“Arte Laguna kicked off a long stream of events for us” | Jean-Philippe Côté & Victor Drouin-Trempe talk about their success after exhibiting at the Arsenale Nord
“Arte Laguna kicked off a long stream of events for us”
Jean-Philippe Côté & Victor Drouin-Trempe talk about their success after exhibiting at the Arsenale Nord
Welcome to Jean-Philippe Cоté and Victor Drouin-Trempe, finalists of the 17th edition of Arte Laguna Prize in the digital art section. First of all, thank you to both of you for accepting our invitation and being here today.
You have just finished the experience of exhibiting in Venice as Arte Laguna Prize finalists for the digital art section. Could you quickly remind our audience the principle behind your piece “Empreintes sonores”? What kind of reflection did you want to provoke in the visitors of the exhibition?
V: It was an amazing experience to be at Arte Laguna Prize: the location, the venue was amazing as well as all the artists we met there so it was great! About our installation, we were like in a small room that was made for us because we had to be in a dark space to expose our piece. The name is “Empreintes Sonores” in French – maybe we could translate it as “Sound Prints” in English. We used what we call a Google Home – it could be Alexa or Siri or whatever instrument we use to record sound – to do a reflection on the digital traces we leave – we know that when we surf the internet or whatever we leave some traces. It is an interactive piece where we speak and then we see the projections of our message – or whatever we say in this little object – and after we can move in the sound and experience the sound back and forth as we move. In fact, there is a movement detector that analyzes our movement. But we must experience it to feel what it’s really all about. This is my quick description of the work.
Thank you. Would you like to add something else, Jean-Philippe?
JP: I think he pretty much covered it! But he is right in saying it is kind of hard to put into words; most interactive artworks are actually hard to describe and you really have to experience them. Actually, our artwork takes form when you experience it. Before that, it is just some pieces of equipment so we need users, we need an interactor for the artwork to actually exist.
After Venice, “Empreintes sonores” will be displayed in many cities around the world. Could you tell us more about these upcoming events?
JP: It is a very exciting time for us: it started with Arte Laguna but it is not stopping and we have a lot of stuff ahead of us. We just came back from Germany; we are in Montreal for a week and then next week we are going to Paris for ISEA [International Symposium on Electronic Art, ed.] and we will also be going to Brazil and Korea and Mexico later this year. So Arte Laguna kicked off this long stream of events for us! It’s really exciting! The funny thing is that this international visibility actually helped us locally also because now we have gigs locally so it’s always funny how “no one is a prophet in their own country”, you know the saying. International recognition always helps locally also so I guess that this is a good thing for us. We are keeping busy in the next months!
Congratulations!
The sound is at the heart of your artistic projects. Where does this fascination come from?
V: We can say that the sound is at the center of our piece, but we also have to say that it is like a combination of sound and image. In this immersive piece we wanted to combine different kinds of approaches, different senses that are stimulated. The idea came to my head after a course we had together because we are doing a PhD together – we will talk about this maybe later. This idea is to invert the way we work with sound so usually when we hear a sound, it is coming to our ear, we are sitting like this and the sound waves are moving in the different places where we are. But we were thinking: what about if we inverted the way the sound moves? Instead of the sound moving to your ears, it is you who must move to the sound. It is a co-audiophonic installation: there are four speakers so when you move in the sound, the sound moves with you too. It is a technique called “granular synthesis”. It was developed in the 1980s and 90s so now with technology it is easier to work with this technique; it is a way to stretch the sound and play with it in different ways.
V: Sometimes, some people interact speaking in the Google Home and then they discover this other layer where they can walk in the sound, so this is why we think the term “multi-interactive” describes well our installation, because there are different layers of interaction.
You both have your own artistic career. When did your paths cross and what is it like to create something together rather than working on your own?
JP: We met…it is not that long! Victor mentioned it earlier, but we are both pursuing a PhD in Art Studies and Practices here in UQAM [Université du Québec à Montréal, ed.] which is one of the largest universities in Montréal. We were both in this seminar on time – we were going crazy with this concept of time! Victor created a prototype which eventually became “Empreintes sonores” and he presented it during this course. I really liked it so I reached out and said: “Oh, you know what? I really like your thing and, if you want, I would be happy to work with you on this”. He agreed so here we are, one year and a half after with quite a few experiences behind us.
V: Yeah, it is crazy to think that two years ago we did not know each other. You know, sometimes it fits, and this was a good fit so instantly we worked well together. We think the same way. It just worked and we decided to go along with this. Maybe we will collaborate to other projects, too!
JP: Victor has a background in music, he has done several shows, he has been working with a lot of collaborators more than me. I used to be more of a lone wolf so for me it was new for me, less for you [Victor, ed.]. I worked on solo projects pretty much before so at first it was kind of hard for me to work with someone else, but I found it very rich and rewarding and it makes it easier to offload some less fun administrative work and we can split that in a half and fill in the sponsorship forms, open calls and this kind of things. It turned out to be a great partnership!
