LUCIDMEDIA

The Multimedia Experience – Part 2

Written by Lisa M. Knapp Friday, 20 February 2009 11:17

This exhibit was something I was looking forward to.

Gauthier has always had a fascination with found objects that produce sound and has always liked to play around with the objects and morph them to his liking, thus creating something entirely different and immensely exciting.  Gauthier’s multimedia installations meld together humour and poetry creating something unexpected.  He captures and embodies ideas of order and chaos, giving an order to chaos, giving it sense.  He bundles randomness and sound orchestration to create a beauty that is out of the norm.  He even manages to encompass permanence and fragility in his works, giving a light touch to a pencil, and all the power to the machine at hand.

Through utilizing sound, electricity and motion, Gauthier has successfully managed to create many different devices that fascinate the viewer.  His uses of multiple mediums and different media devices create a perfect example of multimedia.

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The exhibit is silent until a patron walks into the room where it is shown; this is when the excitement and fascination begins.  All sounds are made as you move from place to place. Little sensors can detect your movement around the found object and when the sensors are activated the sound is.  The first piece I saw was called RUT, a piece that Gauthier finished in 2004.  RUT is a large installation soundscape and is designed to replicate the sounds of a summer pond full of birds, frogs, insects and the like; the catch is that all sounds are constructed entirely from electronic and mechanical devices.  RUT consists of a large randomly shaped tubular metal structure that seems to serve as the skeleton of the object.  On different parts of the structure are found objects assembled which combined with different devices, interact with the structure to make sounds that are amplified through speakers and homemade megaphones that are also randomly placed on the skeleton of the structure.  Each found object interacted with the structure as I stood in front of it, all amplified and orchestrated by a soundboard at the top of the structure. Different things that I noticed on the structure were a glass bottle, microphones, speakers, wires, small pieces of metal, etc.  There was so much for the eye to see and embrace.  The sound mixer is controlled in such a way that the volumes of the microphones are on a constant shift from area to area and thus modified and never the same.

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The second visually stimulating machine exhibited was an ongoing series of knetic drawing machines titled Marquerers d’incertitude meaning uncertainty markers which Gauthier was creating from 2005 and finished in 2007.   These machines are a play on the principle of physics and “assert the impossibility of predicting the behaviour of the universe” as the HGA put it.  Attached to moving circular machines, and controlled by a motorized attachment that moves the machine up and down, are graphite pencils that produce an ongoing series of drawings.  The more traffic that travels through the area these are exhibited, the denser the markings created by the graphite machines.  Each drawing will slowly change and evolve during the duration of the exhibit and I already plan to view the exhibit prior to its final day in order to see the progress these Uncertainty Markers have accomplished.

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The last exhibit was my favourite, entitled Battlements et Papillons meaning Beats and Butterflies. This beautiful work of art, Gauthier finished in 2006.  This is in my opinion and many others, his serious play on controlled randomness.  As you walk in you see a beautiful grand piano, decoratively and carefully covered in silver leaf with various attachments build in along with an electronic sensor that activates when a patron stands in front of the piano.  As you move in front of it, the piano starts to play. The more elaborate your movement the more elaborate the piece that the piano composes.  The modification of the piano changes the way we view instruments and amplifies the creation of an unexpected situation.  Rather than the norm of you or me having to sit and play the piano, instead we compose the music through movement of the body rather than the touch on specified keys.  The HGA put it perfectly in the description stating that “these enchanting strains, like the metallic surfaces of the piano, conjure the shimmering ways of a butterfly.”  In a sense, the piano composes the music through the dance or movement off of what it senses.  We started to dance in front of it; the sensors picked up our flirty and fun motions and composed a beautiful piece, accompanying our movement.

Jean Pierre Gauthier has managed to bring out a new and very enjoyable era of robotic mechanics.  He is the 2004 recipient of the Sobey Art Award and has even had the opportunity to exhibit in the US.  Be sure to check out this exhibit before it’s too late.

Keep your eyes pealed part 3 of The Multimedia Experience, coming soon.