B/R/T The Inhabited Body

By incorporating everyday objects into her work, Bachmann interrogates the sublime often associated with technology. Symphony 54 Shoes (Distant Echoes) explores the pathos of technology by staging an unproductive act. Set out on six shelves, 27 pairs of shoes move and dance independently of each other.

In this kinetic work, the movement of the shoes in a sense attempts to highlight the absence of the people who wore them. This is why the work is not interactive. On the bottom of each shoe, Bachmann has attached a tap-dance toe plate, thereby creating an antispectacular spectacle in which the emphasis is placed on the creation of a sound ambience, programmed to give the impression that it is a product of chance. These sounds bring the exhibition space to life, providing viewers with a constant aural presence. The experience anchors the viewers firmly in the present, and leaves them seeking the sound sources which activate the various shoes while letting themselves be drawn into the rhythm created by the work.

Technical Assistance: Chris Flower
Circuit Design and Programming: Erik Conrad
Financial Support: FQRSC (Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture)
 

Cutaneous Sensation. The sensitivity of the skin, with its sensorial receptors, enables us to transform outside information into nervous impulses, which then travel through the central nervous system to be interpreted. With Peripheral Response, Tingley has created an interactive environment inspired by this process. She links and robotizes modules which hammer the wall and floor in response to the presence of visitors.

The mere action of standing in front of one of the nine elements which make up this immersive environment sets off a series of actions in each of them. This journey to the heart of the body brings us into contact with various layers of the epidermis, thereby situating viewers at the heart of the representation. Without their presence, these elements would stop moving due to lack of stimuli.

Peripheral Response is a depiction of the microscopic chain reaction of the various parts of the human epidermis. The result is an impressive spider’s web, like a network of sensitive components which make possible an interaction with the viewers, who are connected to a simulated central nervous system, a computer-brain controlling various sensors.

For his Technical Assistance, Special Thanks to: Martin Peach
Financial Support: Manitoba Arts Council, Rossetti Montréal, le Centre interuniversitaire des arts médiatiques (CIAM) , P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization)
 

Walking involves putting one foot in front of the other, trampling the ground underfoot. In a more figurative sense, to walk is to move towards some goal or objective. In Take off your Legs, Roussel examines the theme of walking through our experience of the other’s body by means of movement, which in this case goes nowhere because it is only movement. Using an interactive system, she only movement. Using an interactive system, she only employs mechanical legs suspended in the air which are brought to life through the participation of the viewers, so that they may relate their own movements to those produced by the machine.

The first public exhibition of Take off your Legs was in the form of a performance in which a dancer interacted with the work. The piece was later modified to become an installation. Roussel invites us to activate and interact with this prosthesis by walking on a module containing a mechanical interface placed next to the work. Viewers position themselves in such a way as to make the work move, function, and take on life. Through this interface, Roussel positions viewers in the present as a central component of the action, thereby succeeding in making us aware of our own verticality, our own way of walking.