Modulations

Event

(…) Thanks to the use of technology, states of perception can be widened. The relation between music and image can generate physical and psychical sensations that are difficult to describe. Modulations, a first weekend dedicated to this theme had Lara Lee’s Synthetic Pleasures analyze the impact of new technology on human beings. Virtual reality, artificial intelligence, cybersex and other current trends in technological development plunged the spectator into a vertiginous new definition of mankind and showed how technology influences art history allowing those who master it to better understand and explore our worlds. This movie was the starting point leading to a more precise subject matter, the breaking apart of musical structures and its consequences. Modulations another movie by Lara Lee analyzed the history of electronic music considering Luigi Russolo’s manifest The art of Noise which, in 1913, tore apart the structures of melody and harmony common to musicians up to then. The performance Ephemeral Syntaxes played on a synthesizer on which each key corresponded to a sequence of images By playing different melodies, it was possible to obtain different image sequences. The audio-visual relation took on astonishing forms. The performance Early Techno consisted in the arrangment on the floor of old Ips by Cage, Henry, Stockhausen, etc. in order to analyze and mix them. Past and present were opposed again, rather blended in order to question the idea of contemporary art.

Ivo Zanetti translated by Simon Pleasance

April 23 and 24 1999