The Project

 

 

The starting point is a list of names read in Serbo-Croatian, names of missing children in the former Yugoslavia. This list comes from a database established at the request of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).The voices are the only material short musical compositions, various versions and variations around the sampling process, segmentation, classification, processing (up to make them unrecognizable voices). The installation also emphasizes the idea of relocation, movement, spatial reference loss.In its initial version (1994), Vocatives was in the following form: each visitor was invited into a cell after crossing an airlock. Once the airlock, his presence detected by an infrared sensor triggered playback of a series of forenames. Then entering the cell dive in the dark, the only discernable visual element at the bottom of this cell was a desk with a text. To read this text, the visitor had to get closer.  Through a series of presence sensors distributed within the cell, the advance of the visitor and its progress towards the panel triggered a progressive acoustic sound transformation. More visitors approached the cell bottom to read the list of names, the more reverb applied made the incomprehensible sound content. Conversely, if from the desk, abandoning reading, making the reverberation decreased again audible musical sequences.The version with the Oculus Rift (2015) presents  a virtual scène , made like a game , with Unity  a Game Engine and a 3D progression throuht headphones in the sound space according to the Listener/Player behaviour throught an Xbox pad.

 

Production  of the  virtual reality version: CNAM/ CEDRIC
With the assistance of Seong-Hoon-Ban, Pierre-Marie Blind, Julian Moreira, Delphine Soriano
Recorded voices:  Duska Micic, Emir Srkalovic