Montreal Life Support & Woulg^UK/QC+CA/QC

Born in the United Kingdom and now based in Montréal, David Gardener, better known as Montreal Life Support, creates complex installations merging music, sound, lighting, video projections and robotics. His work aims to inspire and lift audiences from the banalities of everyday existence by shedding some light on the many facets of the universe.

Based in Montréal, artist and musician Greg Debicki, also known as Woulg, challenges preconceptions through glitch music, audiovisual manipulation and generative algorithms. Having studied Fine Arts in Alberta and Musical Composition in the United Kingdom, he set out to design generative software, custom hacks and interactive projections in order to push his art ever further. Woulg performed in Europe, in the Americas and in Australia, and also notably manages Studio Marie Anne, offering classes in composition, sound design and programming.

Montreal Life Support & Woulg ^UK/QC+CA/QC — Empty Vessels

Empty Vessels is an immersive audio visual installation and performance piece. The project takes the form of three full sized cellos, locked in the metallic appendages of three bespoke robotic structures designed to support and autonomously play the cellos. Conceptually the piece is centered around an exploration of the question: is it important to have a “human touch” in art creation and performance, and why? This question unravels into several components: the parallels in human/AI learning, questions of authorship/copyright, automation and work availability/income, and modalities of expressive storytelling.

Aesthetically the piece conveys the feeling that the cellos are being kept alive by the machines, like an organism on life support, or a baby in an incubator. This is mirrored abstractly in the visuals and the audio through contrast in warm, fragile, fleshy, human colors, tones and harmonies with discordant, precise, metallic and brutal ones. Oscillating slowly back and forth between the two before coming to a final high contrast section and then settling into agreement or stasis.

*Supported by the SAT, Canada Council for the Arts, CALQ and remic microphones.