Review – ISÜ Web Art and audio-visual installation – Planète Québec

Planète Québec
http://planete.qc.ca/culture/vie/adulte/adulte-19112002-50075.html

Ellipse. L’art sur le Web***
Le Mardi le 19 novembre, 2002

Au Musée du Québec jusqu’au 1er décembre 2002. On aura accès au site Internet jusqu’au 1er décembre 2003.

Il s’agit de la première présentation d’art Web dans le contexte d’un musée québécois. L’exposition regroupe, dans le bloc cellulaire, six projets d’art Web spécifiquement commandés par le Musée du Québec à des artistes canadiens. Un catalogue est disponible.

Brad Todd – . L’interface graphique présente des pages tirées des manuscrits originaux du Spleen de Paris de Charles Baudelaire et d’À la recherche du temps perdu de Marcel Proust.

Naviguant dans le texte, le spectateur rappelle à l’écran une série de segments vidéo présentant des sites mélancoliques de la ville de Paris (cimetière, rues, statuaire urbaine, musée Grévin, maison de Gustave Moreau) par lesquels on peut s’immerger dans l’environnement visuel de ces icônes de la littérature française.

Une pièce robotique téléopérée est présentée en tandem, invitant le spectateur à participer à l’effacement quotidien d’une image photographique de Paris. On peut contrôler, sur l’Internet, un petit mécanisme robotique utilisé pour activer deux fioles remplies d’un liquide (l’une contenant un décolorant et l’autre, une teinture bleue). L’objectif est de renverser une fiole, ou les deux, sur la surface d’une image, la modifiant irrévocablement par un effacement ou une teinture se déroulant dans un espace-temps réel.

Todd produit des projets qui s’appuient sur l’Internet depuis 1997, incorporant des formes disciplinaires à base technologique comme la vidéo, l’audio et l’animation.

Yan Breuleux – Vector Feedback. Ici, vous êtes invité à créer une série d’animations abstraites en frappant sur les touches de l’ordinateur.

En « jouant » sur ces touches, nous déclenchons des changements dans les formes graphiques (carrés, lignes, cercles, motifs, etc.) Ici, une expérience psychédélique et quasi kaléidoscopique s’enracine dans ces cultures centrées sur le plaisir que sont le rave, la techno et les jeux informatiques.

En 1995, Yan Breuleux présentait sa première œuvre sur l’Internet, Deadline, dans le cadre d’une exposition sur le thème de la mort et des réseaux. Il a déjà été D.J. — et ça s’entend! Fascinant — et même un peu hallucinant!

Peter Horvath – Either Side of an Empty Room (ESER). Ici, nous survolons une série de vidéos multicouches non interactives présentées dans une composition faite de cadres qui apparaissent, se chevauchent, s’effondrent et remplissent l’espace encadré, lui aussi, de l’ordinateur. Une parfaite illustration de comment Internet… peut nous rendre fou!

Né en 1961 dans une famille d’origine hongroise, Peter Horvath a un appareil photo à la main depuis l’âge de six ans. Il a inhalé des vapeurs de chambre noire jusqu’à la fin de la vingtaine, puis s’est inscrit au Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design à Vancouver. Il s’est plongé dans les technologies numériques dès l’avènement du Web.

I8U – ISÜ. Structurée à partir de photographies et de sons recueillis dans les anciennes cellules de prison dans lesquelles elle est présentée au Musée du Québec, l’œuvre ISÜ est une animation non interactive.

Elle commence par une série de formes et de lignes abstraites qui apparaissent lentement pour révéler les composantes reconnaissables d’une cellule de prison. C’est de tout repos! L’écran géant est fixé au plafond, on le regarde couché sur un lit…

I8U a connu un parcours musical assez particulier. De la musique classique jusqu’au blues, il a suffi d’une rencontre fortuite avec David Kristian pour qu’elle s’engage dans la musique électronique.

Ses CD ont été produits par des labels canadiens et européens. Elle présente fréquemment des performances solo.

