La chambre des machines cause electro-acoustic resonance

Montreal-based artist duo Nicolas Bernier and Martin Messier aka La chambre des machines (The Mechanical Room) are a performance duo fascinated by the relationship between analogue and digital sound production. They use grandiose machines made out of retro-style gears and cranks, such as cogs, levers, with in-built projectors. Their multi-purpose instruments look like a futuristic mash-up made out of the sort of ornate appliances one would find in their grandparents' attic.
Quebecois designer, Alexandre Laundry, conceives the majority of their physical machines, which the artists manipulate to produce industrial soundscapes that sit at a crossroads between acoustic and electronic resonance. Audiences of the duo's performances are immersed in an all-encompassing field of noise during shows that take place in both small and large-scale auditoria, as well as in the public realm.
Although the duo and their agent remain relatively mum on the technical details, what is certain is that the sounds are amplified through microcontacts (electrical connectors that join circuits together), and are processed through computers. This allows certain aspects of the machines' sound to be controlled remotely by tailor-made processing software that is designed specifically for the artists. Each device ranges in size from a kitchen accessory, to occasionally that of a life-sized person.
La chambre des machines's creative motivation is propelled by a desire to manifest digital creation into the physical world. This is interesting in the context of post-industrial sound production, which is usually hidden from audience view, occurring off-stage behind glistening computer and laptop screens. Instead, Bernier and Messier are keen to fetishise the bulky old-school aesthetic of industrial instruments. Indeed, their physical gadgets are like sculptural objects, and are integral to their audio-visual performances.
The boys are inspired by the Italian futurist, Luigi Russolo, who at the beginning of the 1900s invented a family of instruments known as the intonarumori -- large acoustic sound generators, containing mystifying interior instruments. The duo state that "[their] machines contain mysterious mechanisms, just as computers do today." This parallel between the analogue and the digital stimulates the group's philosophy, which drove them to start producing work together. "La chambre des machines stems from a desire to return to the physical world in an environment of digital creation," they tell us.
Experientially, the duo's performances are neither abrasive nor offensive. They present a gentle fusion of quiet electronic music, with bursts of provocative noise that clambers and crescendos towards the end of a piece, into an overpowering river of noise. The most aesthetically inspired of these adventures is Martin Messier's Sewing Machine Orchestra, wherein the artist magically re-purposes our most traditional clothes-making apparatus into music.

Thank you : Source : www.wired.co.uk