MRI | RMX
Jamie Drouin & Karl Kliem
mutli-channel surround and video performance

Version 1 was performed at the CMYK Festival (Boulder) in 2008
Version 2 was performed at TodaysArt (The Hague) in 2009

MRI | RMX is a multichannel sound and video performance based on magnetic resonance imaging and the sonic patterns created by MRI medical scanners.

In early 2007, I underwent a series of tests for reoccurring dizziness, which included an MRI scan of my brain. I was immediately taken by the unique sounds of the device, which are pulsing, rhythmic patterns controlled through fractional divisions in the speed of a powerful magnetic field. The resonating electronic sounds were intensely visceral, with their variations over a 20 minute cycle creating a compelling auditory reference to a conceptually abstract imaging process. With the permission of the hospital, I returned months later to record the sounds of the scanner.

MRI | RMX uses the source recordings as a basis to re-create the spatial placement of the original patterns, and subsequently evolves them into a 40 minute composition which explores new combinations of the tones.

Working in collaboration with the audio are live visuals by Karl Kliem which reveal MRI scan images through thin ‘slices’ synchronized with the directional movements of the sounds.

MRI | RMX is intended as a re-creation of a private experience in a public environment: relating a medical procedure which is typically experienced in isolation, under psychological stress, and in most cases with earplugs or headphones to disguise the scanner sounds. It investigates the psycho-acoustical effects of the magnetically produced sounds, and draws relationships between the auditory side-effects of scientific processes and contemporary musical conventions.

+ROOM-ROOM
Jamie Drouin & Yann Novak
two 4-channel audio installations with custom benches

Exhibited at The Henry Art Gallery (Seattle) in 2009

+ROOM-ROOM is a pair of sound installations for two adjacent galleries at the Henry Art Gallery (Seattle, WA). Artists Yann Novak and Jamie Drouin individually explore how the perception of these familiar places is transformed by sound. Through contrasting sensory experiences, the installations create an experiential divide between the two virtually identical rooms and restructure notions of architectural solidity and singularity in favor of more flexible, intuitive perceptions. The aural compositions, based on actual ambient noises recorded in the galleries, turn attention onto the spaces themselves and encourage us to rethink the ways in which we process physical location, and create assumptions about our surroundings.

Watch a short video on Vimeo about +ROOM-ROOM


"It’s like the world’s slowest DJ battle, with the turntables running at 2 rpm" Brian Miller, Seattle Weekly


In collaboration with the artists, the Henry Art Gallery also produced an audio CD with stereo versions of the works. This limited edition CD is available from the Henry Art Gallery or Dragon's Eye Recordings.

+ROOM-ROOM was organized for the Henry by Associate Curator Sara Krajewski.

The exhibition was generously supported by ArtsFund, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and the Patrons of the Henry Art Gallery. In-kind support provided by Tannoy. Special thanks to media partner, Seattle Weekly.

A THREE MONTH WARM UP
2-channel audio installation
2-channel or 4-channel performance

Installed at Market Square (Victoria) in 2009

A Three Month Warm Up was created for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria's Assume Nothing exhibition. The multi-venue event appropriated several locations across the city, and I was invited to develop an outdoor sound installation for Market Square, a landmark public space in Victoria, BC, Canada.

My installation used 124 individual field recordings made in the semi-covered market over a three month period. I decided that instead of using specialized microphones or recorders, I would record using a more homogenizing device: the iPhone. The built-in iPhone microphone blurred specific details and directional information to create narrow band interpretations of the evolving subject matter, which ranged from brass bands, to children playing, to the emptying of garbage cans.

Inspired by the cacophony of notes played by a symphony during warm up, where a single unified tone emerges out of the various instruments and voices, I wanted to create a work that spoke of the public space as a reservoir of sonic activity, as if a residual echo of everything that occurred during those three months had been trapped within the structure.

The recordings were filtered to remove recognizable micro-events, time stretched so they were all exactly the same length, and then layered, allowing the composition to develop dynamically through the random interaction of the 124 elements.

