The concept of the “smart city” is very fashionable right now, but I find it leads too easily to an emphasis on functionality and efficiency rather than a consideration of how we live in the city. My concern is the “sensitive” side of our cities, a phenomenon related to both sensation and meaning – the spirit. HOW DOES THAT TIE INTO YOUR ARTISTIC PROCESS FOR THIS WORK? YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE SEMIOTICS OF SPACES. It’s a way to contribute to a public debate through art. It is not a scientific effort – we don’t have the tools for that – but our database will still provide some insight into fluctuations in noise intensity. Local sound levels are noted by the system, as a form of documentation of sound activity while the installation is running. THE INSTALLATION KEEPS A RECORD OF SOUND LEVELS. The installation uses the ordinary sounds of the city as fuel to produce soothing harmonies. Wind Instrument is open to interpretation – it is not a criticism of the city, in the usual sense. Rather than trying to escape noise, we can ask what kinds of sounds we would we like to hear. The sounds of the city are very rich and varied, which is where the idea of inverting the question of silence comes from. IS THERE A SHORTAGE OF HARMONY IN THE CITY? Wind Instrument attracts attention, but the concept, it seems to me, is calming and fantastical. With Mégaphone, there was the idea of disrupting public space with the participant’s own voice, but with Wind Instrument the idea is to calm the space. If you want to attract attention, it’s a good idea to give your installation fairly spectacular dimensions. The city is a very large thing, and it provides many forms of stimulation. Yes! Generally speaking, I like monumental works. IS THERE A LINK BETWEEN WIND INSTRUMENT AND MÉGAPHONE (2013), WHICH WAS ALSO OVERSIZED? The instrument has its own particular sound and chord progressions, but the musical composition is not haphazard: it is produced by a kind of transposition or imprint of audio images analysed within the instrument’s musical spectrum. For example, visitors can trigger sounds by talking, shouting or simply making some noise with the tube provided for that purpose.īut behind the scenes, the system’s architecture is complex: the tubular structure plays sounds produced by music software that analyses the harmonic frequencies and sound levels detected around the installation. On the surface, it’s pretty simple: it’s an interactive sculpture that reacts to ambient sounds and noises produced by individual participants, and generates musical harmonies. That’s what inspired the name Wind Instrument, and the entire artistic approach. As soon as it starts to blow a little, it’s calmer. Paradoxically, the wind plays an important role in calming my audible environment. WHAT’S THE ROLE OF WIND IN THIS INSTALLATION?Įver since I moved to the countryside, in a farming community, I’ve noticed that the wind blows more often. In the city, there’s an auditory saturation effect, a lot of “noise,” and I took the question further by considering composers who inspire me, like John Cage, who reflected on the impossibility of silence, and Steve Reich, who worked with urban soundscapes. And yet that blurring of meaning is what interests me. I come from a communications background, and normally in that context you want to get rid of noise because it distracts from the message. Those were the basic parameters.įor a long time, noise – in every sense of the word – has fascinated me. WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR WIND INSTRUMENT?įor the POSSIBLES project, I was invited to create a work touching on an issue with international scope, and that inspires citizen participation in the process of building the city of the future. We met the multimedia artist, scriptwriter and designer behind Wind Instrument, Étienne Paquette, to find out about his approach to art in general and this piece in particular, created in partnership with the Quartier des Spectacles, the National Film Board of Canada and LA SERRE – arts vivants. Come play with the sounds of the city, and make sweet harmonies out of the noise. You’ll find it outside Saint-Laurent metro station from August 16 to October 8. There’s no missing the enormous interactive installation: it’s 28 feet tall and made out of six colourful steel pipes. Rather than embark on the eternal but impossible quest for silence, he decided to play with the sounds of the city instead. But what if there were a way to soften harsh urban noises? With Wind Instrument, Étienne Paquette challenged himself to transform the many sounds of our urban environment. They say the city is noisy, distracting, even cacophonic.
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