A series of works woven from electrical wires. Cables that can transmit audio signals make these weavings also sound pieces.
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Weaving is algorithmic since all fabric consists of threads that intertwine in a recurring pattern known as weave. The fabric’s weave is the algorithm that determines how the weft threads connect to the warp threads. The basic weaves are plain, twill, and satin, from which many other combinations or derived weaves can be constructed.
The weave of the different pieces and the color of the weft and warp threads form patterns. Cécile Babiole interprets these designs as the score of rhythmic sequences, each stitch of which forms a basic temporal unit, like the step of a sequencer. The spatial sequence of visual patterns becomes the temporal sequence of sound patterns. The sounds are based entirely on samples of the artist’s voice.
Weaving is one of the first human technologies invented by women as early as the Neolithic period. This technology requires scientific abilities (arithmetic, geometry, algorithmic). It can be regarded as a distant ancestor of computer science.
Loops of the loom place the grid at the center of the work. This term refers as much to the weavings of prehistoric matriarchal societies as it does to those found in the magnetic RAMs incorporating ferrite cores of computers from 1955 to 1975.
The installation includes 9 pieces (Sergé pressé, Sergé Ninja, Sergé roucoulé, Sergé chuchoté, Sergé vocalisé, Pied-de-pie, Sergé essoufflé, Satin à 5 temps and Sergé valsé).
Cécile Babiole is a French artist based in Paris. Her artistic practice began in the 1980s. She was first active in the music field, then in electronic and digital arts.
Her creations combine visual and audio arts through installations and performances that investigate digital media with irony. Image, sound, and interactivity are the components of her practice. From performance dispositive to participatory installations, her work concentrates more on technology issues. She aims to transpose and twist around the standardized uses in the field of creation.
Her latest works focus on language (written and spoken), transmission, dysfunctions, reading, translation, and algorithmic manipulations of language. In 2016, she founded the collective Roberte la Rousse with Anne Laforet, a cyberfeminist group that works on the themes of language, gender, and technology. She is also a member of the artist-curator collective Le sans titre.
She has exhibited her works internationally: Centre Pompidou Paris, Mutek – Elektra Montréal, Fact Liverpool, MAL, and Lima, NAMOC Beijing, among others, and distinguished with numerous awards and grants: Ars Electronica, Locarno, prix SCAM, bourse Villa Médicis hors les murs, Transmediale Berlin, Stuttgart Expanded Media Festival.