Musiques cachées [QC-CA]
The Musiques cachées laboratory aims to study and disseminate minority practices in the field of sound arts and music. It welcomes hybrid proposals around two axes: "Pathways and Sound Substances of the Living" and "Sound Arts and Gender Transduction."
PATHWATS AND SOUND SUBSTANCES OF THE LIVING
This axis explores the intermedia dimension of sound's modes of existence through the notion of the "living." Whether of microbial, thinking, acting origins, or even composed of particles or waves, different material entities vibrate, resonate, respond to each other, listen, sometimes feel, and enter into interrelations with one another. How do the concepts of crossing, contamination, or transmutation of the "living" fit into the sound and musical approaches of research-creation? The projects presented here demonstrate this fertile crossing of emergences, which leads not only to transduction between different variations of the "living" but also its manifestations in the imaginary through the study of sound matter that flows from these processes.
SOUND ARTS AND GENDER TRANSDUCTION
By transduction, we mainly refer to its Simondonian definition: "Transduction is defined as 'a physical, biological, mental, social operation by which an activity propagates step by step within a domain, basing this propagation on a structuring of the domain operated from place to place.'" The paradigm or exemplary case of transduction is then crystallization, as the "simplest image of the transductive operation." (Barthélémy)
The notion of gender is first approached in terms of identity: "Gender identity, feeling of belonging to a gender. (Gender identity doesn't necessarily correspond to the sex assigned at birth and can go beyond the binary framework. The term tends to replace sexual identity, considered too restrictive.)" (Larousse). In this project, the notion of "genre" can also be extended more generally (musical genre, presentation genre, etc.).
We promote not only hybrid and diverse forms of sound creation but also interdisciplinary and intersectoral modes of presentation where, for example, concert practice can be crossed with a lecture, a lecture with a sound performance or radio creation, an installation, a telematic work, telepathic work, etc., (name it!).
The Corvette Performance Machine (CPM)
In a project conceived by Nina Isabelle (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York), a 1984 Corvette becomes both instrument and laboratory for a series of nomadic sound interventions through Montreal's streets.One after another, Cham-Pang & Vagin soleil, Philippe-Aubert Gauthier, Hraïr Hratchian, Brian McCorkle, Martin Howse, and Roxanne Turcotte will navigate through urban space in this modified vehicle, equipped with a modular synthesizer integrated into the dashboard and a multipoint documentation system. Each journey transforms mechanical rhythms, engine resonances, and environmental sounds into raw material for spontaneous sonic exploration.
These performative joy rides merge driver, machine, and sound artist in a dance of creative impulse and material response. The vehicle's custom audio-visual framework captures these ephemeral moments through multiple perspectives - from interior dialogues to the passing landscape, creating a multi-layered document of each sonic expedition.
This three-day sound exploration will conclude with a roundtable at Hexagram bringing together all participants to share their impressions and present the collected documentation.
More details about the routes will be provided a few days before the event.
______
This project is made possible through a collaboration between Eastern Bloc, Radio Bloc Oral, and the laboratoire Musiques cachées of the Groupe de recherche-création en médiatisation du son (UQAM), with support from the Hexagram network, the Fonds de recherche Québec Société Culture, and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (New York).