Raphaël Languillat: digital love (remix)

by JukeBoxx NewMusic · Published 6. September 2020 · Updated 4. July 2024

Beschreibung / Description:

‘digital love (remix)’ for one-channel video and stereo sound system. Informations: https://www.raphaellanguillat.com/digital_love_remix. Duration: 5’. Year: 2020

Despite the period of confinement coming to an end in France and many sectors of society resuming some kind of public activity, the Arts rest in a state of uncertainty. Numerous artistic initiatives have flourished online – but we begin to wonder how long artists will wait before being able to interact again with audiences. In this way, the french ensemble Collective lovemusic decided to undertake a new collaborative project, working and creating without a live concert as the end point, but with the aim to be working with – and not against or in spite of – the Covid-19 pandemic.

Raphaël Languillat’s ’digital love (remix)’ is a visual poem, an audiovisual short-form work in order to adapt to online behavior patterns, and a “free-scored” composition for ensemble in order to allow the members of Collective lovemusic who didn’t have access to their usual instruments during the lockdown to be part of the project. The result is to be shown as a fixed media, in the form of a one-channel video and stereo sound system.

Points of departure of this audiovisual composition are the stretched first minute of Daft Punk’s Digital Love (for the musical material), and William Shakespeare’s narrative poem ‘Venus and Adonis’* (for the audiovisual form). The spoken words are fragments from Shakespeare’s poem, recorded by the interprets and re-arranged by the composer. The video shows underwater shots of Venus and Adonis’ torsos immersed in different liquids, then digitally enhanced and crossfaded in order to obtain these intense color fields. One important feature of the work is the use of color as a narrative element, influencing psychologically the viewer-listener and underlining Shakespeare’s story. While written during the Covid-19 pandemic, ’digital love (remix)’ is not necessarily about the pandemic – but focusses on the relationship between gender and couple, intimacy and distancing, as well as desire and death.

* which was written when the London theatres closed for a time in 1592 due to the plague

Biografie Autor*in / Biography:

BIOGRAPHY and STATEMENT: Raphaël Languillat (*1989) is a french composer and multimedia artist born in Morocco, merging acoustic instruments and electronic sounds in compositions using extensively the “photographic” (still and moving images), as well as text and color as narrative elements. Dealing with art history – especially painting and sculpture – and with the re-imagination of mythological and religious stories, his works question both the disappearance of attention, memory and spirituality, as well as the acceleration of time in our global society. Focussing on details, using a stretched time, limited resources and shifted perspectives, Raphaël composes works which position themselves apart from the overwhelming data feed, and – through their immersive and physical character – at the intersection between experimental video, installation and performance. He lives and works in Offenbach am Main.

ARTISTIC FORMATION

2017-2018 — Kunsthochschule Mainz /// Auditor – Prof. Tamara Grcic
2015-2019 — Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main /// Master Composition – Prof. Gerhard Müller Hornbach & Prof. Orm Finnendahl
2010-2014 — Université de Reims & Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Reims (FR) /// Bachelor Musicology + DEM Composition – Prof. Daniel d’Adamo

WEBSITES