Stephanie Shepherd – Échelle/Scale. Grâce à une interface présentant une carte de points connectés entre eux, nous avons accès à une série d’animations interactives illustrant des graphiques statistiques.

La navigation ludique offerte par Échelle/Scale imite les conventions d’un jeu informatique dans lequel le spectateur est invité à manipuler des images et à créer de nouveaux graphiques, donc de nouvelles données, à partir des statistiques de départ.

Stephanie Shepherd, dans sa production artistique, se concentre sur les manifestations simulées et structurelles d’environnements naturels et s’intéresse à la représentation schématique et dessinée.

Vincent Leclerc – Mémoire vive. Mémoire vive nous met face à un déluge d’archives numériques personnelles. Naviguant dans un espace nébuleux et indéfini — dépourvu de démarcations physiques — nous nous heurtons à une collection aléatoire et flottante de textes, d’images et de sons. Nous pouvons rapprocher ces éléments pour les inspecter de plus près et nous pouvons également les éliminer de l’écran de façon temporaire.

Au fur et à mesure que nous nous familiarisons avec les données (courriels, messages téléphoniques, photos banales), le portrait d’une personne prend forme. Nous découvrons le vécu d’un jeune homme anonyme qui n’existe que par les données flottantes qui nous sont présentées.

Natif de Québec, Vincent Leclerc occupe la fonction de Webmestre pour diverses organisations de Montréal. Il s’intéresse particulièrement aux mécanismes d’interactions entre l’être humain et la machine et aux problèmes surgissant de l’engouement naïf pour le monde du numérique.

Conférence : Art Web en mouvement avec Valérie Lamontagne, commissaire de l’événement, et les artistes Yan Breuleux, I8U, Vincent Leclerc. Samedi 23 novembre, à 14 h. Gratuit.

Review – grasshopper morphine (Piehead Records) 2002 – by Vils di Santo, incursion.org

I8U: grasshopper morphine 
Piehead | PIE 004 | CDR
Subterranean rumblings greet you when you first hit play on I8U’s latest release. The low frequencies are peppered with staccato clicks that seem random at first, but rhythms slowly develop over the course of this opening piece. This sets the pace for an intense and engaging new release by this Montreal sound artist. Time moves slowly here: there are no sudden jumps, starts or fits to speak of. There are plenty of contemplative moments, where the sound fills your space with an incredible depth and presence, and there are plenty of dissonant moments as well, to keep your ears on edge. I8U has created some wondrous music here that challenges and rewards in the same breath. Highlights include the intense “grasshopper morphine,” the mighty “cattail furnace” and “cantname,” an incomparable closing piece if ever I heard one. Wonderful material from beginning to end, it’s a pity the disc is only limited to 311 copies. [Vils M DiSanto]
+ i8u.com
+ pieheadrecords.com

Review – grasshopper morphine (Piehead Records) 2002 by – Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly,

I8U – GRASSHOPPER MORPHINE (CDR by Piehead Records)

One of two new releases on the limited CDR Piehead Records label and twice
 by Canadian artists.

I8U, who has a real CD on Multimedia Pandora and
 a CDR on Bake Records previously (plus maybe others I don’t know) and
 who plays with Martin Tetreault, David Kristian and Guylaine Bedard
(a photographer). It was David Kristian who changed her way of 
thinking about music. Turning back to simple ideas and flows, she has
 eight new pieces which are best described as utter minimalism.
 Sometimes, as in ‘Numb Summer’ they take the form of one flowing
 chord, with added high pitched sounds, but mostly they take the form
 of a repetitive sound patterns. Not really to be described as
 rhythmic or techno inspired, but rather more dry clicks being 
repeated over and over. There is also a nice piss take at Nurse With
Wound’s Fashioned To A Device under the name of ‘Sun Dogs Rising’,
with the same intense feedback like drones. Very well balanced 
between rhythms and drones. (FdW)
 – Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly

Review – grasshopper morphine (Piehead Records) 2002 – by François Couture, All Music,

