live @ L’Arca – L’Arca – Laboratorio per le arti contemporanee may 12 2016

Abruzzo_concert_

LINE co-presents France Jobin & Fabio Perletta on May 12 in Teramo Italy at L’Arca – Laboratorio per le arti contemporanee

La geografia culturale della contemporaneità sta indiscutibilmente subendo un’ennesima evoluzione: la vituperata estetica del non-luogo, temporanea illusione post-’90 trascinata ignobilmente per tutta la prima decade del nuovo millennio, è, oggi, quantomai deprivata dai suoi significati più profondi. Il web 2.0 e la connettività ne hanno assimilato i contenuti, liberando lo spazio ‘tutto’ dalla subalternità metropolitana. Riscoprire le identità paesaggistiche, urbane ed umane delle realtà ‘locali’ (e localizzate) è forse, ora, il paradigma più adeguato alla germinazione e crescita di incontaminati e primigeni linguaggi e percorsi artistici. In∩Out vuole essere una presa di coscienza, una dimostrazione di esistenza, una prima azione, visionaria, per vivere una città, Teramo, oltre le sue frizioni interno/esterno e scoprendone valori legittimamente internazionalizzabili.

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Sullo sfondo del malinconico transito del tempo, France Jobin ricama trame minimaliste di microscopiche ed infinitesimali delicatezze: biologie cristalline colte nel loro divenire, immortalate nella loro mutevolezza, osservate nelle lente ed organiche trasformazioni. Un sistema impercettibile di rifrangenti equilibri, unico nel suo essere, sublime nella sua discrezione. Nella glaciale irrealtà contemporanea, Singulum ci parla di scienza quale epifania della natura, nelle sue debolezze e caducità indaga fra sensibilistiche relazioni particellari scoprendone l’umanità e la fragilità.

Licenziato da LINE nel Febbraio 2016
http://www.lineimprint.com/editions/cd/line_075/

Un polittico di visioni spaziali compiute. Genkai 限界, scambio intellettuale e sonico fra Fabio Perletta ed Haruo Okada (JP), produce moduli paesaggistici impossibili e limitati nella loro in-confinabilità. In equilibrio fra sottili e dicotomiche relazioni fra pieni e vuoti, il lavoro a quattro mani del riduzionista abruzzese e del sound designer nipponico, ragiona su soluzioni elettroacustiche metafisiche, dove la ‘rappresentazione’, alterata dall’interpretazione, raggiunge, nella sua espressione minima, vastità meditative Zen, tanto libere e cerebrali quanto scientificamente tattili.

Pubblicazione prossima su LINE
http://www.lineimprint.com/editions/digital/line_080/

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19.00 Fabio Perletta
— esegue Genkai 限界 (LINE_080), in collaborazione con Haruo Okada

19.45 France Jobin
— esegue Singulum (LINE_075)

A CURA DI
Claudia Di Giuseppe

INGRESSO
con offerta sottoscrittiva

INFO
+ 39 0861 240732

TESTO CRITICO
Marco Marzuoli

PARTNERS
Lux
LINE
L’Arca – Laboratorio per le arti contemporanee
Comune di Teramo
Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des Arts du Canada
Fazenda

 

“France Jobin wishes to thank the Canada Council for the Arts for its financial support.”

CAC_Logo_FR_coul

 

 

review – mirror neurons (DER) – Hawai – CL

mirror_neurons_DER

Mirror Neurons on DER
CD + Digital – 500

Release Date April 21, 2015
Cover xx+xy visual

Bonus Video

All orders through DER’s Bandcamp will receive an excerpt of Mirror Neurons.
Visuals :  xx+xy visuals 
Sound : France Jobin and Fabio Perletta

