Philippe Pasquier - Assistant Professor, SIAT, Simon Fraser University
                
 
PASQUIER Philippe
E-mail: pasquier <at> sfu dot ca
Curiculum Vitae: PDF

In his artistic practice, focused primarily on sonic arts, Philippe Pasquier is interested in studying and exploiting the various relationships and synergies between art, science and technology. In the last ten years, he has been acting as a performer, director, composer, musician, producer and educator in many different contexts. He also serves, or has served, as an active member and administrator of several artistic collectives and companies (Robonom, Phylm, Miji), art centers (Avatar, Bus Gallery) and artistic organizations (P: Media art, Machines, Vancouver New Music) in Europe, Canada and Australia.

The following sections present some of his work along various axes; the CV gives a more exhaustive list of contributions.

Software and Hardware Systems

EavesDropping. Developed by Jack Stockholm, Eavesdropping is an internet-based, interactive audio system that explores network-mediated musical performance in shared public spaces. The project aims to develop an environment which increases audience interaction in a localized, computer-controlled performance. It embeds a generative, machine learning based conductor. (ACM Multimedia paper, Web page)

Beamforming Technology. Developed in the context of an artistic residency at Videograph and in collaboration with Philippe-Aubert Gauthier, this system combines hardware (an array of 16 loudspeakers) and software (developed using PureData) allowing the user to create and manipulate up to 8 sound beams. Beamforming is a relatively new sound spatialisation technology resting on very short delays (but that differs from Wave Field Synthesis). This device has been used and exploited for the Auditory Tactics sound installation. (Technical presentation, Blog).

Improvising Automata. Initially developed for the Machines12 event, this improvising automata is an autonomous artificial agent that is able to improvise sound-music with one or more human musicians. The agent is capable of hearing and analysing an incoming audio signal (both in the temporal and spectral domains). The musical behavior of that proactive agent is controlled by a cellular automaton inspired from Von Neuman's work on abstract machine reproduction. Each cell contains a sound object that is diffused according to the activation level of the cell and updated according to what the agent is hearing.

Machines-Motor V1.0. Machine-Motor is an audio/video interactive software, distributed on Panatone, by Avatar and Locus Sonus. This software was developed by the Machines collective during a residency at the audio art center Avatar. It is a 4-track audio-video mixer that doesn't require any expertise to be used. It consists of an interface developed in PBasic and a PureData and Gem based audio-video engine. The software is available for WinXP only.
Machines-Motor has been presented and used in various contexts (opening of the LANTISS; Soft-Avatar event; Panatone event; Avatar at Vooruit, among others).

Z. This software has been developed by Pascal Balthazar and the Computer Music Group of the GMEA (Albi's Electro-acoustic Music Group, France). It is a sound processing and diffusion platform adapted to scenic arts. Its modular structure, combined with some powerful addressing and control facilities, enables full exploitation of new scenic technologies (sensors, controllable scenic hardware, ... ). I have been adapting, testing and refining Z for several projects including solo music performances, Faisceau d'épingles de verre and work with Le Corps Indice.
LCS (Level Control System). LCS is a hardware+software level control based spatialization device. I have been working with LANTISS (Laboratory for New Technologies for Image, Scene and Sound, Laval University, Quebec) on their 24 output channels Matrix3 system during an exploratory residency with David Michaud and the electroacoustic composer Christian Calon. This system was also used for P's Faisceau d'épingles de verre project (see the multi-disciplinary art section below).


Contact Sensor. This is new type of sensor based on the human body electrical conductivity that has been developed in collaboration with the contemporary dance company Le Corps Indice. A first prototype has been developed in the context of a course on dance and new technologies team-taugh with a choreographer at the Ateliers de Danse Moderne Inc. (ADMI, Montréal) in 2004. A more sophisticated version was elaborated during artistic residencies at la Cité des Arts (TOHU, Montréal) and LANTISS in 2005.

