Robotique d’un lieu imaginaire
by Pedro Garcia Velasquez, composer
In Samuel Beckett's Word and Music, music is both a character and a series of didascalies. This piece opens our minds to the imaginary world of a fictitious place, virtually alive and animated by music; on a personal level, it inspired the Théâtre acoustique cycle I began six years ago.
For a composer, starting from such an innovative and profound text is a rare challenge. In a way, the music is, through the omnipresent and precise didascalies, already written by Beckett, who nonetheless leaves the composer a great deal of freedom; choices in orchestration or in the very nature of the music played are part of this.
We imagine this fictitious place as a large castle in ruins, in which a fallen king stands alone with his last two servants, Words and Music. Starting from this base, we envision an orchestra of symphonic instruments, accompanied by a three-dimensional sound diffusion device and a network of robotic arms playing percussion. The robots would then play according to the moods of the venue, waking up when it wakes up, getting restless when it gets restless, etc.
The setup for this musical venue would therefore comprise a network of robots on stage and in the hall (I), musicians (II) and a 3D sound system (III), all dedicated to animating an imaginary place through music.
On the technical side, we're in the process of building and programming robotic arms; we manufacture most of them from laser-cut plexiglass, which we then assemble. We mainly use servomotors and micro-servomotors for
precision and agility. We control them with networked Raspberry-pi computers, forming a veritable orchestra of automata.
As our work progresses, we explore more materials and manufacturing techniques to achieve a greater palette of timbre and nuance, stronger attack and greater freedom in their design, form and mechanisms of action. On the computer front, we are collaborating with Martin Fouilleul (IRCAM), who is developing a mechanism designed to coordinate networks of sound objects with precision and fluidity.
Finally, some of the instruments played by the robots, and some of the objects that make up the imaginary space, are the work of visual artist Marion Flament, who is also collaborating on the design of the robotic arms.