PROJECT OF PRODUCTION
From 1st of August to 30 of September 2021
at ZK/U Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik
Presentation at ZK/U, siemmenstr, Berlin
Openhaus, 27th of August
Artist talk 6th of September
PROJECT OF THE RESEARCH
Berlin session Residency From 1st TO 30 September 2020
I plan to develop a collaboration with the LEIBNIZ-Institut für Astrophysik in
Potsdam (AIP). More specifically, I would like to work with the research team
on cosmic magnetic fields, which is one of the main focus of this European
institute. I am currently in contact with Dr. Klaus G. Strassmeier who is at the
head of this research center.
Contrary to some ideas, the magnetic field generated on a planet
contributes to the appearance and maintenance of life. Indeed, the
magnetic field acts as a protective shield deflecting harmful cosmic
radiations. This aspect interest me the most and I would like to investigate it.
Following the idea of a magnetic field favoring life, it can’t exist without a
bipolarity, which evokes the duality as a fundamental concept of Eastern
philosophy.
ARTISTIC APPROACH
Claude Alma’s artistic approach focuses on 3 main axes:
The first one is based on the creation of unique listening conditions (see
www.volume-sonore.org), for which he designed and realized architectural modules,
sort of sound pavilions. The configuration and the device of these modules are
specifically dedicated to the type and origin of the sounds broadcast.
Claude Alma’s work also revolves around cosmophony, which means the
contribution of the elements of the universe and the living into sound creations
organized threw electroacoustic compositions. Field recordings and sound synthesis
come together in a multi-point spatial diffusion.
Claude Alma also favors in his realizations the vibratory dimension of the sound to
reveal the imperceptible, even the inaudible or the invisible, like neuronal waves,
stellar vibrations or radio waves. Thus, the medium, while remaining immaterial,
makes it visible phenomena pertaining to immateriality.
Claude Alma imagines and designs devices, true “vibesystems”, which vibrate simple
materials (water, very fine sand, copper wire …) and through which the sound
becomes image and light.
He has already worked with scientists in the field of neuroscience (*), botany (**),
mechanics and resistance of materials (***) and especially in the field of astrophysics.
Claude Alma collaborates particularly and for several years with Philippe Zarka
(research director at the Observatoire de Paris and deputy director of the radio
astronomy station of Nançay) to produce creations on the basis of sound
transcriptions of radio waves emitted by stars (****).
Claude Alma widens his research to all the wave phenomena.
He seeks to initiate a poetic of the relationship between Art and Sciences, following
Virginia Woolf when she states:
And there are a thousand voices prophesying despair. Science, they say, has made poetry
impossible ;/ … / Therefore, so people say, there can be no relation between the poet and
the present age. But surely that is nonsense. These accidents are superficial; they do not go
nearly deep enough to destroy the most profound and primitive of instincts, the instinct of
rhythm./ … / That perhaps is your task—to find the relation between things that seem
incompatible yet have a mysterious affinity…
.Virginia Woolf Letter to a young poet 1932
(*) volume sonore #3
(**) ongoing projects agrocampus Fondettes (Fr.) botanical garden Florence (It.)
(***) volume sonore # 6 # 7
(****) volume sonore #2, #5 #6 et pulsdating star