‘Mirror Neurons’ explores the artists’ interest in intersection between science and art, as well as the infinitely small and invisible”. Fragmentos microscópicos dispersos en una gráfica invisible, puntos aislados dispuestos sobre planos ubicados en espacios quietos. La música también es silencio, o al menos una aproximación a él, ruido estático que parece establecerse en un mismo lugar. Sin embargo, ese silencio es en realidad millones de fracciones en movimiento, trozos de sonido que se intersectan en líneas cruzando los diferentes puntos cartográficos. Lo que era vacío es en realidad una infinidad de matices del sonido, múltiples formas auditivas que representan las muchas variables de la composición acústica. Una de las últimas ediciones físicas de Dragon’s Eye es un encuentro entre dos creadores que comparten visiones sobre el sonido, apreciaciones sobre las manifestaciones auditivas que emergen desde ángulos apartados de la estridencia, visiones plasmadas en sus respectivos cuerpos creativos.“France Jobin es una artista sonora y de instalaciones, compositora y curadora residente en Montreal, Canadá. Su arte auditivo puede ser calificado como ‘esculturas de sonido’, revelando un acercamiento minimalista a complejos ambientes sonoros, donde intersectan lo análogo y lo digital. Sus instalaciones expresan un camino paralelo, incorporando tanto elementos visuales como musicales inspirados por la arquitectura de los espacios físicos”. Obras para nonvisualobjects, Room40, ATAK, Murmur. Sus tres trabajos bajo su nombre, posteriores a I8U, han sido revisados en este sitio: “Valence”(LINE, 2010) [184], “The Illusion Of Infinitesimal” (Baskaru, 2014) [326] y “Sans repères” (popmuzik records, 2014) [349]. El primero, donde “el volumen al que son reproducidas las materias de esta obra alcanzan niveles muy bajos, al límite de lo perceptible, y solo con una cuidada atención logran percibirse las ricas capas que quedan subyacentes a la aparente quietud… Se puede tanto escuchar como ver los sonidos que se desplazan a lo largo de los más de mil segundos de esta pieza que comienza a crecer lenta y paulatinamente, como partículas microscópicas que concentran masa y energía alrededor de su núcleo, hasta decantar en un resplandor incandescente, una eclosión tardía de estruendos contenidos. ‘The Illusion Of Infinitesimal’, estas composiciones de France Jobin conforman una enorme obra de ruido digital estático, la ilusión de la quietud en manchas minúsculas y notas que se desvanecen en el silencio”. El segundo, una preciosa obra de estruendos naturales,“fragmentos entrelazados creando un bucle interminable que termina por ser cubierto por la densidad desvanecida de las armonías sintéticas que se vuelven en superficies impolutas con pequeñas manchas de ruido, los restos del polvo estelar que cubren esta otra cara, la arena del río que traspasa la naturaleza fluvial hasta la naturaleza artificial. Al final solo quedarán los remanentes, partículas digitales que envuelven el terreno vectorizado… Sintetizando las bondades que presentaban sus creaciones anteriores, este trabajo utiliza como punto de partida unas grabaciones de las cuales solo quedan su materia más pura, una materia física que se convierte en una substancia intangible y una música de delicadeza variable. ‘Sans repères’, una obra surgida desde la belleza análoga que luego de un fascinante proceso desplegado por France Jobin culmina en hermosas piezas de ruido digital y notas transparentes”. Por su parte, Fabio Perletta, “artista sonoro y multimedia nacido en 1984 que vive y trabaja en Roseto degli Abruzzi, Italia. Sus trabajos incluyen música electrónica, instalaciones de luz y sonido, presentaciones en vivo y diseño gráfico. A través del uso de computador y software personalizados, la búsqueda sonora de Perletta explora la intersección entre áreas complementarias como la física, psicología y percepción humana”. Obras como “Field: Atom(s) Entropy” (Farmacia901, 2013) o “Liminality” (Dragon’s Eye, 2014) [354], este su primer trabajo para el sello de Los Ángeles, además de su trayectoria previa como Øe. Sin embargo hasta ahora sólo un álbum personal, el impecable “Interstitial Spaces” (Farmacia901, 2015) [310], “una estridencia oculta bajo una densa nube de electricidad, un extenso trabajo donde el desplazamiento de partículas adquiere formas intangibles y donde cada uno de los postulados que dirigen Farmacia901 cobran especial significado… Electrónica de una nitidez inquebrantable que emana de un centro de sonidos de pureza luminosa… Ciencia como música, música como ciencia. El eco del vacío reduce las notas a un esencialismo diáfano, una obra especialmente intensa dentro de su inmovilidad… Permanencia y quietud, una constante de notas débiles… La estridencia imperceptible de Fabio Perletta genera hermosos paisajes dentro de su estabilidad transparente y su estética del silencio”.

