CROSSFADING is an artist’s book that includes the CD of the live recording of the latest installation of the sound piece presented at the Whitney Museum in New York. It also shows the MRI of the artist’s cerebral hemispheres engaged during the listening to this rare experience.

CROSSFADING thus offers an artistic experiment as a vast undertaking “to put the world to sleep”, aiming at an unsuspected state of consciousness in which each listener/reader is invited to explore the far reaches of their own psyche.

Relax and, for an optimum effect, try listening binaurally with headphones for a literally sensational experience!

CROSSFADING _ LORIS GREAUD _ WHITNEY MUSEUM OF ART _ 2006 from GREAUDSTUDIO on Vimeo.

Get the Book/CD on Amazon