Scenography

 AMBULATORY

Figures Libres express the urge to try “the big ambulatory performance”, to implement the know-how and experience to offer a creation for a large audience. This desire is also based on the intuition that the video may be a media relevant in this type of intervention. The visual power it generates is particularly suited to the development of monumental forms. It also allows great flexibility in terms of story, characters, images: it can easily evolve with the scenario.

 SCALE

Figures Libres, developing a non-textual language, used to speak to any audience, without language barriers. The first two stages of development were also held in France (Chalon-sur-Saône / Montbéliard) and abroad (Graz, Austria).
The structure of the show is built over time through many work sessions reaching its final form in 2012. It is adapted in each city where it is played not only by the choice of route, architecture and projection surfaces encountered, but also the ability to integrate the heart of the show insertions of sounds or images captured on the spot.
These materials are made locally during pre-visit sessions and reinjected into the show according to a predetermined protocol.

 DEVICES

We are working on a new mobile audiovisual device, to create a performance at the scale of the city, combining powerful sound, projection of still and video images and architectural lighting.
Mobility is the heart of this device: no fixed installation, but only a mobile environment where the roaming video image can combine monumental and intimitate.
The moving image in the city is one of the main themes of KompleXKapharnaüM’s aesthetics, image that we have gained extensive experience over our creations (Square local street TV, Memento). We now wish to adapt this specificity to a monumental performance for a wider audience.

 CONVOY

A bus, stage vehicles (for live musicians and soundor lighting control) and seven dancers/projectionists punctuate the performinf area. They form a convoy that structures ambulation.
All the technical tools are embedded in these vehicles: energy, sound system, video projections, light sources. They are also a stage for projectionists and musicians. The heart of the performance remains the facades of the city, transfigured by the projection of video images and lighting.

 IMAGES

Two types of images are put in space and movement in public space :

• multi-broadcast video images (from vehicles and the dancers/projectionists)
  − a still image live edited
  On the roof of a bus are two high power overhead projectors that allows to compose a live still image, that can interact with the facades. The operator who manipulates the turret is visible to spectators, staged on the roof of the bus. Two other vehicules are equipped with classic video projectors.
  

Other video images are broadcast by seven dancers/projectionists equipped with portable systems. Autonomous and mobile, they use the urban terrain (stairs, slopes, accessible windows ...), climb on the roof of the bus or the stage vehicles to project high above the audience.
The positions and movements of these projectionists images are part of a choreography of roaming images, the spearhead of the parade. Projectionists are highlighted: the portraits they project and their own faces and come into resonance.

 TECHNOLOGY

The desire to make the different elements of the ambulation the more independent and mobile as possible led us to initiate a phase of significant technological research throughout the course of creation. The control of sound, light and video, must take place remotely through a wireless network, specifically designed for our project. Eventually, the embedded media players must also be controllable through wifi (to release the operators of this constraint), and also to help make and broadcast live made videos. Technological development is moving around the integration of multimedia devices that combine autonomy, lightweight, ergonomiy, wireless network, sound and video media playback, integrated camera ... such as smartphones, or other digital media players..

 LIGHTING

Light on-board vehicles and street lights filtering create a unique atmosphere and thus contribute to the transformation of urban space.
The light colors and video projections merge and combine to create an overall monumental picture. We use automated and mobile light projectors, playing in rhythm with the movement of images.
Filtering or switching off public lighting along the route and its vicinity allows a transformation of public space and invites the public to have different look at his daily environment.

 MOVING AUDIENCE

During an hour and half the audience will walk a piece of the city, transformed by the intervention of Figures Libres. Audience will be guided on this journey : signs, indications to follow directions communicated by the images or sound, but also by coaches who ensure a smooth ambulation.

 SHOOTINGS

The most of the images are taken during shootings that occur in different work sessions.
The quality of capture depends on technical conditions but also and especially on the relationship developed with the model to get him to join in the game, let go a moment. Under the proposed scenes, a shooting protocol is pre-determined and implemented in the same way with each model.
Before each shoot, a time for discussion and meeting is necessary : it can vary from minutes to several appointments depending on the degree of trust and complicity needed in the scene.

 AUDIO LANDSCAPE

The audio landscape combines live music, voice-overs that tell of shooting situations and contextualize the images, noises and sounds taken in the city that enhance adaptation to the place.
The music performed live by four musicians located on the stage vehicle. the “électro-pop-hip/hop” style combines traditional instruments (clarinet, ukulele, kalimba), keyboards, sampling, DJing, spoken and sung voice .
The live play helps strengthen a direct interaction with other elements of performance and firmly anchor the show in the field of performing arts.

 MATERIALS

The search for a singular achievement is at the heart of the work of the company.
The challenge is to produce an performance in which images and sounds work in synergy by developing a unique aesthetic based on both documentary codes and those similar to the visual language of VJing.
Thus, the audio and video materials are produced in a two-way basis. If the filming and music creation are operated separately as a first step: quickly, videographers and musicians will gather to discuss materials written or collected, and work in constant interaction to produce the final scenes that the public will discover during the show.

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