Sur les traces du Bronteion

Sur les traces du Bronteion is an audiovisual installation by Tanguy Clerc, conceived and produced as part of the diploma project of the ESBA TALM/ DNSEP/ Master in Sound Design in June 2016.

The Bronteion, better known as the “thunder machine”, designates, in ancient Greek theatre, one of the first sound devices used for dramaturgical purposes, making it possible to imitate the noise of thunder.

When the spectator enters the exhibition space that Tanguy Clerc has designed, they at first think they are attending a video projection in the purest style of the mechanical symphonies of the 1920s and 30s. Indeed, on the screen, devoid of any human presence, images of machines in more or less close-up plunge us into an entirely mechanised world accompanied by a perfectly matching sound. The images were filmed in the Firmin Didot and Soregraph print works without any human presence, which recalls in particular Jean Mitry’s film Symphonie mécanique (1955).

The installation consists in making an originally silent video audible by means of mechanical objects placed directly in the projection space behind the screen. Like an orchestra, these mechanisms are triggered in step with the editing and the events in the image to make up the film’s soundtrack in its entirety.
Each of the video shots is thus given sound in the manner of Foley artists, except that the sound effects here are automated: once activated, the installation requires no further human intervention, and so stands at the crossroads of the cinematic, sonic and sculptural worlds.
The projected images are more or less figurative shots filmed in places of industrial production: the picture editing is generated randomly by a computer: the loops thus always follow one another in a different order. The random sequence is accompanied by a variable duration of each of the loops, also random (between 7 and 30 seconds). Each video is analysed in real time in order to control and dictate electronically the behaviour of the motors that give rise to the sounds, which come from the acoustic machines.

See Tanguy Clerc’s website: http://www.tanguyclerc.com/

Sur les traces du Bronteion, ESBAM 02/06/2016 from tanguy clerc on Vimeo.