“Las neuronas especulares harán por la psicología lo que el DNA hizo por la biología”Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, neurocientífico. Como es habitual, inspirados por aspectos ajenos a la música, o quizá íntimamente ligados, France Jobin y Fabio Perletta elaboran un trabajo donde se encuentran ciencia y sonido. “Mirror Neurons” es la primera colaboración entre ambos creadores, trabajo de arte digital en el cual a partir de un concepto extraído de la neurociencia se generan impulsos auditivos de dimensiones ínfimas. Jobin y Perletta, desde la distancia, construyen piezas de electrónica minimalista en las que pequeñas señales producen una música aparentemente muda, largos desarrollos sostenidos en entramados de difícil aprehensión, lo que queda relegado de la confusión habitual. Grabado desde sus respectivos estudios, este álbum es una transformación continua de datos en intercambio, un flujo de pistas que termina por depurarse hasta quedar en prolongados registros de audio. Tal como sucede en sus trabajos particulares, la masa de estridencia que pudiera existir termina por ser absorbida como si fuese encerrada en una cámara hermética que amplifica de manera leve los golpes más mínimos. “Mirror Neurons” son respuestas sonoras a estímulos físicos. “Las neuronas especulares representan una distintiva clase de células que se activan tanto cuando un animal ejecuta una acción y cuando observa a otro individuo realizar la misma acción. Descubiertas por el neurofisiólogo italiano Giacomo Rizzolatti y su equipo en la Universidad de Parma mientras realizaban una investigación sobre la representación neuronal de los movimientos motrices de los monos, la precisa función e influencia de estas neuronas se ha vuelto uno de los más importantes temas en la neurociencia. Han sido relacionadas a muchas conductas y habilidades, desde la empatía a aprender a través de la imitación y el aprendizaje de un idioma, así como implicada en condiciones como el autismo y otros desórdenes cerebrales. Estos descubrimientos sugieren que el sistema de neuronas especulares juega un rol fundamental en nuestra habilidad para sentir empatía”. Actividad neuronal convertida en nervios eléctricos, transitando en curvas, líneas que emiten pequeños disturbios dentro de la horizontalidad. Jobin y Perletta fabricaron este álbum con diferentes rastros que luego atravesaron filtros, donde sólo aparecen unos atisbos al final del proceso.“Iniciado por los artistas sonoros France Jobin y Fabio Perletta, ‘Mirror Neurons’ es un proyecto de medios investigando la noción de empatía y distancias físicas. El álbum entero es el resultado de extensos archivos sonoros intercambiados entre Montreal (Canadá) y Roseto degli Abruzzi (Italia). Cada una de estas piezas está basada en ásperos archivos y su consecuente reelaboración, escuchando y reaccionando, procesando e imitando. El proceso en desarrollo ayudó a los artistas a encontrar inspiración en términos de estímulos para el acto de la composición en sí mismo en dos ciudades muy distantes, diferentes climas, zonas horarias y lenguaje. Como muchos de los trabajos recientes de Jobin y Perletta, ‘Mirror Neurons’ explora el interés de estos artistas en la intersección entre ciencia y arte, así como lo infinitamente pequeño e invisible. En orden a desarrollar el concepto de distancia / colectividad, los artistas visuales de Roma XX+XY se han involucrado en el proceso. Ellos crearon una multi-dimensional, visualización sonora generativa siempre cambiante a través del uso de texturas quietas y sutiles movimientos, enfatizando el lento sentido del tiempo de la obra misma. A pesar de ser presentada en vivo en un gran espacio, el video intenta crear un ambiente inmersivo y una ocasión única de reflexionar acerca del funcionamiento de nuestras emociones y la importancia de la interacción humana”. Parte de esa visualización realizada por xx+ xy queda plasmada en la portada de este disco, en esas estrías grises parte del diseño formal de Dragon’s Eye –existe un archivo de video, un extracto disponible en la red que muestra ese complemento de imágenes–. “Mirror Neurons” son tres piezas que en total suman cuarenta y seis minutos, cada una con formas particulares, todas parte de una misma forma. Sonidos unidireccionales que resaltan en fracciones eventuales, trazos extensos cubiertos de pequeños eventos que emergen de sus superficies planas. Encima de estructuras tendidas reposan pequeños objetos sonoros que despuntan como respuesta a un movimiento eléctrico que subyace a ellas, organismos biológicos que interactúan con entidades artificiales. Los tres paisajes al interior de esta obra nacen de estos archivos intercambiados entre Canadá e Italia, datos encriptados los que exploran las diferentes posibilidades del sonido, distintos matices del ruido que se desplazan siguiendo trayectorias rectilíneas. Microbios auditivos afloran desde “Parallel”, contaminando la pureza de sus tonos, disgregados en una luz incandescente, la misma que irradia “Reflection”, un reflejo de notas suspendidas y melodías ondulatorias. “Mimesis” parte de eventos inmóviles que se bifurcan en mareas inmutables, suma de decimales acústicos, tal como son cada segmento de estos diseños de sonido.

