“Audio Ballerinas” by Benoit Maubrey
Title:
- Audio Ballerinas
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Exhibiting Artist(s):
Symposium:
Medium:
- Performance
Artist Statement:
This is a mobile sound environment project consisting of 7 ‘Audio Ballerinas’ wearing electro-acoustic skirts. This performance series was created on commission for the festival ‘Les Arts au Soleil’ (the ‘Arts in the Sun’) in summer of 1990 for the Lille, Pas-de-Calais area of France.
The female performers wear ‘Audio Tutus’ that are equipped with digital memories and looping devices (essentially mini-samplers) that enable them to interact directly with their environment by recording live sounds and then processing and amplifying them.
In addition to being able to digitally record musical instruments or voices in their proximity, they are also equipped with radio receivers, contact microphones, amplifiers and light sensors that enable them to produce, mix, and multiply their own sounds and compose them as a multi-acoustic and environmental concert.
Each electronic tutu (approximately 20 watts, 12 volt) is made of plexiglass and powered by either solar cells or batteries depending on whether they are performing indoors or outdoors, at night or in the daytime.
