Christina Kubisch - La Ville Magnétique / The Magnetic City

Christina Kubisch
La Ville Magnétique / The Magnetic City

Album FR 2008 on Ville De Poitiers label
Electronic (Field Recording, Experimental)

24 Promenades électromagnétiques à Poitiers 24 Electromagnetic Walks in Poitiers Produced at Studio Hoppegarten and Electronic Music Studio of the Technical University Berlin, October/November 2008. Liner notes and other info in French and English. The recordings of the 24 Electromagnetic Walks in Poitiers were made on August 14, 18 and 19 2008, using only Christina Kubisch's electromagnetic induction headphones and a portable recorder. The sounds have not been electronically modified. The only intervention was the use of a frequency filter. From the linernotes: Today there is a lot of interest in the musical world in “mapping“, the art of tracing the world we live in by means of maps which differ from those made for trade, commerce and business. The maps of the 24 Electromagnetic walks are visual and musical ones. 24 volunteers explored the hidden electromagnetic fields of Poitiers wearing a special headphone created by the artist. This wireless “tool“ captures and amplifies the magnetic fields above and underground the city. The visitors were free to choose their own, personal paths (itineraries) and were asked to draw them upon a map of the inner city. The length of the recordings vary between 6 and 79 minutes. Every recording is a kind of „mirror“ of the character and personality of the walker. Some people walked straight and without stopping through the streets, others often stopped and played around by moving their head (or body) when entering an interesting field, some followed the “historical paths“, others used the personal itineraries of their daily life, some just went by chance and took the exploration as a kind of acoustic adventure. The collection of 24 sound channels in Poiters is a collection of electromagnetic field recordings- an electromagnetic portrait of the city. Often what you can see normally and what you hear electromagnetically, is quite different: quiet streets burst out with strong electrical hums, the lively market place is quiet instead, the train station is a dense net of regular beats and clicks, the parking Carnot is the place where antennas fill the air with internet signals, the ATMmachines of the banks hum musical chords and the security gates in the shopping streets surprise by their volume and intensity of continous signals. The juxtaposition of the 24 itineraries was the starting point for he composition. Several times the visitors were at the same time at the same place, but exploring the sounds in different ways. The piece is a mix of all the recordings, sometimes letting them together in big clusters, sometimes following an individual walker along his way. The beginning and the end of the recordings was the tourist information center of Poitiers. The voices and the music which can be heard were recorded not with a microphone but as well through electromagnetic induction: a cable loop inside the office makes the sound audible as well outside the building. It’s here, where the information of the historical city meets with the contemporary hidden electromagnetic world of Poitiers. Les participants aux promenades électromagnétiques enregistrées / The participants to the recorded walks: Jean-Pierre Courjaud, Quentin Debenest, Jean Hiernard, Daniel Clauzier, Emmanuelle Baud, Claude Thibault, Marion Berthier, Marie Fournier, Jean-Pierre Potier, Benoist Baillergeau, Jean-Luc Terradillos, Dominique Truco, Patrick Treguer, Jean-Christophe Desnoux, Dominique Pichon, Thomas Sillard, Marion Valière Loudiyi, Mélanie Ribot, Nicolas Bernard, Aurélien Large, Marine Antony, Lilian Gerling, Anne Gérard, Christina Kubisch.