Jean-Pierre Aubé
Photo: Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, avec la permission de/ courtesy of Guy L’Heureux
Kaléidoscope II, 2017
Video installation: 4 randomly sequenced videos, sound, 34 min; 2 computers, modular synthesizer, modified microscope, microcontroller
Jean-Pierre Aubé draws inspiration from Expo 67’s Kaleidoscope pavilion, which was sponsored by six Canadian chemical companies. The pavilion was designed by Morley Markson, who created a dynamic psychedelic experience of colour and experimental music as visitors walked through three film projections refracted by multiple mirrors. Aubé’s installation consists of short videos that show the time-lapse crystallization of chemicals purchased through the deep web. Adopting a scientific method, Aubé modified a microscope and used polarized lighting to reveal colour within the crystals, making their internal structures and materiality visible. Each of the short videos is then analyzed in real time using a facial recognition algorithm and relayed to a network of analogue synthesizers. The original soundtrack for Kaleidoscope was by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, known for having coined the term “soundscape”; Aubé, for this work, has modified a track from Voïvod’s Killing Technology album of 1987, referencing the dystopian avant-garde music of thrash metal.
About the Artist
Jean-Pierre Aubé was born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, in 1969, and lives and works in Montréal. His interdisciplinary practice (sound performance, media arts, installation and photography) draws on scientific data retrieval methodologies. He has participated in many exhibitions, performance festival and artistic events in Canada and in over 15 countries including: Making Real, Quebec Scene (Ottawa, 2007); Dataesthetics, Nova Gallery (Zagreb, Croatia, 2006); and Electromagnetic Bodies (ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2005; MadridMedialab, Madrid, Spain, 2006; V2 Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2006). In 2015, in addition to a solo exhibition at RadioArteMobile (Rome, Italy), Aubé performed at the Venice Biennale on the invitation of the Galerie de l’UQAM and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Events
EXHIBITION VISITS AND ARTIST TALKS
Visit with Jean-Pierre Aubé August 24, 2017 @ 6pm, at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal