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Poème Électronique INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ON STEREO & IMMERSIVE MEDIA Vol. 2. Issue No. 1 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ON STEREO & IMMERSIVE MEDIA THE DISRUPTIVE The installation Poème Électronique involved the collaboration groups, with different performances in order to compose the RELATIONS BETWEEN of an architect and painter (Le Corbusier), a composer and visual narrative (Kalff, 1958, p. 38): architect (Iannis Xenakis) and a composer (Edgard Varèse), SOUND AND IMAGE IN who were commissioned by Philips to work on the develop- 1. Film (écran in the original): projection of a black and white ment of a pavilion for the Brussels World Fair in 1958. Seen film. POÈME ÉLECTRONIQUE by over two million people, the pavilion provided new ways of working on the concepts of composition, performance and 2. Ambiences (ambiances in the original): projection of chro- ABSTRACT: perception, as well as offering one of the first sound spatiali- matic illuminations with the intention of creating atmospheres NICOLAU CENTOLA sation initiatives. and sensations. UNESP (Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho) This academic paper focuses on the installation [email protected] art Poème Électronique, which involved the col- The Brussels World Fair in 1958 was the first to be held after 3. Tritrous: Projection of simple geometric shapes and imag- laboration of a painter and architect (Le Corbus- the Second World War and had as its theme the new tech- es on the walls of the pavilion. As a complementary effect, two ier) and a composer (Edgard Varèse) during the nologies in the service of civilisation after the horrors of the projectors were used that had been specially adapted so that 1958 Brussels World Fair. The idea is to analyse war. The Dutch company Philips, instead of presenting its the entire projection area would become opaque, except for the visual and sound dimensions, created from products, decided to create a pavilion demonstrating its tech- three areas (trois trous, in the original, hence the name tritrous) a combined set of rules, but independently de- nological developments applied to art and culture. in which colours or figures were inserted. These projections veloped by each participant. Based on a detailed took place in specific areas of the projection surface, usually and well-structured script written by Le Cor- Defined by the architect Le Corbusier as an eight-minute-long surrounding the main movie. busier, Varèse developed a sound work without electronic poem uniting sound, rhythm, colours and images, respecting the original guidelines. This import- Poème Électronique consumed more than a year of work by 4. Volumes: two suspended three-dimensional shapes, hang- ant disruptive characteristic is structured in the artists in France, Holland and India. Le Corbusier entrusted the ing as if they were “floating in space” in two of the pavilion’s relation between sound and image, and conse- composer Edgard Varèse with creating the project’s sound di- peaks: one is a geometric shape consisting of a tubular struc- quently in the interaction with the audience. mension, which represented a work, long-desired, with purely ture and the other the dummy of a female body. During the electroacoustic sounds, in a sound collage with spatialisation presentations, when illuminated with ultraviolet light, the Vo- Key words: installation, audiovisual, multimedia effects. Iannis Xenakis, who at the time worked on Le Cor- lumes would really stand out: the female figure in red and the art, Poème Électronique busier’s team, was chosen to design the architectural project. geometric one in blue-green. He based himself on his composition Metastasis to develop a building with parabolic forms. 5. Sun, moon, stars and clouds: different sets of lights provid- ed the introduction of elements related to the sky. In the imagistic sphere, Le Corbusier worked with the concept of surrealist assemblage and on conceiving the visual proj- During the second half of 1957, Le Corbusier prepared an inge- ect, the architect divided the components into five different nious script to coordinate and synchronise the use of the five 66 67 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ON STEREO & IMMERSIVE MEDIA Vol 2, Issue n.