The resulting 80 minute work was played back as a loop in the market from January to May 2009, appropriating the existing speaker system normally used for canned music. The works continuous presence, and low playback volume, created a transparent overlay onto the square which spoke of both time, latent memory, and the particular sonic fingerprint of the space.

Watch a short video on Vimeo about A THREE MONTH WARM UP

REVIEWS

“...deeply, beautifully unsettling, a perpetual approach with no end in sight, like Edvard Munch’s infinite scream; the chaos of modern urban life packed into a public square and let loose.”
Cyclic Defrost | Australia

“...the type of listening experience that words and samples simply can’t do any justice to...immediately grabbed me and never let go.”
Smallfish | UK

*Assume Nothing exhibition January-May, 2009. Curated by Lisa Baldissera.







AUDITORIUM
Jamie Drouin & Yann Novak
mutli-channel surround performance

Version 1 was performed at The Henry Art Gallery (Seattle) on Novenber 18, 2006
Version 2 was performed at Mutek 2007, Society for Art and Technology (Montreal) on June 1st 2007

Auditorium is a live sound collaboration between Yann Novak and Jamie Drouin. The two artists first met on a panel discussion hosted by Seattle’s 2006 Decibel Festival at the Henry Art Gallery, and both immediately recognized a connection between their two bodies of soundwork; using altered field recordings and sharing a mutual interest in exploring the ability of sound to alter the atmosphere of spaces we inhabit—physically and emotionally.

Two months later, the two artists met once again at the Henry Art Gallery to perform Auditorium, which uses the performance space itself as a sonic point of departure. Recordings made by Novak of the empty space were amplified and layered to create a singular, modulating drone which enhanced the particular ‘fingerprint’ of the space. Drouin’s approach was to define the space with a more scalpel-like hand, inserting sonic pings and rhythms which called attention to the depth and scale of the auditorium, and to interject more textural sounds which would occassionally push the listeners attention outside of the building, reminding them of the thin membrane between the inside/outside worlds.

A revised version of Auditorium was presented at Montreal's Mutek in 2007 in La Société des arts technologiques.


REVIEWS

"On par with similar past performances in the same setting by Angel and Alva Noto (both back in ‘04), these gentlemen were at peak level as the a/v experience was fully immersive, wrapping and slithering around me like a wild amphibian. One of the major highlights this year by far. A duo to watch." - TJ Norris

"One of the most dramatic experimental pieces presented at Mutek, and quite beautiful" - Grooves Magazine

"Artists Jamie Drouin and Yann Novak presented their breakthrough project Auditorium, an experimental sound cycle that uses performance space as the meeting point for a medley of static, field, and found sounds. The result is an interactive sound journey shared by a dazzled audience." - Concordia University's The Link

MICROFORMING
mutli-projection installation

Version 1 was presented at Open Space Gallery (Victoria) in 2004
Version 2 is currently in re-development

Microforming is a photo-based dvd projection created entirely out of liquids and matter extracted from plant materials found along the roadside. The gallery walls are transformed into a panoramic ‘looking glass’ where simple organic materials such as leaves, petals, and grass simulate familiar styles of medical and astrological imagery.

LUCID DREAMS OF 48 BIRDS
mutli-channel outdoor installation

Installed at Beacon Hill Park (Victoria) in 2005

During a weekend in August, 1981, forty-eight captive birds were slaughtered inside Victoria's Beacon Hill Park Aviary by an unknown individual. There is no dedication or marker commemorating the event; the empty Aviary has become it’s own silent reminder of this senseless act of premeditated violence.

Lucid Dreams of 48 Birds reflects upon the murders and explores the emotional and physical transformation of the Aviary through a 5 speaker sound installation.

Using field recordings of actual birds, synthesized counterparts, and recordings made through physical interaction with the structure, the Aviary became a new hive of sonic life for two months before returning to its dormant state.

"As listeners walk around the ornate metal cage, they’ll hear field recordings of actual birds, synthesized versions and sounds from the structure itself to create an evolving composition that fades in and out of hearing range." - Weekend Edition News, August 19, 2005



Listen to CBC Radio interview


Created with the assistance of a grant from the BC Arts Council