Composers and performance artists Pierre-Luc Lecours and Alexis Langevin-Tétrault have combined their respective artistic approaches to present the project of composition and multimedia performance, DATANOISE. Using unique audiovisual devices, the performance offers an intense and singular sensory experience in an aesthetic that lies at the border between contemporary music and electronic noise music. A refined scenic device arranged in four complementary interaction spaces makes it possible to embody the audiovisual work in real time through the instrumental gesture. The staging and the aesthetic use of the space highlight the physical and acoustic interaction of the performers. A system of visual projections and a play of light placed on the instruments clarify the relationship between gestures and sounds produced, creating different light patterns. DATANOISE seeks to viscerally express an artistic reaction to our hypermediatised daily realities and it is represented by visual and sound representations of live social media feeds parasitizing the stage space. The controlled alternation between energetic audiovisual explosions and contemplative dense moments aims to challenge the viewer and lead him to question the meaning of this dialectic of extreme perceptions.

In this project, the duo has a critical, dynamic and proactive report on digital technologies; they seek to overcome the status of user of tools to support them and in interpreting by physical gesture a type of contemporary music work rarely embodied by performance. The project relies notably on the construction of invented and electronically augmented instruments inspired by the great universal instrumental categorizations. The duo revisits and recontextualizes the potential of the four great archetypal families of musical instruments (percussion, wind, strings and electronics) using digital technologies. These instruments consist of a four strings harp inspired aluminum structure with contact microphones on each strings, a three cymbals amplified structure, an amplified PVC tube, a modular synthesizer with a theremin. All the sound of these instruments are modified with audionumeric tools to suit the musical composition ideas and aesthetic. A custom light system consisting of ten long LED lights have been designed for the project and is reacting to the sound played. The video is made of live generated glitched image using pre-rendered material and live tweeter post. There is a Python script that collect tweets in real time associated to certain hashtag saturating the social medias feeds. These tweets streams are shown on the screen at certain moments in the performance.

The performance is meant to be performed on a mid to large sized concert stage. The harp inspired electronic instrument is about 200 cm X 180 cm and is placed at the front center part of the stage. The modular synthesizer and theremin are in the right part of the stage. The cymbals structure on the left and the PVC tube on rear center part of the stage. All the sound and light cable are routed on the right outside the stage on a hidden table with the sound computer, the video computer, the custom DMX light box and the soundcard. The 16:9 hd video is projected on a cyclo screen that need to be as long as the stage.