Review by François Couture

I8U’s third full-length solo album, Grasshopper Morphine, is also her most accomplished, compelling effort. The ideas she sketched in B have flourished into engaging esthetics. The artist aims at the intellect and the body. She doesn’t want to give you an urge to dance, she wants her electronics to find their way into your organs and affect you on a biological level. These are not crude experiments involving head-splitting sine waves or sub-bass tones that make you sick to your stomach. I8U’s approach is much more gentle and elegant; it could be compared to Francisco López at his most physical. For example, “Sun Dogs Rising” features a high tone becoming more and more insistent as the piece unfolds — it’s not alone, there’s a lot going on behind it, but at one point you focus solely on its increasingly menacing presence, wondering how much more it can grow before it devours you. In terms of less field recording-based, more electronic music references, Grasshopper Morphine evokes Ryoji Ikeda, Carsten Nicolai, and David Kristian‘s beautiful Room Tone. The synthesizers create their own rhythms (sometimes conflicting sets of them), but there are no naked beats here and no clicks & cuts like on B. This album can work well as ambient/background music and it literally opens up when scrutinized. High playback volume is essential to experience it fully. Recommended.

Review – grasshopper morphine (Piehead Records) 2002 – by I. Khider, Exclaim

Abstract electronic that is sound sculpting at it’s most laceratingly delicate and refined, like a box of loose scalpel blades. Following the textural yet highly atmospheric release B, grasshopper morphine is intriguing and sometimes downright physically painful to listen to. Some of the frequencies are so delicate yet barbed that it feels as though the sensitive inner nerves of the ears are being plucked and pinched. It seems that I8U’s music grows increasingly complex and intricate with every release, her work demands the listener’s full attention and receptivity with the strength of the craft residing in subtleties and detail. grasshopper morphine is definitely I8U’s most challenging, yet also her most beautiful collection of sound sculptures. In order to fully appreciate this recording, an environment with minimal background noise is strongly recommended.
– I. Khider, Exclaim

Review – Obstacle (Oral) 2002 – by TJ Norris, Soundvision

Limited to only 100 copies, I8U has contributed a fifty minute long track to our dense, temporal sound space. Characterized by quaking tonal forms and unpredictable minor peaks and shallow harmonics, this disc could be called post drone. This is macrosound redux. Parts distance and parts concrete/physical. The canvas is covered, every inch, making for sound in the fourth dimension. Canada’s i8u first presented her work live with video and animation. There are subtle hints of Ryoji Ikeda’s work with Dumb Type herein, but not at the sonic decibel level. This is a visual, sombient, refined take on the contemporary landscape. This is one of two releases from i8u this year (also Grasshopper Morphine on Piehead Records). As a live studio recording this disc has so many secrets. The sensory experience responds to an open field of urban sounds, railways, and mechanics. A gestural highway riveting in its endlessness.

More Info: www.oral.qc.ca

Review – Obstacle (Oral) 2002 – by François Couture, All Music

The first phase of the Obstacle project consisted of a web art collaboration between experimental electronica artist I8U and video artist Gigimatique. Obstacle Phase 2 is a longer concert version and this CD (a limited edition of 100 released by Oral the day the piece was premiered on-stage at the FIMAV festival in Victoriaville, Québec) presents a studio recording of the music. I8U derives all the sounds from field recordings made on bridges. The piece begins with an imperceptible sub-bass drone. Very slowly, other drones come forward. The characteristic buzzing of car traffic remains on the border of consciousness. It’s there, but just not quite tangible or defined enough to make it obvious. The piece continues to evolve through phases of expansion and contraction — a car trip through the streets of a suburb, where you slow down every 200 meters for a stop sign. In its last ten minutes, the piece builds up, first unveiling its source, then gaining decibels to end in a shrieking noise assault abruptly cut 27 seconds after the 50th minute. The form is not new, but I8U does it with grace, constantly holding the listener’s attention in her hands, even though the pace remains excruciatingly slow throughout. The quality of immersion during the first 45 minutes lulls one into an altered state. The finale, made of loops just a bit too obvious, sounds a bit gratuitous. Thoughts of Francisco López, Marc Behrens, and Stephen Vitiello come to mind. This album is not as strong as Grasshopper Morphine released a week earlier, but this is mostly because the extended piece format makes it less varied.

