La Nuée

2022 — generative acoustic sound installation

The historical dimension of the bell has erased its nature as a sound object. The signal takes precedence over the sound, the tool over the instrument. La Nuée reactivates the object as an acoustic material. The monotonous automaton system usually used to trigger the chimes is hijacked. The action of the percussion will now respond to random and organic behaviour. Like a swarm, the first percussion calls forth the next. La Nuée (which translates The Swarm or The Cloud) offers a whimsical alternative to existing ringing methods, such as "la volée tournante" (which translates "rolling bell »).

Materials

Bronze bell
Solenoids
Electronic circuits
Aluminum profiles
Programming
Sound

Collaborators

Thanks to the Louviers's museum team, for their support and the loan of the first bell, 2022.
Thanks to the Sainte-Geneviève parish, Paris’s 18th, for the loan of the second bell, 2026.

Exhibited at

Basilica Cathedral of Saint-Denis, march 2026.
Louviers Museum, Louviers, september to december 2022.

View of the installation at the Louviers museum