Khrônos is a visual and sound installation that brings the unique acoustic vibrations of the Tu-Yo Afrika into relation with their digital and virtual representation.

The Tu-Yo Afrika is a new instrument that uses pneumatics, acoustics and informatics to generate a continuous vibration of a latex membrane stretched across the end of an aluminum tube. A small black rubber ball placed inside the tube bounces randomly, stimulated by the acoustic vibrations of the membrane. Its bouncing generates a kind of rhythmic “drone” whose figures are constantly rearticulated and renewed, creating a “hypnotic” ambience.

A halogen bulb installed beneath the yellow latex membrane illuminates the interior of the instrument, propagating an amber glow of variable clarity and intensity. A small video camera picks up what is happening inside the instrument: the image is that of a small black ball sketching natural movements against the “yellow-orange” background. This image is projected above the instrument thus making the sound visible. Ideally, the image is also projected on the floor, thus giving the public the opportunity to “virtually” step inside the musical instrument. This projection is round and has a diameter of 2 meters.

The computer follows the “dance” of the rubber ball. A system of analysis detects the rhythm, dynamics and pitch of the sound generated, and uses this information to control both the evolution of the music and the visual transformation of what is being filmed inside the instrument.

Khrônos also raises the question of Time (musical time, machine time, human time). The relation between the real instrument and its digital representation makes it possible to move around virtually “within” the Tu-Yo Afrika and to discover its acoustic and visual subtleties. This enables the visitor to reach another level of comprehension and of interaction with the work: an entire symbolic universe is formed through the interrelations among the virtual representation proposed by the video projection, the physical reality of the various phenomena and the visitors’ imagination.

Original idea Jean-François Laporte
Conception Jean-François Laporte
Production JF Laporte and Productions Totem Contemporain
Development of the electronic system S. St-Aubin, A. Burton
Programming Benjamin Thigpen, J-F Laporte, Alexandre Burton
Thanks to Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Digital Arts Fetival (Taipei – Taiwan)

Create to share. This is what The Floating Project is about. For more than ten years, contemporary artist Jean-François Laporte uses latex to build audiovisual installations or new innovative music instruments. The lighting properties of this material and the contemplative experience that results fascinates him. He then decided to build various pieces out of this material. The Floating Project is the first of this collection.

A simple big sphere floats in the air, gently moving to the soft wind. Through its soft light, its transform the space where it evolves. Is it an star? Or maybe “Pacha Mama”‘s shapes? For its creator, its a recipient for unachieved ideas, a rich planet where everything is possible. Beyond its artistic symbolism, the creation invites to comtemplate and stare.

Original idea Jean-François Laporte
Conception Jean-François Laporte
Production JF Laporte and Productions Totem Contemporain
Development of the electronic system Samuel St-Aubin
Programming J-F Laporte, Samuel St-Aubin
Thanks to the festival Arts Souterrain

Mon corps jamais ne s’arrêtera de danser, My body never will stop dancing, is a 50 minute work/performance for a musician and a dancer. The project was created by the collaboration among Jean Francois Laporte (composer, musician and instruments’ inventor), Barbara Sarreau (choreographer and dancer) and Jean Tartaroli (light designer). These 3 artists have worked together for many years on several artistic projects like Tchakela (Bamako) and “Que puis-je faire pour vous” (what can I do for you) (Marseille).

In “My body will never stop dancing”, the concepts of boarders, space, movement and body have been the center point of the artists’ work. Removed from the superfluous, the dance shows its own most sincere destitution. The show has been produced by Production Totem Contemporain together with “Conseil des Arts de Montreal” and “Conseil de Arts et des Lettres du Quebec”. Thanks to Francois Legris, Sophie Deraspe, Etienne Boilard and Sarah Veillon.

Wedged in the Red Room is a 50 minute work/performance for a musician and a dancer. The project was created from the collaboration of the artists Jean-François Laporte (composer, musician and instruments’ inventor) and Clovek & The 420/Frederic Tavernini (choreographer and dancer).

In “Wedged in the Red Room” there is everything to express a state of urgency: music, lighting and mouvement. Suspended red luminous globes define the microcosm in which the main idea is the research of body verticality

“Wedeged in the Red Room” was created on September 18-19, 2009 at “Espace Totem” (Montreal) thanks to the support of “Conseil des Arts du Canada” and “Conseil des Arts de Montreal”.

Psukhô, a Greek word that means “breath, life and soul”, is a visual and sound installation featuring the invented wind instruments Tu-Yos.

Mainly comprised of pipes of various sizes covered at their ends by supple Latex membranes, these instruments are controlled by a mechanical system and software. This allows them to work independently of human breath (and its limitations), thereby increasing their sound potential and giving them a certain degree of autonomy. Air circulates through the pipes, producing vibrations that range from sharps to flats.

The exhibition will be acoustically adapted to the various halls on its tour: the composer will carefully adjust and synchronize his instruments to create a harmonic coherence that offers an ever-changing polyphonic flow.

Visitors was encouraged to stroll slowly through the space, keeping their ears attuned to the rich and subtle sounds. Psukhô was presented for the first time on September 25, 2008, at the Darling Foundry.

