GABRIELA HÉBERT | SOUND CREATION

A student in the bachelor’s program in sound creation at the Université de Montréal, Gabriela Hébert was offered a two-week artist residency at Sporobole from August 22 to September 4, 2022. The sound work resulting from this residency will be broadcast in the sound window from May 19 to June 18, 2023

 

COEXISTENCE

 

With this sound installation, the passerby’s attention is drawn to a sound (and visual) landscape parallel to the one where they’re standing. Words, sounds, whether recognizable or unknown, are played in order to subtly immerse them in this sound dimension. To consider or to ignore. To look or to see. To listen or to hear. 

This installation aims to challenge the connectivity of a community which has been polarized for the last two years. This is achieved through thoughts, words and laughter that gather, clash, struggle, adapt and coexist. Inspired by the surrealist movement, this project is in the essence of oneirism and paradox. Living a present frozen in time, shared in the present moment.

This soundscape is conceived as an imaginary world inspired by the tones of nature and urban noises that we can all identify with, immersing us in an ephemeral time and space. A conversation between a glitch and a bird, symbolizing the paradox of worlds coexisting in the melodies of modernity. The composition uses unwanted sounds usually captured during field recording (such as wind, glitch and the city teeming with sound), resulting in a new aesthetic that evolves throughout the day, paralleling nature, and smoothly visiting the potential of extremes.

Through 16 speakers, exchanges in different languages will be broadcast, inviting an attempt to understand and exchange. Walking towards the center of the installation, the languages mix, intermingle and end up defining themselves in the language we understand (presented here in French) by moving away towards the extremities.

 

Photo credits
Art direction and model: gabrielahebert
Photograph: Jessy Colucci