VOCAL
The Assembly project is an immersive quest for the voice at the crossroad between physical and virtual worlds.
Discover an installation-based VR experience and performance inspired by the ancient practice of sounding together and taking you into the vast lands beneath language, into the sonic ecosystems of our timeless vocal territories.
The journey started in 2022 with the presentation of ‘The Assembly’ as part of the Esch2022 and Kaunas2022 European Capitals of Culture.
In 2023, the team is taking you on a second chapter of the journey, ‘The Memory of Voice’, where you can experience the VR within an upcycled scenography and new performance.
The Assembly project is an immersive quest for the voice at the crossroad between physical and virtual worlds.
Discover an installation-based VR experience and performance inspired by the ancient practice of sounding together and taking you into the vast lands beneath language, into the sonic ecosystems of our timeless vocal territories.
The journey started in 2022 with the presentation of ‘The Assembly’ as part of the Esch2022 and Kaunas2022 European Capitals of Culture.
In 2023, the team is taking you on a second chapter of the journey, ‘The Memory of Voice’, where you can experience the VR within an upcycled scenography and new performance.
THE MEMORY OF VOICE
Welcome to the vast lands of our vocal territories. Here roams the Memory of Voice (MoV), made of our timeless vocal archive.
As you walk past “The Assembly” tree, VR players move under its branches, immersed deep down beneath language.
Now take off your shoes and lay down on the intricate grounds of the MoV’s quest to rediscover their long forgotten tones during a performative soundscape.
You discover sound shapes around you as they bloom and come alive, inviting you to play and tune them into a plural and multilayered composition taking root in the plurality of our voice.
From this collective song emerges the MoV embodied by the performer. With their newly-found voice, they guide you into a space filled with undulating light shapes and engage the audience in ways of sounding together, using different vocal practices and bodily movements.
In the Memory of Voice, the presence of others brings the soul of our voices alive.
THE ASSEMBLY VIRTUAL REALITY
Welcome to a 18’ multiplayer journey into the vast lands of our vocal territories, the home of The Memory of Voice (MoV).
This mystic creature made of our timeless vocal archive invites you to explore the endless possibilities of the voice to connect to the collective.
As you play and dance with sound shapes populating the MoV’s sonic world of electronic beats and dreamy melodies, you become part of a multi-dimensional instrument.
In the delicate visual universe of embodied sounds drawn in Quill, you encounter other players, creating a unique song by moving in unison.
One of humanity’s oldest rituals, singing together unites communities beyond language, reminding us of the timeless power the voice holds to foster connection.
Exploring this ancestral practice in virtual reality, we use our bodily mouvement to produce sounds and connect to the other.
“The Assembly” is a homage to the voices constantly shaping our memories, and hence, who we are.
The Assembly VR
Year: 2023
Duration: 18 min
Players: min 2 max 5
Produced by:
Bidibul Productions and
Pitchblack Collective
Directed by: Charlotte Bruneau
Visual Art: Wesley Allsbrook
Music: Pouya Ehsaei
with Catherine Elsen
Narrated by: Catherine Elsen
VR Studio: Gluk Media
3D Sound: MadTrix
THE ASSEMBLY
2022
INSTALLATION
The Assembly 2022 invites you into a space criss-crossed by translucid veils and choreographed to the rhythm of sound, light and video projections.
Part of a scenography by Laura Mannelli and a tech concept by MadTrix, interactive sound objects invited you to play and become part of a collective song composed of vocal expressions and created by electronic musician Pouya Ehsaei.
VIRTUAL REALITY
Individual VR pods form an organic part of the installation, creating intimate cocoons within the collective space, from which five people at a time can experience The Assembly VR.
PERFORMANCE
The space is used as a performance stage for an hour-long concert-performance created by Catherine Elsen. It takes you on a theatrical journey into the preciousness of our memories and the power our voices hold to write our stories.
MARCH 2022 LUXEMBOURG
‘Esch2022 European Capital Of Culture’
Official selection 2022 Luxembourg City Film Festival.
MAY 2022 FRANCE
‘Esch2022 European Capital Of Culture’
Escher Theater’s festival ‘Autres Histoires’
AUGUST 2022 LITHUANIA
‘Kaunas2022 European Capital Of Culture’
Contempo Performing Arts Festival
Teaser by Paula Onet
Beneath language, a vast land of possibilities lingers in our vocal territories,
here lives the Memory of Voice.
What we say, the words and tones we choose
to tell and sing our stories, define our memories.
Memory arises from what is spoken.
Memory is voice.
THE ASSEMBLY PROJECT
The Assembly project is an immersive quest for the voice at the crossroad between digital and physical worlds.