L’Ellipse

L’ELLIPSE, 2010
Sound installation
16 microphones, 16 stands, cables, wirefire sound card, computer program on DVD, Mac mini
Variable dimensions
Edition of 3 +1 AP

This sound setup is made up of microphones on stands forming a circle tilted in space. Each microphone is used as a loudspeaker to play back an audio sample and to produce a sequence that travels around an ellipse, more or less quickly, in space.

Like a planet revolving around the sun, the setup produces circular cycles whose speed for completing a revolution varies through acceleration or deceleration. By reversing the process of diffusing a sound – using recording tools such as microphones instead of speakers – the setup creates a disturbance in the usual perception of sound-reinforcement equipment.

By reversing the process of diffusing a sound – using recording tools such as microphones instead of speakers – the setup creates a disturbance in the usual perception of sound-reinforcement equipment. The static sculptural aspect of this installation contrasts with the dynamics produced by the sounds, which simulate
the movement of a circle at variable speed. Sober and minimalist, the set of microphones presents a suspended ellipse whose only movement is created by the displacement of sound.

The sound diffused comes from recordings made by the artist during a residency at Ny-Alesund (Svalbard, Norway), a scientific village considered the northernmost settlement on the planet. These VLF (Very Low Frequencies) are natural radio frequencies originating in the magnetosphere, which are harvested and brought back into the sphere of the audible.
The passage of the sound, which appears as a crackle or a spark, evokes in its succession the idea of an infinite cycle.

Dominique Blais
L’Ellipse
from 12 January to 3 February 2012
opening Wednesday 11 January at 6 pm

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