Michel Redolfi's Subaquatic Concerts: Digital Visionaries and the Body as Interface
In an article for Artribune, Lorenzo Taiuti discusses Michel Redolfi, a French electronic musician born in Marseille in 1951. During the 1980s and 1990s, Redolfi innovatively utilized water as a musical medium. He designed installations where audiences donned swimsuits to engage with music through water. In 1996, he introduced Liquid Cities and Nausicaa in swimming pools, allowing swimmers to influence sound through software while underwater cameras captured their movements. This work reflects the interplay between people, music, and their surroundings, reminiscent of John Cage's avant-garde concepts. Redolfi's later 'Concerti subacquei' featured musicians performing underwater. He also transformed a marine aquarium in France into sound, resonating with Edgar Varèse's vision for new musical forms. The article positions Redolfi among the digital art trailblazers of the 1980s to 2000s.
Key facts
- Michel Redolfi is an electronic musician born in 1951 in Marseille, France.
- He experimented with water as a medium for music in the 1980s and 1990s.
- In 1996, he created Liquid Cities and Nausicaa, installations in large swimming pools.
- Audiences wear swimsuits and are immersed in water to hear music transmitted through liquid.
- Swimmers' movements modify the sound via software; an underwater camera relays images to a screen.
- The installation references the fetal experience of hearing the maternal heartbeat in amniotic fluid.
- Redolfi's work is influenced by John Cage's ideas of freeing music from traditional spaces and embracing chance.
- Subsequent 'Concerti subacquei' involve musicians and audiences diving with masks and respirators in pools or the sea.
- Redolfi sonified a large marine aquarium in France, using its images as video for music inspired by liquidity.
- The article cites Edgar Varèse's 1917 statement on music needing new means of expression from science.
Entities
Artists
- Michel Redolfi
- John Cage
- Edgar Varèse
- Lorenzo Taiuti
Institutions
- Artribune
Locations
- Marseille
- France
- Nice