Multimedia Performances Gallery
Curatorial
Statement 		Sounds of a
Community		 Music
Prosthesis
Gridjam
 Desktop
Sound 		Phonic
Bodies 		Living
Cinema
 “Following ‘The Man
of the Crowd’”
  Robert J Gluck Pedro Rebelo Jack Ox Amnon Wolman Benoit Maubrey Bob Ostertag Christina Ray and Lee Walton
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Phonic Bodies and Choreographed Sounds: Performances with electro-acoustic clothes
By Benoit Maubrey 		 
Benoît Maubrey  
Die Audio Gruppe
Bahnhofstrasse 47
D-14806 Baitz

My decision in the early 1980s to stop working with pigments and canvas came from a desire to interact directly with public spaces. By building loudspeakers into clothes I could intervene in any given environment in a temporary and cost-efficient way: loudspeakers and circuit boards are cheap and can be salvaged from surplus electronics and discarded toys. My artistic tools are electro-acoustic clothes: costumes and suits that are equipped with loudspeakers and amplifying systems that allow the individual wearers to react acoustically to their environment. Basically each person wears one part of a composition: the position of the individual "audio actors" and their movement within a space produces the final composition. The orchestration of the mobile sounds creates the final musical score (see AUDIO CLOTHES 1983-85). Series of different "audio clothes " are developed in response to theme and site as "Audio Uniforms" (see AUDIO STEELWORKERS, AUDIO VACUUM CLEANERS, GUITAR MONKEYS, AUDIO CYCLISTS)		  
Audio Peacock
Copyright © Benoît Maubrey

In 1989 the AUDIO BALLERINAS started using a variety of electronic instruments in order to personally interact with their environment. They produced electronic sounds through interaction with surrounding light and movement sensors. These were then collectively choreographed into "audio ballets". A variety of other electronic instruments (samplers, contact microphones, and radio receivers) allowed them to work with the sounds, surfaces, topographies and electromagnetic waves of the space around them.



Video Peacock
Copyright © Benoît Maubrey 		 
AUDIO PEACOCKS (2003 and ongoing) use plexiglass costumes shaped into a peacock’s fan-like plumage. They are equipped with 16 loudspeakers and 150 watts of power. The "audio-plumage" is highly directional and functions like an electro-acoustic radar dish. An Audio Peacock can either amplify its own electronic instruments and /or voice using a microphone and sampler, or receive sounds from outside sources via transmitter/receiver and disseminate them in a space by orienting his high-tech "plumage".

In VIDEO PEACOCK (work in progress), performers wear white costumes that function as mobile projection screens: the electro-acoustic quality of an Audio Peacock is visually enhanced via a video projector. The Peacock’s voice can either be projected via oscilloscope patterns or used to manipulate an image that is projected onto his costume: the spectator "sees" the peacock’s voice on his translucent costume -- in effect he is visually "wearing" the sound.


THEATER AND STAGES.
Over the years the Audio Gruppe has been developing its repertoire. Some of its members have developed solos with a particular instrument: certain costumes have muted into highly individualistic and self-contained sound units. These are individual “phonic” bodies that produce their own personal sounds and movements in intimate and close-to-the-spectator performances. Since 1997 after the conception of the AUDIO GEISHAS (sampler-and-stroboscope lighting duos) we have presented staged pieces consisting of collages of up to 12 different audio characters set in an around the audience.

Only recently I have developed the PHONOMANIACS concept which is a sound-opera event for 20-30 electro-acoustic costumes: a multidisciplinary and site-specific media opera taking place both inside and outside the different rooms of a large vacant building. This is a “modular” event -- that is, the exact composition and elements of this "sound opera" can only be determined according to the building and site. In general it includes the following elements: AUDIO BALLERINAS (dance), VIDEO PEACOCKS (video+internet), AUDIO GEISHAS (light), AUDIO CYCLISTS(sport), BONG BOYS/ AUDIO VACUUM CLEANERS (street theatre), GUITAR MONKEYS (noise), and FEEDBACK FRED (performance).

More info: http://www.snafu.de/~maubrey
     
Artist Biography

Benoit Maubrey
 1952 born in Washington, D.C.
1975 Bachelor of Arts Diploma from Georgetown University
since 1979 in Berlin lives and works since 1990 in Baitz (near Brandenburg/ Germany)
since 1983 numerous performances and exhibitions (a selection):

Ars Electronica (1985), Steirischer Herbst (1986), Musée de La Villette/Paris (1986), Festival les Arts au Soleil/Lille (1990), TISEA/Sydney (1992), MEDIALE/Hamburg (1993), ISEA/Helsinki (1994), Sound Art Festival/Hannover, Kryptonale/Berlin (1996), SONAMBIENTE/ Akademie der Künste Berlin(1996), 38eme Rugissants/Grenoble (1996), Tokyo City Opera/ NTT-ICC (1997), International Symposium of Electronic Arts/Chicago (1997), Ostranenie Festival/Bauhaus Dessau, International Symposium for Elecronic Arts/Chicago (1998), The Kitchen /NYC, International Dance and Technology Conference/ Phoenix,Arizona(1999), Danzdag,/Kulturhus Aarhus, Denmark, “Audio Ballerinas and Electronic Guys” /Theater am Hallesches Ufer , Berlin, Monaco Dance Danses Forum (2000), Tollwood Festival/Munich, Postdamer Musikfestspiele, Kunstmuseum/Wolfsburg, Berliner Festspiele, New Haven Festival for Arts and Ideas, Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Musee des Arts et Industrie,/Saint-Etienne (2001), Location One/NYC, HIGH FIDELITY, Musiktheater im Revier/Gelsenkirchen (co-production mit Berndt Schindowski), Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Berlin., Potsdamer Festspiele (2002), Lowlands Festival/Holland, Gracia Territoria Sonor/Barcelona, (2003) "Sonoric Atmospheres"/Ostseebiennale der Klangkunst, Thailand New Media Art Festival/Bangkok, IFI Festival/Portugal.
 
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