LES INTERPRÈTES /The Interpreters | projection/video installation HD | 10 min | 2011 | (extract 2:42) |
With my current research, I am interested in different ways of translating or transposing bird calls and sounds through onomatopoeia, metaphor and descriptive phrases. For this video, I took descriptions listed in ornithological field guides as inspiration for the written directions the performers use to reproduce the sound they imagine. For example: "Peculiar dull mooing reminiscent of a chainsaw". Performers produce their personal and unique sonic translations, depending on their imagination, knowledge, age, cultural background and aural memory. Through this nine voice polyphony, the differences between each layer of meaning emerge.
Performance: Georges Audet, Rosalie D. Gagné, Natalie Lafortune, Milan Martineau-Ulman, Jacko Restikian, Hugo St-Onge-Paquin, Jean-Philippe Thibault, Frédérique Ulman-Gagné, Camila Vasquez.
Presented in a solo exhibition Résonances at maison de la culture Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Montreal, 2011.