SoundCrafts. While sound spatialization usually operates by level-control on several fixed outputs distributed in space. The SoundCrafts are an exploration of sound spatialization where the sonic sources move. More precisely, the device consists of 24 suspended loudspeakers that are balancing themselves above the audience. The SoundCrafts are animated through propeller engines controlled by a centralised computer system. SoundCrafts were presented as an installation and a diffusion medium for the event Machines 12, held during the Mois Multi Festival (Canada, 2004).

Installations and Public Art

17.06.1999

The wall of sound, Blockhaus DY10,  Nantes, France.
This wall of sound has nothing to do with Phil Spector's recording and production technique. Here, a wall of heteroclite speakers is used to diffuse the output of a network of vintage analogue synthesizers. Each speaker broadcast the sound of a single synthesizer. The various synths are linked so as to make different parts of the wall interact, thus creating an unusual spatial effect for the audience.

28.01.1999
and

18.06.2001

Nint&Do, Espace Delrue, Nantes, France.
Nint & Do was also presented at  the Blockhaus D.Y.10, on 28.01.1999.
In this interactice audio installation, the audience is invited to play with various vintage video games. The sounds made by these video games are processed, mixed and diffused in real time. This installation thus proposes a ludic introduction to "musique concrète" and electronic music.

1.09.2000
to
22.09.2000

Escalophone, Beaulieu Shopping Mall, Nantes, France
In the context of the collective exhibition SBAM+, the robonom collective presented a quadriphonic sound installation for two escalators located in a vast shopping mall in Nantes. During three weeks, over two thousand daily passers-by crossed through various sounds which were also going up and down the stairs.

8.11.2001
to
18.11.2001
Transit, Coueron Bus Terminal, Coueron, France
This installation was presented in the context of the collective exhibition  Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le bus (Those who love me will take the bus). The environment of a bus terminal is analysed through various sensors and re-organised as a sonic space within a shipping container open to the audience. Outside conditions (wind, urban noises, luminosity, traffic, temperature, ...) are regenerated in the sonic dimension inside this small immersive environment.
12.02.2003
Machines 08, Le chemin des machines, co-conceived with Émile Morin and Érick Dorion, Quebec City, Canada.
8 musicians playing improvised music from locations throughout the Méduse building, 4 audio artists streaming their material through the Internet and 4 electroacoustic composers (re)mixing and spatializing the result live. The audience was invited to a promenade between various listening points.

(photo: Steeve Lebrasseur playing electronic music through circuit bending)

12.02.2003

Machines 12, Improvising automata and sonic aerodyne, for the multi-disciplinary art festival "Le Mois Multi 2004", Québec, Canada. Co-produced with Recto-Verso and Avatar in collaboration with Radio-Canada.
This event consisted of four audio improvisations. Each improvisation brought together a human improviser and an automated improviser (an autonomous artificial agent capable of improvising music). The result was broadcast using an array of 25 speakers, suspended and balancing above the audience (see the description of the SoundCrafts above).

22.08.2007
to
22.09.2007
Auditory Tactics, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.
Auditory tactics are contextual listening attitudes. One does not listen the same way in a bathroom or at a bus stop. This audio installation is concerned with the intrusion of sounds from the private sphere into public spaces and their interferences with the audience's auditory tactics. A collaboration with Philippe-Aubert Gauthier, Auditory Tactics has been produced during an artistic residency at Videographe and in the context of the 2007 PureData Convention. The installation consists of a generative composition broadcast 24/7 through an array of speakers using the beamforming technology (see the hardware and software section above).
(Press release, blog, and documentation)

1.01.2008
to
12.02.2008

Flying Falling Floating, Carriage Work, Sydney, Australia.
A collaboration with Matthew Gingold, this 6-channel audio video installation shows bodies flying, falling and floating on architectural elements of the hosting building. It was presented for three weeks during the 2008 Sydney International Festival.
(Video documenting the Sydney production ).