‘Mirror Neurons’ explores the artists’ interest in intersection between science and art, as well as the infinitely small and invisible”. Líneas de estruendos de una pureza transparente, la unión de estos dos artistas ubicados en geografías diferentes da como resultado sonidos de hermosa austeridad auditiva. “Mirror Neurons” son directrices armónicas extendidas en un plano horizontal, interpoladas por fragmentos microscópicos. France Jobin y Fabio Perletta crean paisajes de minimalismo tonal, acústica celular en órbitas graduales.

mirror neurons @ roBOT 08 festival Bologna, Italy

mirrorneurons

Mirror Neurons @ roBOT 08 festival, Bologna, Italy
October 10th 2015 @Palazzo Re Enzo – Sala Re Enzo

France Jobin
Fabio Perlettaxx+xy visuals

Mirror neurons are a fundamental discovery in neuroscience, which is due to an Italian researcher, Giacomo Rizzolatti, and his team at the University of Parma. It is also the base from which the sound artists France Jobin and Fabio Perletta created “Mirror Neurons”, another step of their journey to investigate the crossroads between science and art, between the visible and invisible, between distances and intersections – the two work very far from each other, Jobin lives in Montréal while Perletta lives in Roseto degli Abruzzi but their exchange is continuous and relentless). Finally, the visual work made in a generative matrix by the Roman collective XX+XY visuals makes their performance even richer.

review – mirror neurons (DER) – The wire – UK

mirror_neurons_DER

 

Mirror Neurons on DER
CD + Digital – 500

Release Date April 21, 2015
Cover xx+xy visual

Bonus Video

All orders through DER’s Bandcamp will receive an excerpt of Mirror Neurons.
Visuals :  xx+xy visuals 
Sound : France Jobin and Fabio Perletta

A new release from Los Angeles based sound art and drone label Dragon’s Eye, and the debut from this Canadian/Italian duo. The title riffs off the name for the brain neurons involved in observing, understanding and copying others’ actions. There are parallels with the kinds of shared thinking involved in duo playing, though as it’s impossible to tell who’s doing what here, it’s hard to track how that plays out. The three tracks are constructed from the kind of infinitely quiet, dry and pure drones and pulses associated with Richard Chartier. The concept makes more sense applied to the ebb and flow of the record, with each piece having the organic, unfolding structure of Rolf Julius recording. But there’s traces of menace in the occasional higher volume bumps and glitches and the piercingly high, quiet sine tones that thread through “Reflection”.

