THE ASSEMBLY

project

THE ASSEMBLY

project

AN IMMERSIVE

VOCAL

JOURNEY

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.

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.

ODS THE ASSEMBLY_iNET (72dpi) © Marc Lazzarini - standart-37

ODS THE ASSEMBLY_iNET (72dpi) © Marc Lazzarini - standart-111 2

Assembly_Kaunas_Must credit Martynas Plepys 4

Assembly_Kaunas_Must credit Martynas Plepys 5

Assembly_Kaunas_Must credit Martynas Plepys 1

ODS THE ASSEMBLY_iNET (72dpi) © Marc Lazzarini - standart-81

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

THE ASSEMBLY

2022

INSTALLATION

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

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

INSTALLATION

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

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

A multiplayer VR experience

In the VR experience, you dance with four other players to the sound of dreamy melodies and electronic beats, created by the collective movements of your bodies. Led by the mystical figure of the Memory of Voice, you become part of a multi-dimensional instrument and move with sounds placed all around you in this first Assembly.

A concert-performance

In the installation space, the mystical creature Memory of Voice reappears, embodied by the singer-performer who guides the audience through this third Assembly. Surrounded by 360 degree sound live mixed by an electronic musician, performative interventions - and a separate concert-performance - invite you to listen and interact with the sound objects around you to collectively create a new instrument.

The Team

behind

|

The Assembly is created by a multidisciplinary team of artists and creative developers from Luxembourg, Lithuania and beyond.

Laura Mannelli - Artist architect — Laura Mannelli · Artist Architect & Artistic Direction

Rokas - 1 — Rokas Kišonas · VR Technical Director at Gluk Media

_DSC5535 — Cédric Fischer · Electronic Engineer & Developer at Mad Trix

WEBSITE_ERIC_1 — Eric Slunecko · Light Technician at Mad Trix

00_Raphael_1 — Raphaël Hoffman · Creative Coder at Mad Trix,

_DSC5495 — Damiano Picci · Creative Coder & Programmer at Mad Trix

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.

Charlotte Bruneau

is a Luxembourgish director and journalist. As a documentary filmmaker, she explores how individuals and communities around the world adapt to the impact of political and social transformations on their daily lives. She lives between Iraq, where she currently works as a journalist, and Luxembourg, where she is also directing 'The Dollhouse', an animated VR experience.

Catherine Elsen

holds an MA in Dance Theater The Body in Performance from the Laban Conservatoire of Dance, London. In her practice she explores the vast psychic landscape of the voice. Besides creating solo and collectively, she enjoys working with various directors at the crossroads between dance, theater and music. Electronic music production and VR are currently feeding her artistic research.

Laura Mannelli

Trained as an architect, Laura Mannelli is an artist and XR director from Luxembourg who shares her life between Paris, Luxembourg and the networks. She explores the digital world through a practice at the crossroads of visual arts, virtual reality, video games and architecture. Nominated and awarded, her works encourage a multidisciplinary and collective approach. She exhibited at the TriBeCa film festival in New York, the Palais de Tokyo and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Pouya Ehsaei

is a London-based Iranian musician, sound designer, producer, curator and promoter. His practice is based on experimenting with different compositional techniques and exploring the possible applications of sound as a matter. He has closely collaborated with many jazz, classical and folk musicians from around the globe as well as with performance makers and dancers. He is the band-leader of Ariwo and co-founder of club nights, Parasang.

Vaidas Gecevičius

is a creative Lithuanian VR producer at Gluk Media, leading a team of creative coders, animators and game designers. Gluk Media has been working with VR and 360° content since 2015. The company developed the ‘Code of Freedom 13 VR', a 10-minute, interactive VR experience, and 'Kamile: The Fall VR', an interactive, sci-fi VR drama, among others.

Charlotte Bruneau

Catherine Elsen

Laura Mannelli

Pouya Ehsaei

Vaidas Gecevičius

Wesley Allsbrook

born in North Carolina, attended the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been recognized by The Art Directors Club, The Society of Publication Designers, The Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Communication Arts, Sundance Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Raindance Film Festival, the Television Academy and The Peabody Awards. Her VR credits include "Dear Angelica", "The Sunladies", "12 Seconds of Gunfire" and "Metametamorphic". She writes and draws for print, TV, film, games and immersive media.

Wesley Allsbrook

Cedric Fischer, Oliver Lang and Damiano Picci

are creative coders and sound engineers from Luxembourg. They are part of Mad Trix, a Luxembourgish company creating interactive technology for immersive spaces. They works include the sound implementation and design of internationally-acclaimed VR experiences and installations such as 'Ayahuasca', 'My Identity is This Expanse' or '*pfh', among others.

Stefan Palitov

is an XR and cultural researcher, practitioner and filmmaker. He focuses on interactive and non-interactive storytelling, play systems, XR experience design, virtual and hybrid cultural spaces, new media in education, HMI and art & tech. He holds a BA in philosophy and an MA in Media, Arts and Culture and exhibited in Europe and Asia. Former Artist in Residence at ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe and UNESCO Media Art Residency in Changsha, China.

René Alejandro Huari Mateus

dances, performs and choreographs. Her*his journey through the institutional networks that organise these three artistic manifestations in Germany has shaped and located René's identity amidst the intersections of class, gender and origin discrimination, which in turn leads her*him to search for artistic practices that refuse any reproduction of violent structures. René engages with the fruitful tension between choreography and dance as a tool to stimulate queer and feminist thinking.

Pierre Antoine Vettorello

is a textile, fashion designer based in Brussels. He studied at the fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and is now a doctoral researcher at Sint Lucas school of Arts. He is using textile design and garments as a base for storytelling. He creates sculptural and statement silhouettes, often printing on silk, using feathers and objects of daily use. Vettorello questions our relation towards our sartorial history and how we can reveal non-Western genealogies which have been erased.

Cedric Fischer, Oliver Lang and Damiano Picci

Stefan Palitov

René Alejandro Huari Mateus

Pierre Antoine Vettorello

Émilie Roi

lives between Quebec and Europe for more than ten years where she worked as a cultural project manager and independent curator, initially for artistic structures such as Folie/Culture and la Manif d'art. She co-founded Mono-Mono, an association that produces and promotes sonic art projects in unusual spaces. For four years, she managed the art center l'Œil de Poisson in Quebec City. Today, Émilie works as an independent production manager for multidisciplinary art projects in Europe and Canada.

Produced by:

Bidibul Productions

is an independent Luxembourgish production company founded in 2009 by Christel Henon and Lilian Eche. To date, the company produced a number of feature films, animated feature films, series, and virtual reality projects… The company focuses on family films as well as genre films (intimate, fantasy, world...)

www.bidibul.eu

Pitchblack Collective

was founded in 2020 by Catherine Elsen and Charlotte Bruneau. Evoking the world of sound and the invisible black matter that makes up most of our universe, the collective creates a space where myths and stories are reinvented through sound. "The Assembly" is its first mixed reality project.

theassemblyproject.org/

Opderschmelz

Regional Cultural Center has since 2007, the year of its creation, offered a multidisciplinary and varied programme in contemporary arts. A reference point for jazz lovers, the center is keen to offer its audience, beyond the traditional jazz events, a range of disciplines, from pop-rock music to theater, dance and conferences.

https://opderschmelz.lu/