Original idea Conception Jean-François Laporte
Production Jean-François Laporte and Productions Totem Contemporain
Development of the electronic system S. St-Aubin, Etienne Grenier
Programming J-F Laporte, Etienne Grenier, Alexandre Burton
Thanks to The Darling Fondery, Montreal Art Council, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts

Kyokkoufu, Winds of the Polar Lights or Lights from the Polar Winds
Commissioned by the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain)

A genuine ballet of FlyingCans, new musical instrument, Kyokkoufu invites the audience to live an hypnotic experience of light and sound. The sonorities, produced in a strictly acoustic manner by the agitation of the wind inside the instruments put in motion by computer-controlled motors, possess an undeniable organic character. Soothing at one time and intimidating the next, they evolve in a way that is directly proportional to the rotational speed that generates them, at the same time projecting the sound of the instruments in every direction.

Following the principle of the wind turbine, this way of putting them in vibration propagates tangible energy through the intensity and presence of the sounds, of course, but also through the light patterns gradually emerging from it. As each FlyingCan includes a fully-controllable lighting system (hue and intensity, varying progressively or instantly), their circular movement in space forms all sorts of shapes in relation with the intensity of the sonorities; flashes, complete or partial circles, continuous or distinct like degrees on a compass.

Movements of light and sound around different energetic poles, this new sound installation musically evokes the “Kyokkou’, the polar lights of Japan. Kyokkoufu is thus a new term combining Kyokkou (polar lights) and Fu (winds), so as to mean the Winds of the Polar Lights.

Original idea Jean-François Laporte
Conception Jean-François Laporte
Production Jean-françis Laporte, Martin Ouellet, Productions Totem Contemporain
Development of the electronic system Nicolas Leroy, Emmanuel Flety
Programming Jean-François Laporte, Benjamin Thigpen and Nicolas Leroy
Thanks to Centro Galego de Arte Contemporeania, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Montréal Arts Council and the Canada Arts Council for the Arts

Seaquakes (Tremblement de mer) is an outdoor sound installation meant to be presented near water sites and other locations exposed to strong winds, made from six large suspended metal sheets (1m50 x 3m) that are brought to life by an audio signal sent through them and vibrating in sympathy with the wind.

Loudspeakers, fixed directly to each metal sheet, sends through them pure sinewaves (sinus), controlled by a computerized system (Max/Msp), up to the sheets saturation point. Sound vibrations then start to take shape : the loudspeaker, like the bow on a violin, puts the metal sheets in vibration in a way that creates a soundscape, but an extremely static one because of the sinusoid nature of the sounds used. Then the ambiant wind comes into play : by also putting in vibration the metal sheets already excited by the sinewaves, it colours and enrich the initial soundscape by modulating it with its force, giving the whole installation a genuine organic dimension, which is also appealing for the eye as it creates patterns of light that move in sync with the sound (please consult the Seaquakes document for pictures).

Premiered in September 2004 in Montreal?s Vieux-Port (during the « Escales improbables » festival), Tremblement de mer (Seaquakes) aimed at putting some emphasis on the power of wind ? which has control over the modulation of the soundscape ? and also on the beauty of the urban location. With the St-Lauwrence River as backdrop on one side and Montreal?s downtown on the other, this sound installation placed the audience in an unusual situation that offered them the chance to also contemplate the sonic and visual landscape of their own city.

Original idea Jean-François Laporte
Conception Jean-François Laporte
Production J-F Laporte, Martin Ouellet, Productions Totem Contemporain
Programming Jean-François Laporte
Thanks to The Escales improbables and Martin Ouellet

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Scattered accross the site, the vibrations of twelve or so invented instruments bathe the public in their movements. Tu-Yo and Bol, all born of an extremely simple assemblage of basic materials, bring the art of sounds back to its genesis, freed of the weight of traditional instruments and of the music associated with them. Unaltered sounds of surprising depth, without amplification nor processing, of a ?hyper-real? character that borders on the unreal. No speaker nor microphone are hidden behind the vibrating membrane of the instruments.

True unfurling of a sheet of sound from which all rhythm is suppressed, in the form of a flow, a stasis, then an imperceptible vanishing, this sound installation is a tribute to the space-time dimension in all its fluidity. Music of mass and of movements, it has for motif the fluctuating evolution of similar timbres organizing themselves by accumulation and proliferation, fostering the birth of an extremely organic sound universe. Polyphony becomes one global harmony, a total timbre, and behind its quasi-static globality hide extremely lively units.

By its acoustical contribution, the location becomes a parameter in itself that can?t be dissociated from the musical manifestation. A parameter that is essential but not constraining: the listener is free to move, free to trace his own path among the multitude of sound generators, lingering at chosen places, creating his own perceptual universe from what is proposed to him.

Original idea Jean-François Laporte
Conception Jean-François Laporte
Production J-F Laporte, Martin Ouellet, Productions Totem Contemporain
Programming Jean-François Laporte, Alexandre Burton
Thanks to the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, The Darling Foundery and Martin Ouellet