18.03.2008
to
12.04.2008
The Crossing, BUS Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
This installation is a collaboration with physicist and visual artist Martina Mrongovius. Two "holographic films" containing 160 "holographic frames" each are disposed on the sides of a 5 meter long linear path. Walking along this path at a normal pace unfolds the two three dimensional films and their sound track. The use of distance sensors allows the viewer to ‘scratch’ time. By going backward, the viewer can rewind images and sound, by standing still he can freeze both. In this simple interactive setting, the viewer's movement becomes the motor of the audiovisual experience.
(Flyer, Exhibition Catalogue)
18.06.2008
to
30.08.2008
NAOS, Montalvo Art Center, California
This installation is a collaboration with Carlos Castellanos, Luther Thie and Kyu Che. In the line of the Acclair project, NAOS proposes a critical reflection on the growing use of physiological monitoring in our technophilic society. The installation is presented as a bio-pod in which the audience, equipped with various biometric sensors, is confronted with selected images. After several iterations, machine learning algorithms are used to classify the user's reactions into one of the four following categories: passive, aggressive, loyal, subversive.
(DIMEA paper, Web page)
Permanent.
Inaugurated in 2009
Lingua Aqua , Bear Creek Park, City of Surrey, Canada
A collaboration with Michael Filimowicz, Melanie Cassidy and Brady Marks, Lingua Aqua is a public artwork combining sculptural, architectural, and audiovisual media to materialize the original “bath of sounds” from which language emerges. It is a self-enclosed fountain utilizing flowing water, single channel video, four-channel audio, and engraved transparent panels to create a space for contemplating the variety and complexity of languages.
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Multidisciplinary Arts Productions

Reliquary
Company Miji

Miji is a young company directed by the Korean choregrapher Soo Yeun You, the puppeter Hamish Fletcher and the audio artist Philippe Pasquier. Reliquary is Miji's first project and it is a collaboration with the aboriginal choreographer Gina Rings (a founding member of Bangara Dance Theatre).

Reliquary is a multidisciplinary project that brings together traditional and contemporary dance, puppetry, audio and video art. Korean shamanistic ritual and Australian indigenous spirituality come together in dance and puppetry to explore the embodiment of belief and heritage in a culturally diverse context. Reliquary - a container for important mementoes that have survived destruction - explore the connections and disconnections of the Korean and Aboriginal traditions.

Reliquary has been shown at Ausdance in Adelaide in February 2007, at Fortyfive Downstairs in Melbourne in July 2007, at the NorthCote Townhall in July 2008, and at the Dreaming Festival in June 2009.

"Reliquary is a work full of ideas, some moments of profound beauty and pathos, and some exquisite synthesising between the various art forms." Hilary Crampton, The Age, Australia.

A promotional DVD is available upon request.

Company Website.

"Faisceau d'épingles de verre" (Ray of glass needles).
P : research, creation and diffusion in media arts

P: Media Arts is a young organisation devoted to research, creation and diffusion in media arts founded by Martin Renaud and myself in 2004. Faisceau d'épingles de verre was P's first project.

The research is based on Quebec surealist poet Claude Gauvreau's Faisceau d'épingles de verre, a text written in "exploreen", an automatist language that came from the subconscious and imagination of the author. This text gave us the opportunity to explore text-to-speech technologies in an artistic context.

Considered too complex to learn, Gauvreau's dramatic text was never performed before. The lack of semantics in his poetic text was balanced by a greater visual and sonic immersion of the audience. Attention was given to the development of sound spatialisation devices, set and scenic multi-channel video systems. The question of art typology is raised by this work which blends multi-disciplinary theater, performative audio art, performative visual art and contemporary dance.

Developed during a research residency at LANTISS and a production residency with Recto-Verso, the piece was presented on the 9, 10 & 11 February 2005 during the leading North American multidisciplinary festival: Le Mois Multi, organized by Recto-Verso production in Quebec.

A second version of the show oriented toward Butoh dance was developed during a residency at DanceHouse in March 2006 and presented on the 20-24 March 2006 in the context of the NextWave Festival.

Promotional project web site. A promotional DVD is also available upon request.

Contemporary Dance and New Technologies
Collaboration with the Corps Indice dance company





This project was developed in 2004-2005 with the Montreal-based dance company Corps Indice.

