I'm just back from a three days trip to Halifax. About four months ago, we were approached by the Center for Art Tapes to do a project in Nova Scotia's capital city. We got Perte de Signal involved and suggested to work collaboratively with local artist Stephen Kelly, who in turn suggested to add Adam Kelly to the team.

I was happy to get to meet many great people during such a short stay. On my first day, I met Thomas Elliott and James McSwain from the CFAT staff and they showed me around. On the second day, met with Stephen and Ilan Sandler in the morning. We went to visit Ilan's current ongoing public art project. Then I went around with Stephen to discuss about the project. On the third day, I met with St Mary's University Art Gallery's director/curator Robin Metcalfe. I also had the chance to have a coffee with artist and professor David Clark who's last project 88 Constellations for Wittgenstein (to be played with the Left Hand) is a must see.

But, back to the project with Stephen and Adam. We've set our minds on working in a park. Together with Stephen, we visited a few locations. Below is an overview of our first general impressions.

Seeview Park Lookoff/Seeview Memorial Park

This park is somehow split in two by the highway that was built on top of Africville. You can't cross between the parks by foot (although a path is said to be planned in the future). We had the idea of making two devices (one in each park) communicating with radio frequencies. Possibly, the cars on the highway could intercept these radio frequencies. Apparently it could be feasible to even get a permission of the CRTC to emit radio waves.

Pros: Interesting "non-site", historical perspective, our work could draw people to this "outcast" area

Cons: Less audience than in other parks such as Public Gardens or Point Pleasant, less controlled so more probability of vandalism

Public Gardens

Located just in front of the CFAT, very nice, enclosed and controlled area. There is a pond with ducks and swans. We had the idea of making something in the water, like a floating device that could produce sound (and thus waves in the water, possibly attracting fish/birds?) Could have a way to move on the surface of the pond with some kind of AI.

Pros: Very controlled so we can make something that would otherwise be prone to vandalism, very popular so we would have a large audience.

Cons: Maybe "too" controlled, we might also have problems with the organisation because of that (Ilan knows someone who works for the city and might be of help).

Point Pleasant

Big park on the side of the sea, very nice, lots of paths scatered through the space. Raw nature, forest-like. Many trees were destroyed by a beetle invasion followed up by hurricane Juan in 2003. Very popular and beautiful area. Has some historic military buildings (bunker-like). Teenagers hang around the park's parking at night, doing car races and stunts (probably with their parents cars).

Pros: Less controlled than Public Gardens but more popular than Seeview. Very large area, beautiful view on the sea.
Cons: Almost too big, nothing stands out of the ordinary (but we would need to do more research/visits maybe)

Other locations visited:

• Commons
• ational Historic Park
• Fort Needham Memorial Park

Some pictures from last Saturday's intervention during the event Art Souterrain as part of the Montreal All-Nighter. The night was a success story: hundreds of people passed through the corridor located in the Palais des Congrès where we intervened.

The project, developed within a period of two weeks, involved for the first time human energy as power supply, through the use of hacked hand-rechargeable flashlights. Five modules were set, each one of them emitting sounds through a pair of speakers. Audio clips of birds were remixed "live" at random, with sound effects. Each module also included a "surprise" mating sound or a terrestrial animal (cat, chinchillas, frogs, cougars, fossas, human). The modules were attached to the metal ceiling with magnetic hooks.

Note: All photos were taken by our friend Alexis Bellavance from Perte de Signal. Thank you Alexis!

Please leave your comments if you've seen the work: we are eager to hear from you.

Sofian Audry and Samuel St-Aubin will present Accrochages as part of the 6th edition of the Montreal All-Nighter (Nuit Blanche) during the night between Saturday February 28th to Sunday March 1st.

Free
Feb 28, 2009
6 p.m. - 5 a.m.

Palais des congrès
1001, place Jean-Paul-Riopelle
métro Place-d'Armes

Meet us Thursday, July 3, from 19h to 23h at place Comte de Flandres (in front of the subway exit) in Brussels. Artists Sofian Audry and Samuel St-Aubin will deploy in the urban environment the electronic objects developed as part of Accrochages.

This event is presented in collaboration with iMAL.

We arrived at iMAL! From June 4 to 8, we participated to the Talkoo workshop.

Given by David Cuartielles, one of the main developers of the Arduino board, the workshop objective was to develop sound objects. It resulted in an intervention in various public places in Brussels.

Talkoo is part of Brave New World, a series of workshops given at iMAL on “internet of things” - “hybrid world” - “networking & locative media”.

From June 5th to July 5th, we will be in residency at iMAL. iMAL stands for "International Media Art Laboratory". It is a center located in Brussels that supports computer and network based artistic innovation.

During our stay, we plan to enhance our skills and knowledge about electronics. One of our major goals is to address the issues regarding auto-sufficient systems, in particular solar panels and rechargeable batteries.

On Monday, May 19 took place the opening of the exhibition of Mal Pixel Festival 2008 at Mains d'Oeuvres. Here are a few images.

On this occasion we installed modules in different locations inside and outside Mains d'Oeuvres: showroom, corridors, restrooms, etc..

Paradoxically, we had to fuel our solar modules with big lamps as the opening took place in the evening. One of them almost burned, as can be seen in the pictures ... We hope we can soon develop circuits for rechargeable batteries to keep the energy from our solar panels!

Sunday, we participated to Dorkbot Paris. We presented Accrochages, with a focus on alternative methods to generate electricity. Our batteries made with lemon, vinegar and potatoes generated 16 Volts! And the "baguette" battery alone generated 0.7 V!

We also demonstrate the rain detector and solar panels, as well as our active and interactive objects.

From May 16th to 25th, Accrochages will be presented as part of the Mal au Pixel Festival of eletronic cultures. There will be a visit of the works on Sunday 25th during which the visitors will have the opportunity to observe and interact with the outside works.

We are already in St-Ouen since May 11th, working at Mains d'oeuvres, preparing for the Festival.

Last Saturday, April 19, 2008, we took part in a roundtable on the subject of DIY, open-source and open-hardware at États Généraux des Arts Médiatiques. At this event, we presented the project Accrochages. The response from the public, which was composed of members of the media arts field in Quebec and Canada, was very exciting: several people asked information about the project. We believe it could open doors for future projects or for the continued development of Accrochages.