Dan Barrow

review – mirror neurons (DER) – touching extremes – Italy

mirror_neurons_DER

Mirror Neurons on DER
CD + Digital – 500

Release Date April 21, 2015
Cover xx+xy visual

Bonus Video

All orders through DER’s Bandcamp will receive an excerpt of Mirror Neurons.
Visuals :  xx+xy visuals 
Sound : France Jobin and Fabio Perletta

I have a love/hate relationship with the integration of microsounds and stillness; am highly distrustful when neuroscience is utilized to improve pseudo-intellectual formulas which, most frequently, are nothing but containers of deplorably ignorant esoteric commonplaces, good only to fill one’s mouth in absence of veritable kernels. And, in the last years, I also have reinforced my theory about installations and background soundtracks symbolizing – more often than not – a dense fog hiding out-and-out artistic poverty.

Having said that, my curmudgeonly attitude was successfully fought by Jobin and Perletta’s long-distance collaboration. More to the point, the pair produced an admirable example of psychoacoustic exploration able to generate stimulating suggestions while eliciting the kind of retroactive synthesis performed by the brain in the presence of a given combination of sounds. A somewhat restricted palette of extremely sharp frequencies, digital noise, subsonic pulsation and diverse representations of quietude is finely exploited over the course of three tracks. Each segment is incisive and soothing at once, never falling into the “snug ambient” trap. The Canadian and the Italian have really done their homework (pun unintended).

Had I to give a lone reason to justify this CD’s effectiveness, the answer would probably lie in its blend of surgical precision and reminiscent profoundness. The merging of fixed tones enhanced by computer processing elicits a peculiar magnetism: trance, sure, and “that” inscrutable regret, almost tangible in sections of “Mimesis” and “Parallel”. The central chapter “Reflection” is perceived as a mere reassuring texture at first; then, after a nearly silent transition, organ-like pitches (think of the intro to Pink Floyd’s “Us And Them”, stretched and with less harmonic movement) lull us into a comfort zone inevitably destined to vanish.

Put this one on repeat play: it’s worth hours of implicit analysis, while the mechanisms of internal composure get efficiently lubricated.

Massimo Ricci

review – mirror neurons (DER) – ondarock – Italy

mirror_neurons_DER

 

Mirror Neurons on DER
CD + Digital – 500

Release Date April 21, 2015
Cover xx+xy visual

Bonus Video

All orders through DER’s Bandcamp will receive an excerpt of Mirror Neurons.
Visuals :  xx+xy visuals 
Sound : France Jobin and Fabio Perletta

 

France Jobin e Fabio Perletta hanno due background piuttosto diversi: scienziata e matematica del suono con l’amore per il laptop e gli algoritmi la prima, principale importatore dell’estetica microsoundin Italia il secondo, uniti però dal comune interesse per la riduzione ai minimi termini delle forme sonore. Entrambi catalogabili a fatica nel macrocosmo dell’ambient elettroacustico, entrambi protagonisti di percorsi votati a un’arte squisitamente concettuale, l’intersezione dei loro discorsi artistici non poteva che produrre un lavoro come “Mirror Neurons”. Ovvero un disco dove il suono si mette al servizio del concept e della percezione, uditiva e cerebrale.