At the artistic level, the dancers developed a new gestural language that mixes traditional street dances with contemporary dance. These influences from regional Capoeira, dances from Bali and African folkloric dances challenged the frontality (inherited from Italian staging) that defines occidental shows by putting forward a three-dimensional language projected in an arena-like set up.

At the aesthetic level, the choregraphy is a postural study inspired by cubist masters (e.g.,Picasso) who exploded the human body offering multiple simultaneous views. This project was interested in exploring new technologies so as to allow the "real body", the "light body" and the "sound body" to interact. In order to reify that idea, I conceived a new type of contact sensors (see the hardware and software systems section above). This new captation device consists of a 6 meter wide circular carpet, an aquisition circuit (realized with Steeve Lebrasseur) and some data treatment software. Using that system, dancers can interact with sound and lights in an organic way without being physically distracted by the device (e.g., no flexsensors).

This project has been developped incrementaly within artistic residencies at the Modern Dance School of Montreal (Fall 2004), at La cite des Arts at LANTISS and UQAM (Summer 2005). It has been presented at UQAM and at the International Danse and New Technologies Symposium at the Centre des arts in Enghiens les bains (Paris, Fall 2005).

Experimental cinema: Phylm
Duo with the French experimental film maker Émmanuel Lefrant

Interested in non-narrative, experimental cinema - cinema without camera - Phylm proposed a live audio-art/cinema performance in which sounds and images are generated and diffused in real time. A simple home-made device linked three film projectors with an audio generation system. This performance was presented in 2003 during the Vidéastes recherchés festival (La Bande Vidéo, Salle multi de Méduse, Québec, Canada) and commissioned by Antitube in 2004 (Salle Multi de Méduse, Québec, Canada).

Following the steps of the experimental film maker Anthony McCall (Light Describing A Cone), Phylm has also developed an immersive installation which explores the space between the film projector and the screen. This installation, entitled "Survie", was presented in 2004, during the fifth Manifestation Internationale de Vidéo et d'Art Électronique de Montréal (MIVAEM, Champ Libre, Canada) as well as in 2005 at the BétonSalon gallery (Paris).


Analogue Electronic Music: robonom

Founded in 1998, robonom is an artist collective and geographically discpersed network of musicians and electronic devices (analog & digital), manufacturing sound installations and experimental music (IDM, electronica, ambiant, ...).
robonom has done artistic residencies including Blockhaus DY10 and GMEA and has performed numerous concerts, exhibited several installations, and delivered workshops in various contexts.

Please visit robonom's web page for details on robonom's discography or browse the online MP3 label www.martialfunk.com to discover some of robonom's members' work.

 

Digital electronic music: Samiland (Monobor+Millimetrik)

It is in the north that the soundscapes and rhythms of the Canadian Millimetrik (a.k.a. Pascal Asselin) and the digital experiments of Monobor (a.k.a. Philippe Pasquier) met.

Together, they offer the warmth of their compositions to brave the storms of Samiland in a continual interaction of experimental music, electronica and popular electronic music. Their tunes are usually made from sliced samples that are automatically re-sequenced using Pure-Data patches. Pure-Data is an open source MAX/MSP-like real time signal processing environment. Their sources are various, ranging from robonom's analogic sounds to Millimetrik's cymbals.

Samiland has performed in various circunstances, including the electroacoustic event "Rien a voir" (Nothing to see) at the Montreal contemporary art museum and the Mutek electronic music festival.


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Discography (Vinyl, CD, DVD):

1999

robonom e.p.,  robonom, EP vinyl, Vlan! Records, Paris, France (sold out).

2000

robonom, Rond mais carré,  CD,  DDM [Les disques de Merkel], Nantes, France (sold out).

2001

robonom, Pomelos, CD compilation "Super Post electronica", +CROSS, Osaka, Japon (sold out).

re-edited by Instinct Records, New york, USA.

2001

robonom, Blockhaus sessions, CD, DDM, Nantes, France.

2001

monobor, Sex O Clock, LP vinyl, Invasion planète - IP005, Toulouse, France. (sold out)

2001

robonom, aesthetik gnatoflex, distributed with the Plastiq poetry book, CD, DDM, Paris, France.

