.png){kind=logo}
COD.ACT (CH) - πTON
JUNE 29 TO JULY 01
ARSENAL ART CONTEMPORAIN
BIO - ANDRÉ & MICHEL DÉCOSTERD
Born in Le Locle (CH) in 1967, André Décosterd pursued an apprenticeship in organ factoring in Neuchâtel (CH). He graduated from the Ecole de Jazz et de Musique Actuelle (Ejma) in Lausanne (CH) in 1995. André, musician and composer, specialized in computer programming of musical applications and studies composition systems specific to electroacoustic and contemporary music, in particular algorithmic composition. Michel, self-taught plastic artist, developed a thorough knowledge in mechanical engineering and machine construction through personal research and learning. He invents and builds machines in his own mechanical workshop.
Michel Décosterd, born in Le Locle in 1969, obtained a diploma of architecture at the Engineering school of Biel (CH). In 1997, the two of them founded the group Cod.Act. Michel, self-taught plastic artist, developed a thorough knowledge in mechanical engineering and machine construction through personal research and learning. He invents and builds machines in his own mechanical workshop.
PERFORMANCE
πTon is an intriguing sound installation; it constitutes a new stage in the Cod.Act researches on plastic and sound organicity. It results from an experiment on the relation between the distortion of an elastic structure and the synthetic transformation of the human voice. A long rubber tube, closed in a loop, is animated by contortions and undulations like an invertebrate body. Surrounded by a group of four dumb human beings equipped with strange vocal prostheses, the creature seems to try to release itself from this disturbing presence in vain. Its efforts and sufferings excite the curiosity of the four human beings and become the subject of primary and sophisticated polyphonic rituals only constituted by synthesized voices. From raw materials and natural physical phenomena, πTon associates organic movement and vocal expression under their most primitive forms. The result is a striking sound and visual event that sends the spectator back to the origins of his behaviour.
