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  • Research

    The fundamental principle of IRCAM is to encourage productive interaction among scientific research, technological developments, and contemporary music production. Since its establishment in 1977, this initiative has provided the foundation for the institute’s activities. One of the major issues is the importance of contributing to the renewal of musical expression through science and technology. Conversely, sp…

    • Research Topics
    • The STMS Lab
    • Research Teams
    • Sound Systems and Signals: Audio/Acoustics, InstruMents
    • Acoustic and Cognitive Spaces
    • Sound Perception and Design
    • Sound Analysis-Synthesis
    • Sound Music Movement Interaction
    • Musical Representations
    • Analysis of Musical Practices
    • Projects
    • Sound Workshop
    • The Musical Body
    • Creative Dynamics
    • Finished Projects
  • Creation

    IRCAM is an internationally recognized research center dedicated to creating new technologies for music. The institute offers a unique experimental environment where composers strive to enlarge their musical experience through the concepts expressed in new technologies.

    • Composers & Artists in Studio
    • Chloé Thévenin in studio
    • Oren Boneh in studio
    • Tristan Murail in studio
    • Martin Matalon in studio
    • Sébastien Gaxie in studio
    • Murcof in the studio
    • Vimala Pons in studio
    • Lucie Antunes in studio
    • Deena Abdelwahed in the studio
    • Music-Fictions
    • Artistic Research Residency
    • Artistic Residencies: The Blog
    • Rendez Vous 24.25
    • 2024-2025
    • Replay Concerts
    • Seasons from 1996 to present
    • ManiFeste-2024 Website
    • ManiFeste festival from 2012 to 2024
    • L’Étincelle, IRCAM’s journal of creation
  • Transmission

    In support of IRCAM's research and creation missions, the educational program seeks to shed light on the current and future meaning of the interactions among the arts, sciences, and technology as well as sharing its models of knowledge, know-how, and innovations with the widest possible audience.

    • Training Courses
    • Training Courses 2024.25
    • Max, Max for Live
    • Computer-Assisted Composition
    • ASAP & Partiels
    • Sound spatialization
    • Designing Audio Experiences on the Web
    • Generative AI
    • Sound Design
    • Practical Information
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    • Cursus Program on Composition and Computer Music
    • Master ATIAM
    • Sound Design Master's Program
    • Mixed-Music
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  • Avec les chants du vivant








Sun 21 November 2021,
5 p.m.
Centre Pompidou
Grande salle
Prices

Free Entry

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Creation
Performance






Avec les chants du vivant

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An evening in the series “Vinciane Despret, avec qui venez-vous ?” at the Centre Pompidou
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The sounds and songs of the living have inspired the history of music since its very beginning. Today, many composers and sound artists are exploring a broad range of expressive modes by bringing these "other" beings into their music. It is not simply a matter of bringing these expressive modes into the music, but of striving to make heard, through sound processing, arrangements, and transformations, that which is not normally perceptible to our human ears, or that which is heard differently. It is a question of reinventing the different ways of making continuum between these sounds and the work of art. How do these sounds work? What operations make these sounds perceptible to us, allow us to feel their tessitura, their variations, even simply their existence?

In a panel discussion led by the philosopher Vinciane Despret and the musicologist Nicolas Donin, the composers Robin Meier and Bernard Fort will share with us their concrete cuisine and will let us hear, for one, the stridulations of ants or the experience of musicians who sing with and like mosquitoes, for the other, that of making us feel the exaltation of a skylark or the soliloquy in the chattering of a titmouse.

The latter part of the evening features the musical performance Truce by Robin Meier. To find a mate of the right species, male and female mosquitoes rely on their ability to "sing" in tune. Mosquitoes adjust the sound of the buzzing they produce to synchronize the wingbeats between males and females, allowing for harmonized buzzing and copulation in mid-air. Truce uses the natural synchronization behavior of mosquitoes to coax them into creating music.

In this "concertante" adaptation of the installation Truce (Robin Meier & Ali Momeni, 2009), a Dhrupad singer, a traditional classical song from northern India, sings a slow glissando supported by low, etheric vibrations of ondes Martenot. Stimulated by the singer's voice and the frequencies of the waves, three mosquitoes independently tune their buzzing to these sounds. Activated by the buzzing, a computer generates three distinct electronic voices, reproducing the tone of each mosquito. These three electronic voices enter punctually in harmony with each other, depending on the insects' ability to remain in synchronization with the sound stimulus.

Together, insects, humans and machines compose a song of an inter-species alliance.

Truce
Robin Meier composition
Nirmalya Dey song
Christine Ott  instruments (Ondes Martenot)
Lionel Feugère (University of Greenwich) Mosquito preparation and scientific advisor

With the support of Pro Helvetia, Fondation suisse pour la culture. Thanks to Laurent Dumas from Groupe Emerige, Mylène Weill, Gabriella Gibson, Lionel Feugère, and Ali Momeni

Organization
Jean-Max Colard and Joséphine Huppert, Centre Pompidou
Nicolas Donin, IRCAM-STMS

This evening is a part of the invitation extended to Vinciane Despret, guest scholar at the Centre Pompidou in 2021-2022. Discover the full program.

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  • Truce  None
    Truce
  • Truce  None
    Truce
  • La philosophe Vinciane Despret  © "Les Possédés et leurs mondes", Emmanuel Luce 2019 (détail)
    La philosophe Vinciane Despret © "Les Possédés et leurs mondes", Emmanuel Luce 2019 (détail)
  • Le compositeur Robin Meier  None
    Le compositeur Robin Meier
  • Le compositeeur Bernard Fort  © Sylvain Daulin
    Le compositeeur Bernard Fort © Sylvain Daulin
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