2001

robonom, r1 and r2  on No war without tears, CD, The Age of Venus Records, Nantes, France.

2002

monobor, Le monde gueule, projet MEHR de DDM : www.merh.fr.fm, Web release.

2003 robonom, Entre bleu clair et marron foncé, MP3 CD, Excavation Sonore, available through OHM editions, Reference OHM / AVTR 032, Québec, Canada.

2003

IF, Manifestement, CD, Alterfow/Déluge, Québec, Canada

monobor, Fantaisie pour vinyles gondolés en funk majeur,  CD, Alterflow/Déluge, Québec, Canada.

2003 Samiland, Capteur de brume, CD, Mutek 03, MUTEK_REC, Montréal, Canada.
2004 robonom, Ambiunk, produced at Groupe de Musique Électro-Acoustique d'Albi-Tarn (GMEA). Albi, France.

Distributed on the Web: www.martialfunk.com
2005 Ray of Glass Needles (Faisceau d'épingles de verre). Promotional DVD, produced by P: research, creation and diffusion in media arts.
  2005 Mois Multi 2004, Catalogue, book and DVD, Available through Recto-Verso productions.
2005 Avatar : Oeuvres avouées / Avowed Works. Catalogue-DVD. Available through OHM editions. Reference OHM / AVTR 036.
2006 Degrés d'hybridité / Degrees of hybridity. Catalogue, book and DVD Mois Multi 2005. Available through OHM editions. Reference OHM / AVTR 037
2006 Avatar à Vooruit. DVD (PAL/NTSC). Available through OHM editions. Reference OHM / AVTR 040.
  2008 Metamedia. DVD (PAL/NTSC). Proceedings of the colloquium. Available through OHM editions. Reference OHM / AVTR.

Non academic publications:

  • Philippe Pasquier, A reflexion on Artificial Intelligence and Comtemporary Creation, Parachute, number 119, Artificial Intelligence, pages 152-167, 2005 (available in both English and French).

  • Philippe Pasquier, Marie-France Thérien, The CD-Audio-MP3 format should be revolutionizing music distribution. Why isn’t it? , Musicworks, number 93, pages 7-9, Fall 2005 (3 pages, Preprint).
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Events organized: Machines, abstract electronic sounds

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Support, funding and collaborators: acknowledgements

All those projects would not have been possible without the financial, technical and human support of many collaborators, various art centers, galleries as well as academic and cultural institutions.

Avatar: audio and electronic art center, Québec city, Canada
Canadian Council for the Arts (CAC), Canada
Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec (CALQ), Québec
Conseil culturel de la ville de Québec
Coopérative Méduse de Québec
Les productions Recto-Verso, Québec, Canada
La Bande Vidéo, Québec, Canada
Laboratory for New Technologies for Image, Sound and Stage (LANTISS), Laval University, Canada
Vidéographe, secteur production, Montréal, Canada
Silex Creation
Groupe de Musique Électro-acoustique d'Albi-Tarn (GMEA), France.
Forum Jeunesse de la Région de Québec
Fond régionnal d'investissement jeunesse du Québec (FRIJC)
TOHU, La cité des arts du cirque, Montréal, Canada.
Centre Interfacultaire des Arts Médiatiques (CIAM)
Corps Indice, Montréal, Canada
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), Montréal, Canada
Office Franco-Québecois pour la Jeunesse (OFQJ)
Ubisoft
Institute for Research-Creation in Media Arts and Technologies, Montréal, Canada
Rouje Gallery, Québec City , Canada
Mexappeal (Dormunt, Germany)
Vooruit, Gent, Belgium
BUS 117 Gallery
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
DanceHouse, Melbourne, Australia
Ausdance (Australian Dance Council)
Arts Victoria, Australia
Australian Council for the Arts
Concordia University, Montréal, Canada
City of Surrey, Canada
Emily Carr University ,Vancouver, Canada
 
 

The artist appearing lost in art.


 
 

 

Last Update:
October 2009
Copyright 00-09:
Philippe Pasquier

Email:
mylastname*sfu.ca