March 2011 – January 2012

Coproducers:
Marseille Provence 2013, IMéRA – executive producer Seconde Nature

The artist: Etienne Rey
Etienne Rey has a degree in visual arts from the University of Aix-en-Provence. He also studied at the GAMSAU laboratory, which specialises in applied studies in scientific architecture and planning techniques. Rey began his artistic career in 2001 as an artist in residence at the Friche la Belle de Mai. He was then at ZINC, a producer of digital and artistic culture, from 2001 to 2009. Between 2010 and 2012, he was one of Seconde Nature’s associated artists.

Interrelation is at the heart of Rey’s work. It is visible in collaborations with musicians, engineers and researchers, who all play a role in writing the project.

Project description: Tropic
Tropics are imaginary lines crossing the earth’s surface where the sun is directly overhead on the solstices. Tropics reflect the here and now at a particular place, date and time – a point from which the world can be explored. Tropic is also a visual and sound installation exploring the present as it happens – the result of interrelated dynamic phenomena.

Tropic is also an environmental installation, a space empty of matter. As human activities take place, they create sound and light waves, which cross this space. This project links our perception of space with movement, light and sound. People who enter the space are surrounded by auras of sound and light, which change as their bodies move.

This project covers two scientific disciplines: neuroscience and physics. Laurent Perrinet, a perception-cognition specialist, will carry out neuroscience research. Physics research will be carried out by the LPMC (Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée or Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics), which specialises in rays and light scattering. This will allow the project to deal with issues in cognition and perception of space through sight, hearing and movement, as well as the scattering of wave phenomena.

Coproducer: IMéRA
IMéRA is an Institute for Advanced Study, or IAS (Institut d’Etudes Avancées, IEA). Its purpose is to offer residency programs for high-level international researchers, both confirmed and emerging, of all disciplines, so as to provide them with an opportunity to meet, carry out work requiring several months of freedom from administrative or teaching duties, and strengthen ties between research and higher education centres in the region.

IMéRA aims at nurturing an atmosphere of collegial interchange where researchers can query the strength and interest of their projects not only in connection with the requirements (both justified and fertile) of their own disciplines, but also by confronting their work, methods and questions with the wider range of knowledge areas linked to their own. Research projects carried out at IMéRA focus on interactions within social sciences and between social sciences and formal/experimental sciences, and on relationships between art and science. The exploring process can be a reflection on relations between disciplines, or it can focus on specific objects.

Executive producer: Seconde Nature
The association Seconde Nature was set up in 2007. Its activities focus on contemporary creation in the sound, visual, and multimedia fields, giving audiences an opportunity to take part in concerts, performances, themed or monographic exhibitions, film screenings and conferences.

Seconde Nature, which is based in Aix-en-Provence, organises an annual music festival. Its activities seek to highlight contemporary creations that combine multimedia and electronic music. The programme is designed to foster dialogue between innovative and cross-disciplinary art forms and audiences. In parallel, Seconde Nature organises cultural and educational activities on digital cultures.