Nella sostanza, i due cercano di trasporre in suono l’attività elettrica e fisiologica dei neuroni umani, toccando con mano aspetti strettamente legati alla psicoacustica. Da un lato l’aspetto “interiore”, l’attività cerebrale che si auto-percepisce in quanto tale (si “specchia”, parafrasando il titolo), descritta dalle dilatazioni infinitesime a volume zero di Jobin. Dall’altro quello squisitamente fisico-scientifico, l’attività cerebrale percepita e individuata da un recettore esterno, ma anche come forma essa stessa di percezione sensibile dell’altro: e qui intervengono i datasounds di Perletta, richiami elettronici astratti e appena udibili, esattamente come i flussi di corrente nei neuroni.

Cromaticamente parlando, il colore dominante è un bianco perpetuo, vuoto, accecante, invisibile. In “Parallel” questo è spezzato da atomi di suono, schegge che trascendono il conscio per infilarsi nell’inconscio e costruire lì uno scheletro extra-razionale. Quest’ultimo si prepara poi a ospitare il drone di Jobin, privo di dimensioni fisiche e solo apparentemente fin troppo simile a un qualsiasi flusso ambientale. La sua monocromia, però, lo colloca in una dimensione extra-sensoriale ben lontana dal parnassianismo (diretto alla percezione e alla poesia) degli Illuha. Qui, al contrario, la scienza trascende l’umano e il suono astrae verso una dimensione esclusivamente sua.

Non c’è sentimento, non un briciolo di vita: o se ci sono, l’inquadratura dei due li elimina dalsoundscape per concentrarsi sul processo, mostrandone qualche traccia forse solo nell’evoluzione di “Mimesis”, dove le sfumature sembrano per la prima volta intensificarsi progressivamente. “Reflection” è invece il sunto della dinamica descritta sopra: un drone si protrae per più di un quarto d’ora fungendo da nucleo, mentre tutt’attorno elettroni sonori orbitano perpetuamente, senza uno scopo né una causa. La scena è riflessa allo specchio, ma non c’è soggetto che possa percepire il dualismo.

Ben pochi sono riusciti prima a sintetizzare tutto questo in un’opera sonora: Jobin e Perletta ci riescono in un autentico saggio di arte applicata alla psicoacustica. Dedicato a quei pochi per i quali il suono può davvero significare qualcosa al di là della percezione sensibile. Con rispetto e comprensione verso tutti quelli per i quali, invece, la sola idea rasenta la follia.

Matteo Meda

review – mirror neurons (DER) – Igloo Magazine – USA

mirror_neurons_DER

 

Mirror Neurons on DER
CD + Digital – 500

Release Date April 21, 2015
Cover xx+xy visual

Bonus Video

All orders through DER’s Bandcamp will receive an excerpt of Mirror Neurons.
Visuals :  xx+xy visuals 
Sound : France Jobin and Fabio Perletta

The lithe, almost see-through ambient of Québecoise France Jobin combines with Fabio Perletta’s fly-eyed dot matrix view of the world. The conceit of Mirror Neutrons, a term borrowed from neuroscience that boils down to the phenomena of reaction, cogitation, imitation, and above all empathy, is tested by the artists listening to and crafting each other’s sounds as they are traded between Canada and Italy. The album is part of a larger proposition including video by xx-xy visuals.

“Parallel” clicks into earshot with a slow rosary-bead count. Says nothing, almost nothing, for a bit. An electronic device warms up, its beeps as slowly as the rosary beads did. Then it begins to percolate as a thin, smooth organ-drone unfurls and puts on weight. “Reflection” begins where “Parallel” left off, with a diaphanous, quavering drone gaining heft before going silent halfway through, returning as a much more confident and sacral tone, a blast in such a quiet context. It eventually recedes to its gauzy origin. “Mimesis” is sharp-edged glitch granules hurled at the whole cloth of an attractive hum, causing it to tear. A second movement opens with the richest drone yet, all but befogging the tiniest, intermittent bubble squeak, before unfolding into a great, big smile of a drone and blinking goodbye.

Play loud—there’s really no other choice.

