Cécile Babiole: GOBO GOBO HEY!

3 Avril - 20 Avril 2012
Cécile Babiole: GOBO GOBO HEY!

La patte des machines

Research & Production residency

Between low and high tech, analogue and digital, obsolete and new media, Cécile Babiole, first artist in residency at iMAL FabLab, will propose a visual and luminous installation revealing the confrontation between the digital and the physical. Her residency will be followed by an exhibition in April-May 2012.

The installation ‘Gobo gobo hey!’ presents a variation on the gobo concept. A gobo is a lighting tech- nique consisting of “a physical template slotted inside, or placed in front of, a lighting source, used to control the shape of emitted light” (see Wikipedia).

Starting from this concept, Cécile Babiole propos- es to make gobos in plexiglas by means of a laser cutter and to place them in front of a set of slide pro- jectors that shine through them. The large-scale projection system reveals the roughness of the fabrication process: it appears clearly that the laser beam heats up, deforms, burns, melts and blackens the plastic material. Depending on the speed of the beam, the material is brushed or pierced.

The visual result looks more like handwriting with the downstrokes and upstrokes of a quill, or even like spray paint graffiti, than like a product of a machine from the digital era. The engraved patterns are inspired by the music world. They are graphic representations of sounds, score elements, graphic notation, wave forms, all revealed by the luminous vibration that passes through them.

The title is a wink at the punk culture from the 70s and expresses the aggressive nature of the ma- chine (‘Gabba Gabba Hey!’ is a catchphrase associated with the Ramones, the first American punk rock band).

Galerie Média

Crédits

Gobo Gobo Hey is produced by iMAL.
With the support of the SCAM - grant Pierre Schaeffer 2012. 
Thanks to Ludo Engels (LEAV) for the slide projectors.