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Organising Sound with Audio Clothes: An interview with Benoit Maubrey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2018

Jøran Rudi*
Affiliation:
Norwegian Center for Technology in Music and the Arts (NOTAM), Sandakerveien 24D, bygg F3, 0473 Oslo

Abstract

Benoit Maubrey’s work with audio art started in Berlin in 1982 with public sound sculptures, and he eventually turned to performative practices with portable audio embedded in clothes and costumes. His artistic practice currently spans site-specific and non-site-specific sound installations, locational and non-locational performances, as well as performed, interactive and non-interactive sound installations, and a comprehensive description of his artistic trajectory is planned for release in 2019: Benoit Maubrey – Sound Sculptures. His most well-known ensemble is The Audio Ballerinas, wearing tutus with a combination of solar cells, light sensors, samplers, radios, amplifiers and loudspeakers. The ensemble has been performing since its debut in Lille in 1990. Maubrey has developed a huge portfolio of audio ensemble performances on several continents, and an interesting thread of autonomy and critical reflection is running through his oeuvre. The costumes and their technical affordances have changed with new technological developments, and in this interview Maubrey explains these developments, and how he has maintained and extended his artistic focus.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

1 Maubrey is referring to Bernward Mayer’s Gallery ‘no name’.

2 Berlin künstlerprogramm des DAAD. www.berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de/en/index_en.php (accessed 12 April 2018).