Victor, you are also a producer of electronic music compositions. What are your musical researches based on?
V: I am trying to find new ways to compose music; it is more about sound creation and music design. This artificial life movement is emerging, so I am building what I am calling those “sound creatures” or “sound organisms”. I think we have some new super cool tools today and we have to try to do some kind of new ways to compose music. It is not only playing notes, but it is playing with algorithms that are going to surprise you while you create. That is why I love playing with these kinds of new tools. My PhD is about how we can maybe try to make some new sound designs, some “evolving and interactive creatures”. In my background, I have made techno-minimal music, playing in many venues, in many events so I integrated these kinds of sound designs in those creations too.
Jean-Philippe, you are quite an Arte Laguna Prize regular. In 2019, your interactive work Yöti, The Algorithmic Portrait Artist was the overall winner of the Sculpture, Installation, Virtual Art section. What memories and emotions can you recall after that announcement? How has your life changed since taking part in Arte Laguna Prize?
JP: Well, I was completely blown away, I was not expecting that at all! This was a solo project so I was pretty much in Venice all alone. I heard my name, I jumped on stage and there was really nobody to share this victory with so I had to phone back home and talked to people. I remember my heart beating very strongly. It was a very nice moment and, you know, those awards, you are not really seeking them or going after them, but they do make a difference in terms of obtaining financing and credibility… It just helps! After I remained silent for two years then things have started picking up again and this new collaboration with Victor really helped kick starting things again. It is very exciting! It did play a role in my career! It is always hard to say how much, what was the concrete impact, but all these things helped to secure your credibility and then when you apply for financing or to an open call… It was definitely a booster! For me it was a very exciting moment and now things are finally getting back to normal so it is good!
What would you recommend to an emerging artist experimenting in less traditional areas like video art and digital art? Do you believe that for an artist there are less opportunities to stand out in these sectors?
JP: It’s a tough question!
V: I think digital art is an art form that we see appearing more and more. Not many years ago, you had to understand a lot of programming stuff languages to make something but now I think it is more accessible. So I think that it is going to take more and more place. It is really amazing to see a place like Arte Laguna where we have more traditional art forms but it also combines those kinds of art. And we see that also more traditional galleries are opening to those interactive and immersive digital ways to work with image and sound. There is a public for these works. There is a demand that is growing so, even if there will always be more traditional approaches to art, I think that the demand of the public will make some pressure to accept that we, as artists, can make art with any kind of material we find. And technology is a way to express ourselves.
JP: Digital art is a very, very broad category. I would compare it to visual art in a sense. Victor was mentioning immersive installations and interactive art. To me, these are all kinds of different things that liven this very broad realm of digital art. What I think is about to happen is that we will see more of each of these categories branching out and being better accepted in the mainstream exhibitions such as Arte Laguna. In this specific case, it was an interactive art piece, so it is a lot of work and you have to master various techniques and technologies; it is the reason why often people work in teams: because obviously there is sound, images but also programming and detection and motion caption…
V: 3D printing…
JP: Exactly! So perhaps what makes it hard is this multidisciplinary necessity for this kind of project. If you work in a group, then I guess it is easier and there are more and more outlets for these projects. Perhaps not as much as visual art in general but there are more than it used to be. The thing is that there is not an easy way to finance this and we are lucky here in Canada because we have various levels of financing. However, most of the people that work in this area of interactive art actually have support from research centers, universities and so on because it is hard to make a living out of it.
Lastly, could you tell us what your future projects are, either together or on your own?
V: I think we will continue with “Empreintes sonores” because it is working and we have lots of coming with this so this is going to take a big part of this year…
JP: If not more!
V: We both have to write a thesis and we have to take a big project exam before starting to write. I have just received a big grant, so I have to do it. I am going to be a lot into writing too but, at the same time, I still do music, I do shows, I am preparing to release some new music soon, a new album. This, I do it because I love to do it and I am always going to do more music and stuff like this. But “Empreintes sonores” is a project that…
JP: Overtook our schedule!
V: Yes! And I teach too, I am a professor. We both are teachers so next semester we have the teaching too, just a couple of courses, so that’s about the future.
JP: I think that what made our teamwork, is the fact that we have similar backgrounds: we are both teachers, we are both students also. In my case, as Victor said, I still have to prepare for this doctoral exam – this should be before the end of the year but it takes a lot of time. We are both shuffling various projects at the same time. I am also working on other artworks using technologies like for the Yöti project I showed in 2019. I guess the key for us is that we are still trying to manage our schedule and keep our sanity but there is a lot of stuff that is happening on both variants.
The Arte Laguna Prize team is always proud to hear when our artists are successful as you are right now!
JP: Like I said, it is hard to say how much it helped in my case but it did! It is hard to quantify but 2019 helped me and this year helped us probably to gather speed for the next exhibitions that came so it is a win-win situation!
It is amazing, really! Thank you again for this interview!
JP: Thank you so much!
V: Thanks to you!