Stephen Fruitman

mirror neurons on DER

mirror_neurons_DER

 

Duration 46:15

Format CD + Digital
Edition 500
Release Date April 21, 2015
Cover xx+xy visual

Track Listing
01 Parallel
02 Reflection
03 Mimesis

Bonus Video
All orders through DER’s Bandcamp will receive an excerpt of Mirror Neurons.
Visuals :  xx+xy visuals 
Sound : France Jobin and Fabio Perletta

Sinopsis

“Mirror neurons will do for psychology what DNA did for biology”
— Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, neuroscientist

Mirror neurons represent a distinctive class of cells that fire both when an animal executes an action and when it observes another individual performing the same action. Discovered by Italian neurophysiologist Giacomo Rizzolatti and his team at the University of Parma while doing a research on the neural representation of motor movements in monkeys, the precise function and influence of these neurons has become one of the most important topic in neuroscience. They have been linked to many behaviours and abilities, from empathy to learning by imitation and language acquisition, as well as implicated in conditions such as autism and other brain disorders. These findings suggest that the mirror neuron system plays a key role in our ability to experience empathy.

Initiated by sound artists France Jobin and Fabio Perletta, Mirror Neurons is a media-project investigating the notion of empathy and physical distance. The entire album is the result of extended sound files exchange between Montréal (Canada) and Roseto degli Abruzzi (Italy). Each of the pieces is based on rough sounds and their consequent re-working, listening and reaction, processing and imitation. The ongoing process helped the artists to draw inspiration in terms of stimuli for the act of composing itself in two very distant cities, different climate, time zones and languages.

Like much of Jobin and Perletta’s recent works, Mirror Neurons explores the artists’ interest in intersection between science and art, as well as the infinitely small and invisible. In order to further develop the concept of distance/connectivity, visual artists XX+XY from Rome have been involved in the process. They created a multi-dimensional, generative and ever-changing sound visualization through the use of quiet textures and subtle movements emphasizing the slowed sense of time of the work itself. Thought to be performed live in a big space, the video aims to create an immersive environment and a unique occasion to reflect about the behaviour of our emotions and the importance of human interaction.

Artists Info

https://www.francejobin.com
http://www.fabioperletta.it
ttp://www.xxxyvisuals.com

First review on Igloo Magazine
Listen

Mirror Neurons – New AV collaboration – Sound: France Jobin & Fabio Perletta, Visuals: xx+xy visuals

France Jobin + Fabio Perletta with xx+xy visuals
Mirror Neurons

Mirror Neurons represent a distinctive class of cells that fire both when an animal executes an action and when it observes another individual performing the same action. Discovered by Italian neurophysiologist Giacomo Rizzolatti and his team at the University of Parma while doing a research on the neural representation of motor movements in monkeys, the precise function and influence of these neurons has become one of the most important topic in neuroscience. They have been linked to many behaviours and abilities, from empathy to learning by imitation and language acquisition, as well as implicated in conditions such as autism and other brain disorders. These findings suggest that the mirror neuron system plays a key role in our ability to experience empathy.

Initiated by sound artists France Jobin and Fabio Perletta, Mirror Neurons is a media-project investigating the notion of empathy and physical distance. The entire album is the result of extended sound files exchange between Montréal (Canada) and Roseto degli Abruzzi (Italy). Each of the pieces is based on rough sounds and their consequent re-working, listening and reaction, processing and imitation. The ongoing process helped artists to draw inspiration in terms of stimuli for the act of composing itself in two very distant cities, different climate, time zones and languages. The piece will make its debut at the 2014 AxS Festival.

