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Polski

4 hands

Embassy of France

T-M-A Hellerau

4Hands: still from a performance 4 Hands is a multimedia instrumental duet, an interactive performance investigating the sensitive world and stimulating relations between technology, gesture, sound and image. No instruments are visible, only four magnified hands of the performers, lighted intentionally, are seen on three screens in the background. The artist's bodies, not of interest, only act as two marionettes telling allegorical stories thus vivifying sound and images. Four hands spin, caress, knock, scratch, stretch, describe complex arabesques, and intriguing figures in a camera field. Its gestures of the performers obviously control images and sounds: one of the artists produces electro-acoustic music which is transferred to two speakers. The other artist operates the video projection on the big screens in the background. 4 Hands plays different media for sound, images, the hands shown on the monitors and their shadows on the ceiling. Both artists use the same means: a camera and the EyeCon software for motion tracking, which turns their gestures into visible sound and readable image. The electro-musical duet and the video projection completely change the habit and relation between sound and image.

Performance 4Hands is supported by Embassy of France, in cooperation with Théleme Contemporain and Trans-Media-Akademie Hellerau from Dresden.

Bertrand Merlier

born in 1958, is a composer of electroacoustic and instrumental music. He teaches at the University Lyon and his research concentrates on gesture interfaces for electroacoustic music and on interactive music and sound spatialisation. Since 1986, he has been contributing to the activities of Théleme Contemporain, the producer of several of his music realisations. He received many international awards.

Jean-Marc Duchenne

acousmatic composer, video and multimedia artist, born in 1959, began to practice acousmatic in 1981, after musical studies in Dijon. He has been teaching digital and video techniques since 1994 and developed multi-channel techniques to use them for his sound figures in concert works and installations.