On Le Révélateur
Posted by | Ziva Schatz | Posted on | September 23, 2015
I am delighted to welcome Natalia de Orellana back to the Conversations at the Edge blog (see her previous contributions here and here). This week, she writes about Le Révélateur and the ways their audiovisual performances work on the senses.
Le Révélateur, image from live performance at Mutek, 2013.
In the audiovisual performances of Le Révélateur, sound and image are not in competition but in symbiosis, responding to and fulfilling each other. Video artist Sabrina Ratté and electronic musician Roger Tellier-Craig, who have worked together since 2010, find synchronicity in gesture, in pitch and in rhythm.
Le Révélateur, image from Mirages (2010).
Spectator, you’ll be immersed into the depths of a virtual journey marked by loss and wonder.
Le Révélateur appropriates images from the world around us—flora, fauna, architecture—and dissolves them into electronic abstractions, where solid shapes melt into the ephemerality of the electronic signal. Landscapes turn around us, revealing new angles, layers, and sounds, until they are no longer recognizable. The sense of disorientation from this experience is at the core of this experimental journey. Virtual settings are fragmented and continuously rearranged, forcing us to adapt to the changes brought by suddenly discordant sounds alongside the ever-changing visuals.
Le Révélateur, still from live performance at MUTEK.MX, 2012.
The experience of Le Révélateur’s work also challenges orthodox expectations for specific mediums. By collapsing visual and aural boundaries, the duo charts new intellectual and sensorial territory. Le Révélateur recognizes video and sound as malleable materials, as ends, sources, and means of creation. For me, this exploration defies contemplation and teases meditation. It pressures the viewer to confront the limits of her own senses while maximizing her sensitivity to change and movement.
Tags: 2015 > audiovisual performance > electronic music > Lampo > Le Révélateur > Natalia De Orellana > Roger Tellier-Craig > Sabrina Ratté > video
About
Conversations at the Edge is a weekly series of screenings, performances, and talks by groundbreaking media artists.
CATE is organized by SAIC's Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation in collaboration with the Gene Siskel Film Center and SAIC's Video Data Bank.
Programs take place at the Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N. State / Chicago, IL / 312.846.2600), unless otherwise noted.