º1 THE DISRUPTIVE RELATIONS BETWEEN SOUND AND IMAGE IN POÈME ÉLECTRONIQUE NICOLAU CENTOLA groups of visual elements. He used a sheet of paper mimeo- Le Corbusier intended to tell the story of humanity based on Sequence Duration Elements graphed with the profile of the Philips Pavilion and hand-paint- free associations between images that often do not seem Genesis 1’00” Darkness, bull, bullfighter, Greek statue, video of a woman ed, with gouache, the light effects he desired at each moment related. A series of images in counterpoint creates a mosaic of the projection. Besides painting in detail the colours and that combines art, culture and society. Matter and Spirit 1’00” Skulls, shell, scientists, African image, statues from different cultures, skeleton, monkeys, ritual masks ambiance effects desired, Le Corbusier also included the dura- From Darkness to Dawn 1’25” Eyes, birds, tribal statues, lightning, skeletons, concentration camps, toys, religious images tion of each element and written notes, apart from the tritrous On removing these images from their original context by Manmade Gods 0’35” Tribal and Moai stone statues from Easter Island, cubes, plant forms, Buddha, solid colours effects. means of photographic reproductions and creating new rela- Workers, crowds, technological devices, Charlie Chaplin, children, rockets, radars, nuclear explosions, tionships between them, Le Corbusier first alters the artistic How Time Molds Civilization 1’00” video of a shapeless mass On the opposite page, another sheet shows how each of the appreciation, because he changes size scales and prioritises Eiffel Tower, mechanical parts, owl, bull, workers, Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, imag- visual elements should be applied and used, based on the details and gestures. This is what Malraux calls fictional art, Harmony 1’00” es of space, a couple hugging, babies following fields: a visual score, second by second; the colour which originates from the institutionalisation of museums To All Mankind 2’00” Images of New York, drawings and photos of Le Corbusier’s projects, babies, people effects to be applied on the Volumes; the images projected and especially from the advent of image reproduction mech- by the film (Écrans), divided into Notes (observations), Vision anisms. Table 1: Imagery sequences of Poème Électronique (which image should be edited) and Référence (image refer- ence number); which Tritrous should be projected and Paroles, This juxtaposition of distinct references creates new affinities for general observations (Treib, 1996, pp. 142-147). that were not present in the original works in their respective Le Corbusier and his assistant Philippe Agostini emphatically In Sequence 2, Matter and Spirit, the question that is presented contexts and produces a culture of fragments from the past, combine visual contrast in Poème Électronique. The architect concerns the transience of life, represented by several skulls A complex structure was assembled inside the pavilion to juxtaposed until they become unrecognisable. This manipu- provided the first indication when he named each sequence, and skeletons. The finitude of life is inevitable, even if scien- provide the lighting effects dreamed up by Le Corbusier. The lation of images is the central point of Poème Électronique’s but the syntactic relations transcend the initial concepts. tists focus on the subject matter. At the same time, ancient same structure was replicated on both sides of the pavilion so visual dimension and it provides a particular insight into Le civilisations, represented by masks, attempt a connection to that the projections could occur simultaneously on the oppo- Corbusier in relation to twentieth century art and culture. Sequence 1, Genesis, presents one of the central points of the spiritual as a way to bypass this issue. Darwin’s theory of site sides. the film: the eternal struggle between humanity and nature, evolution is placed at the same level as the tribal masks that A copy of the original projected version of Poème Électronique, since the beginning of time, represented here by dawn. The attempt to explain the relationship between humanity and the Specifically in relation to the film to be projected in the pavil- reassembled to include the light projections, can be seen on tension and confrontation between the brute force of nature, cosmos. ion, Le Corbusier created an intense sequence of still images the UbuWeb website. Le Corbusier divided it into seven se- represented by the bull and the civilising rationality of the bull- in black and white. There are only two sequences of moving quences (Table 1): fighter, which observe and study each other for a continuous In From Darkness to Dawn, Sequence 3, the owl’s fixed stare, images. In addition to the technical issue of the need for pro- confrontation. Wisdom, in the figure of the Greek statue, ob- which represents night-time, observes everything and con- jection in black and white, another point to bear in mind is that serves everything. The sequence ends with one of the only nects us to the primal fear of the unknown, of untamed nature. most of the images used came from photographs, mainly of two filmed sequences. The back of a half-naked woman, lying The three tribal statues represent different stages of human sculptures, showing a range of styles from
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