POWEr : 45min audiovisual performance
©2009 burton + roy
POWEr is a performance based on high-voltage electromagnetic perturbations, by Alexandre Burton and Julien Roy. Using an audio-modulated Tesla coil as a live instrument, electrical arcs are generated and transformed in an ongoing, realtime audiovisual process. Electricity is used as a subtle yet intense material, manifested as an instrinsically synesthesic phenomenae.
Building on a context that’ is halfway between a musical presentation and a media arts installation, POWEr is in line with Artificiel’'s development. Having charted a singular path in their work with sonic properties and electrical impulse through previous projects such as bulbes (2003) and beyond6281 (2004), as well as cultivating a performative dimension with later works such as cubing (2006) and artificiel.process() (2008), POWEr takes its place by raising the stakes of spontaneity and working with evermore complex musical and visual structures.
While framing the striking imagery of the raw electrical arcs is a central aspect of the work, it is also a counterweight to some theoretical preoccupations which traverse the body of works coming from the Artificiel studio, namely: the Desubjectification of Sound and Image Materials, R&D Creativity as the Consequence of Artistic Research and (most importantly) the Building of a Genuine Digital Performance Practice.
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