Like much of Jobin and Perletta’s recent works, Mirror Neurons explores the artists’ interest in intersection between science and art, as well as the infinitely small and invisible. In order to further develop the concept of distance/connectivity, visual artists xx+xy visuals from Rome have been involved in the process. They created a multi-dimensional, generative and ever-changing sound visualization through the use of quiet textures and subtle movements emphasizing the slowed sense of time of the work itself.

view excerpt on vimeo here

Mirror Neurons – world premiere at A × S / ak-sis / FESTIVAL 2014 | CURIOSITY

Mirror Neurons : France Jobin + Fabio Perletta with xx+xy visuals
will premiere at A × S / ak-sis / FESTIVAL 2014 | CURIOSITY September 25th 2014
as part of Synergetica Screening. (see below)

AxS Festival 2014 | CURIOSITY is presenting the North American premiere of SPHAERAE, a large-scale temporary public artwork by Dutch architect Cocky Eek. SPHAERAE is an inflatable pavilion — a component of an ongoing strand of research by architect Eek into the pneumatology and tactility of inflatables and lightweight spaces. Developed in partnership with Synergetica Lab in Amsterdam and the Artscience Interfaculty program in The Hague, SPHAERAE consists of five semi-transparent bubbles of different sizes, which together form a multi-dome construction designed for immersive, synaesthetic experience.

Eek was inspired to create SPHAERAE by 10,000 Peacock Feathers in Foaming Acid, an audiovisual performance work by Netherlands-based artists Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand. In 10,000 Peacock Feathers, Domnitch and Gelfand use laser light to scan the surfaces of nucleating and dissipating soap bubble clusters.

DOMNITCH GELFANDFeathers_TodaysArt

Unlike ordinary light, the laser’s focused beam is capable of generating a large-scale projection of molecular interactions as well as mind-boggling phenomena of non-linear optics. Sphæræ’sinflatable structure was designed to both serve as a platform for this uniquely spectacular work, as well as create a venue for other artists, scientists, and performers to make 180° works and compositions which explore the phenomena of light, sound and movement within the domes.

AxS Festival 2014 will present Domnitch + Gelfand in a live performance of 10,000 Peacock Feathers in Foaming Acid — the work that inspired the creation of the SPHAERAE platform — and Solunaris, a new collaborative work by William Basinski & Richard Chartier commissioned by the Pasadena Arts Council and curated by Domnitch + Gelfand.

SPHAERAE will also feature the premiere of Sol Path, a new interactive music work by composer/cognitive scientist Bruno Louchouarn.A concerto for solo viola/percussion/soundscape, Sol Path features live performance by renowned viola soloist Brett Deubner, and immersive multi-media by Asheville, North Carolina-based designer Adam Larsen.

Sol Path is inspired by the exploratory path that the Rover takes over the course of a Martian day — a Sol — which is collaboratively programmed by a team of Earth-bound explorers. Sol Path was created in part with composer Louchouarn in residency at NASA/JPL. Through his dialogues with the Mars Curiosity team — rover drivers, artificial intelligence designers, the “planetary protection team” and others — actual data from the Curiosity mission will become inputs to Louchoarn’s composition and inform the very shape of the experience.

SPHAERAE will be on view for the duration of AxS Festival 2014 | CURIOSITY and feature projects including work, as a far-ranging program of sound works, video screenings, and talks by artists including Chris Duncan, Jeff Cain,Mattia Casalegno, France Jobin, Favio Perletta, xx+xy visuals, Francisco López, Intimatchine, Lucky Dragons, Mike Harding/Touch, Yann Novak, Eric Parren, Paul Prudence, Steve Roden, Jet Smits, Julie Tolentino, Martijn Van Boven, Bas Van Koolwijk, and Virons.

SYNERGETICA SCREENING

Curated by Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand, the ArtScience Interfaculty and Synergetica Lab present a series of multi-sensory performances and installations in the context of synthetic biology. Founded in 2006 in The Netherlands, Synergetica is an art-science laboratory, investigating photonics, fluid dynamics, acoustics, quantum chemistry and psychophysics.

Visit the Synergetica website: synergeticalab.com

The North American premiere of SPHAERAE is made possible in part by the Mondriaan Fund and GuestHaus Residency.