Digital Musics & Sound Art
Honorary Mention
OSZILOT is a hybrid of sound installation and performance. Everyday objects suspended from strings are transformed into oscillating sound objects via movement sensors. The objects lose their everyday function and become animated and symbolic art objects. They create rhythm patterns, soundscapes, and abstract musical structures. The objects transform into living beings, ritual instruments, or futuristic manifestations of our imagination. The rhythms of the pendulum objects change by adjusting the length of the strings on which they are suspended. Thus, pendulums can be used like a primitive analog drum machine, but with the rhythms shifting in organic ways, creating constantly changing rhythmic patterns. An archaic, physical world is combined with the possibilities of digital sound synthesis. The audiovisual pendulum ensemble is a unique form of live electronic music performance in which the creation of sound is intuitively understood. After the performance, the audience is invited to play the objects, transforming OSZILOT into an interactive installation.
Jury Statement
In The Queer Art of Failure (2011), Jack Halberstam praises the “wondrous anarchy of childhood” as offering a stark contrast to structured and disciplined formats of creativity or knowledge. There is something truly reminiscent and nostalgic within the playful innocence of OSZILOT and that is its success. Combining analogue objects and digitizing their sound through gyro sensors, this sonic interpretation is at once extremely satisfying to the ear whilst reanimating our imaginations by giving new meaning to objects which, as “adults,” we might erroneously write off as mundane. We love that the piece invites its audience to come and interact with an orchestra of table chairs, pots, and vases brought to life. Play is always more fun when it’s collective anyway.
Excerpt from the jury statement
OSZILOT / Luc Gut (CH), Rolf Hellat (CH), Photo: Luc Gut, Rolf Hellat
OSZILOT / Luc Gut (CH), Rolf Hellat (CH), Photo: Sarah Muehlebach
OSZILOT / Luc Gut (CH), Rolf Hellat (CH), Photo: Elias Knecht
OSZILOT / Luc Gut (CH), Rolf Hellat (CH), Photo: Zoé Dupraz
Credits
Sound design, composition, performance: Luc Gut
Performance, dramaturgy: Rolf Hellat
Video: Andri Weidman
With support from: ProHelvetia; Stadt Zürich Kultur; Extrakredit Kanton Zürich; Aargauer Kuratorium; Ernst Göhner Stiftung; Mictic AG / Arendi AG
Luc Gut (CH) and Rolf Hellat (CH)
Media artists Luc Gut and Rolf Hellat founded OSZILOT in early 2021. They see OSZILOT as an alchemical process in which seemingly worthless objects are transformed into wondrous, fascinating artefacts. They seek to express a broad understanding of the world as a living, interconnected system in which all beings and objects possess some degree of consciousness and soul. OSZILOT has been shown at museums, art spaces, and festivals.
