Tremorrag
live drawing performance
work in progress

music/video: Pascal Battus
and Angie Eng

Tremorrag is a audio-visual performance inspired by synesthetic principals of sound, image and movement. This project focuses on the concept of the ability to visualize and hear movement which normally is felt rather than seen or heard. They explore the subtlety of movement and the poetics of gesture with live drawing.

For the video they use traditional pen drawing  and digital design on a wacom tablet and video effects processing. The projected video is a mix between their black and white drawings and animations.  Eng adds digital effects to her drawings turning static design into dancing calligraphy, swarms of insects and live abstract expressionism. The animations resemble early experimental film makers such as: Len Lye, Viking Eggeling, Oskar Fischinger, as well as artists: Henri Michaux, Cy Twombly and Frank Stella.

 

 


Les Voutes, Paris 2010 video doc M. Kentaro





Soiree IRL Mercoeur, Paris 2010, video doc Christiane Blanc


Using a micro-camera attached to his thumb, Battus captures extreme close ups that play with perspective and scale.  Process is revealed to the audience using a second camera. Wider shots focus on his hand that holds the pen while the other moves the two pic up mics along the paper.  With 2 camera angles, Battus can switch between two spaces that heighten our awareness of the the process as well as traveling to the virtual where one is absorbed by the abstract landscapes. Battus does not  control  visual composition, but relies on small motors that vibrate the paper to navigate the pen.  Chance is a strong element of his visual composition and each drawing is very different each time it is performed.

Their sound gestures  and landscapes are similar to music concrete and noise music.They use contact microphones and mini electret mics attached to their drawing tools. The music is the direct output of their live drawing. Eng attaches a contact mic to her wacom tablet so that what one hears as music is the sound of making lines or any movement she makes on the palette.  Battus is has electret microphones in each hand that he can move around the paper.  His sound directly generated from pen and paper is as subtle as wind and as loud and noisy as a volcano erupting.