Notes on Paris: 'Low Tech' Sound Exhibition, Creteil

Being just outside of Paris, though just 15 minutes by métro, the glorious experimental funhouse of
Maison des arts de Creteil does not register on the radar of available museums, when I, and most Paris-dwellers turn theirs on. That said, if the rule of having to be born within the city limits to be able to say you're Parisian is transferable to all things, I should of course be sued for featuring this art centre in this Paris blog. But I think it could be worth it.

Having arrived there what we believed to be 1 hour 20 from closing time, on the exhibition's final day, we were met with the announcement that the venue was closing in 15 minutes. So though slightly rushed, we managed to see the majority of exhibits, and for a sonophile like myself, the Low Tech Exposition Exit was a joy to behold...

On entering we were greeted with this:

That's right, balls on rods rotating by motors and knocking against a wall of cardboard boxes.

...Which is exactly how I like to be greeted.

Now, please press play on the widgeroo below to absorb the ambient sounds as we took a walk around the rest of the museum, and read on...

Our first port of call was the wall on which hung these delightful objects; essentially eartrumpets for the 21st century:

This was followed by a rare opportunity to experience the artist's impression of dancing cheek-to-cheek with yourself, by shuffling on the seat which pumped air into rubber cheeks strapped around you face from a bespoke helmet which dangled from the ceiling by a spring:

We then moved downstairs past some boxes which made electronic noises when wires were moved towards electronic elements to this large room, filled with rotating amplified wheels and other centrally-controlled mechanics, and complemented with a projection of a bird on the back wall. It was assembled by the glorious Norwegian Verdensteatret collective, mixing audio and visual elements, striving to build "exquisite links between seemingly incompatible technologies and materials." *

Next door we came across this tower of wood, where on one side someone on an exercise bike races someone on a treadmill on the other side of the contraption to move a large wheel. Who says art is pointless? Not sure they read the bit in the rules about this being an expo about sound; either that or I didn't (infinitely more likely.)