SYNTHOME

Introduction:
the synthome cycle

The Synthome Cycle is a trilogy of audio-visual performances by TRANSFORMA and YRO.

Using the performance space as a laboratory of experimentation, production process and outcome are presented on an equal footing. The interplay between the actions of the performers and kinetic and optical stage elements create a functional, intuitive choreography. The sounds and images produced can be traced to the physical actions of the performers, creating a highly engaging process through the simultaneous perception of cause and effect. The Synthome Cycle is both workshop and work at the same time.

Transforma (Berlin) and Yro (Paris) have combined their artistic and technical approaches to create this series of performances.

I.
Asynthome [2010]

A series of modular stations with prepared objects, light boxes, interactive sculptures and cameras are used by the three performers or operators to create visual experiments which are projected directly on to the screen above them.

The operators follow a ritualised choreography of interaction dictated by the soundtrack, which is partly pre-composed, partly generated live. These real-time manipulations of the onstage elements unfold into an experimental film on the screen. A loose narrative unfolds as a visual iconography which hints at mythologies of creation is instigated; lights emerge from the darkness on stage, mountains are drawn from a tank of black liquid, organic forms appear as if seen through a microscope. Over time the visual language evolves into structures that suggest the existence of a more complex system.

The effect of these stylised images is offset by the visibility of the often haphazard workshop at stage level. Constantly adjusting the process of creation in relation to what is happening on screen, the operators improvise new ways of using their analogue apparatus to produce images, at times giving in to a playful loss of control.

II.
Bsynthome [2014]

Bsynthome is the second part of the SYNTHOME cycle, Equally inspired by mystic and scientific approaches, Bsynthome aims at exploring dynamic interrelationships and cycles within the fictitious systems created in Asynthome.

An environment composed of kinetic apparatus, cameras, projection and objects resembling primitive organisms or geologic artefacts forms the core of the Bsynthome system. Performers work with instruments and tools in an attempt to interact with and understand the system's changing connections and the cycles of its elements. By observing the complex stage arrangement, its correlations and sequences, the performers eventually change the system itself and leave it in an altered state.

III.
Csynthome [2018]

Csynthome will present the decay of the system.

transforma

The artist group Transforma was founded in 2001 by Luke Bennett, Baris Hasselbach and Simon Krahl. They met while studying experimental film and media at the Berlin University of the Arts and and soon moved from making videos, sound works and images to installations, live cinema and performance.

Transforma has also produced work in collaboration with musicians such as Apparat, Dieter Meier, Alex Banks, Chloé as well as the theatre director Sebastian Hartmann, choreographer Sônia Mota and the artist Yro.

Transforma has performed live and exhibited at festivals and venues around the world e.g. KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Moscow International Biennial for Young Art, FAD Festival de Arte Digital in Belo Horizonte, Art.Ware Festival in Hong Kong, Sequences Festival in Reykjavik, CTM Festival in Berlin, Todays Art in Den Haag and Deutsches Theater Berlin.

Transforma has held workshops and artist talks at the Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, the Berlin University of the Arts, the University of Hamburg and at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig.ns of the performers, creating a highly engaging process through the simultaneous perception of cause and effect.

yro

Born in 1980, Elie Blanchard, is a multidisciplinary artist, living and working in Paris, one of the pioneers of live-cinema movement.

He blends objects, music & video in performances and installations in which new technologies and low-tech are coexisting where image & sound are deeply interlocked.

In his works, he uses, transforms & shoots tangible materials such as paper, glass, engines or even light. He investigates a primary shapes, simple devices & objects territory that becomes poetic by a symbolic and evocative figures' network. Thus, a subjectivity, wandering and poetry space is created.

credits

ASYNTHOME is a coproduction by Lieu Multiple (Poitiers), Arcadi (dispositif Acme, Ile De France), des Pixels Transversaux (Sèvres), avec la participation du CNC - Dicréam, avec le soutien du du Csc Madeleine Réberioux (Créteil) et du dispositif Création en Résidence Spectacle Vivant du service culture « Vivre Ensemble » de la région Poitou-Charentes.

Technical help by Vixid, CRAS (Mains d'Œuvres) and Pierce Warnecke.
Assistant Raphael Dupont.

BSYNTHOME is a coproduction by Avoka & Transforma with the support of Cnc (Dicréam – writing & production) et town of Berlin – Senate Chancellery – category visual arts, Stereolux, Feed Soundspace, Zk/U (Center for Art and Urbanistics)

Technical help by Telematique.

Thanks a lot to Jesse Lucas.