Review -Obstacle (Oral) 2002 – by Roël Meelkop, Vital Weekly

i8u- Obstacle phase 2 (CD by Oral)

Obstacle Phase 2 is actually a work of sound, video and animation,
but this CD only presents the sound part. One long track of flowing,
mostly dark sounds, with an occasional rhythm. The piece evolves
quite slowly and has an ambient feel, but on close listening, one can
hear subtle things that are not very ambient at all. Despite the dark
sounds, the piece doesn’t have a gloomy atmosphere, it has a pretty
concrete character. That’s what sets it apart from regular ambient.
The rhythmic elements are very minimal, so there is no danger
whatsoever of the track becoming flat or cheesy. The slow development
of the work does not cause loss of attention, on the contrary: the
tension is kept so well, that the whole piece is very captivating.
I’m very sorry I missed the performance with the visuals, because if
that was anywhere as good as this, it must have been a great show.
– Roel Meelkop, Vital Weekly

More Info: www.oral.qc.ca

BBC Interview

I8U

around the world in 80 labels
I8U
Located in: Montreal, Canada
Operating Since: 1999
Key Contact: i8u
Released On: Piehead, Mutek
E-Mail: muse@i8u.com
Website: http://www.i8u.com/
Listen
ListenI8U: Cattail Furnace
(I8U)

About I8U
Playing with Martin Tétreault for instance, directed me away from low frequency drones and on to explore other frequencies.I8U has had an interesting musical journey to say the least. Pursuing various styles of music from early classical training to blues, it was a chance meeting with David Kristian that would prove to be the inspiration for her move to experimental music.Excerpt from a feature article from Incursion Publishing May 2001 Interviewed by Richard Di Santo.”David suggested I try something different considering the equipment I owned at the time, so we planned for a jam session.

What I discovered during these sessions was very simple, this music flowed effortlessly, I didn’t have to think, just play, I thought “This is what I’m supposed to do!”. David was instrumental in my move away from “traditional music” in the sense that he introduced me to the art of creating sounds, and listening to what he was doing simply made me realize that this is where I would be most happy because the possibilities are endless and only defined by one’s own limitations.

So, I embarked on a journey of learning and un-learning, learning about sound art and the precision in programming sounds, learning to listen to what I don’t want to hear, un-learning years of traditional music structures, acceptable melodies , chords and rhythms, therefore pushing my own limitations of what I expected to hear, and listen for the unexpected.

This quest for learning I guess is what brought me here, once I learn something, I want to move on to the next thing, not knowing necessarily what that will be, but pushing my own boundaries, I never know what the trigger will be, but I recognize it when it manifests itself. Playing with Martin Tétreault for instance, directed me away from low frequency drones and on to explore other frequencies.

IDM in a funny way has had me explore beats, not as in 4/4 kind of thing but as how they can occur within sound itself and how they can be layered in such a way that you will feel a pulse but you won’t be “cutting the rug” so to speak.

What I fear most is stagnation, one must never get so comfortable in one’s abilities.”

I8U has participated in various new music/new technology festivals and events, Studioxx web jam (Montreal/Tasmania Feb 2002), VoltAA (Montreal 2001), Silophone(Montreal 2000) The Opera House (Toronto 2000).

She has cd’s released on Canadian and European labels including a collaboration with Goem (Gast, Netherlands 2002).

She performs regularly and collaborates as well with Martin Tétreault (Mutek 2001) David Kristian, Guylaine Bédard (photographer).

A new release is planned for May 2002 with Piehead records. She will be performing at the Festival de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in May 2002 alonside gigimatique (Ælab) who will be providing visuals for this project entitled “Obstacle Phase 2” and is planning a small tour in Europe in June 2002.

(special thanks to Richard Di Santo and incursion.org for their kind permission to reprint the above text.)