The Audio Gruppe

source: vimeo

Benoît Maubrey is the director of DIE AUDIO GRUPPE a Berlin-based art group that build and perform with electronic clothes. Basically these are electro-acoustic clothes and dresses (equipped with amplifiers and loudspeakers) that make sounds by interacting thematically and acoustically with their environment. For example the AUDIO BALLERINAS use — among other electronic instruments– light sensors that enable them to produce sounds through the interaction of their movements and the surrounding light (PEEPER choreography).
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source: cotidianul

Străzile Sibiului vor fi invadate de “Audio Ballerinas”, un grup de artişti cu sediul în Berlin, care construiesc şi dau reprezentaţii cu haine electronice. De fapt, rochii electro-acustice, care emit sunete prin interacţiunea tematică şi acustică cu mediul. O varietate de alte instrumente electronice le permite să lucreze cu sunetele, suprafeţele şi topografiile spaţiului înconjurător, într-o varietate de coregrafii solo sau de grup. O mică şi excentrică formaţie de muzică, formată din muzicieni hazlii, zburliţi şi zbanghii, în care muzica swing se transformă în punk, reggae se transformă în disco, muzica electronică devine acustică şi nici măcar tangoul nu mai este ce era odată. În mâinile formaţiei italiene “Carloforte Cotillon”, melodiile devin pretext pentru aranjamente ironice.
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source: highlike
Work: Polycarbonate costume with 16 loudspeakers, amplifier, 12-volt battery, and sampler. Performers wear electroacoustic instruments shaped into a peacock’s fan-like plumage that are highly directional — projecting the sound into a space like an oversized radar dish. They are equipped with digital samplers and loop/pitch mechanisms that allow them to change the sound. Much in the same way that the courtyard peacock “strutts his stuff” in front of a pea-hen and imposes with his awesome cry, so does the Audio Peacock stalk his architectural domain — using sound as a scalpel that cuts through air and sculpts it, transforming it to into his new realm. An Audio Peacock can either amplify and alter its own voice or electronic instruments using a microphone, sampler, and filters (loop + pitch), play pre-recorded sounds, or receive live sounds via transmitter/receiver.
Statement: Performances with Electroacoustic Clothes. Benoît Maubrey is the director of DIE AUDIO GRUPPE a Berlin-based art group that build and perform with electronic clothes. Basically these are electro-acoustic clothes and dresses (equipped with amplifiers and loudspeakers) that make sounds by interacting thematically and acoustically with their environment. Some examples: AUDIO BALLERINAS use — among other electronic instruments– light sensors that enable them to produce sounds through the interaction of their movements and the surrounding light. A variety of other electronic instruments (samplers, contact microphones, movement sensors, MP3 players, and radio receivers) allow them to work with the sounds, surfaces, and topographies of the space around them in a variety of solo or group choreographies. In the AUDIO PEACOCKS project performers wear electroacoustic instruments shaped into a peacock’s fan-like plumage that is highly directional — projecting the sound into a space like an oversized radar dish.
Photographer: Benoit Maubrey
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source: kreatives-brandenburg
Seit 1983 baut Benoît Maubrey und seine in Berlin ansässige AUDIO GRUPPE elektroakustische Kleidung und bespielt mit ihrer Hilfe öffentliche Räume. In ihren Performances tragen die Künstler verschiedene Audio-Uniformen mit eingebauter elektronischen Klangausrüstung, was ihnen ermöglicht, auf vielfältige Weise akustisch mit ihrer Umgebung Kontakt aufzunehmen. Diese elektroakustische Kleidung ist mit Lautsprechern, Verstärkern und digitalen Memories (257 K Samplern) ausgestattet, was die Performer dazu befähigt, Töne, Klänge und Musik in der unmittelbaren Umgebung live aufzunehmen und wiederzugeben, sie zu verstärken und zu verfremden. Radio- und Funkempfänger, Mikrophone, Lichtsensoren und Computerbauteile mit Looping- und Pitching-Effekt vervollständigen das Equipment, so dass durch Produzieren und Mixen von Klängen ein einzigartiges mobiles und multiakustisches Konzert entsteht.
Im Unterschied zu modernen multimedialen, sogenannten “intelligenten” Bühnen verfügen die elektroakustischen Kleider über ihr eigenes, unabhängiges, tragbares System von Lautsprechern, Energieversorgung und Klangherstellung. Parallel zu der Teilnahme an den Straßen- und Klangkunstfestivals versucht die AUDIO GRUPPE immer wieder die “echte” Theaterbühne für sich zu gewinnen. Im Laufe der Jahre ist eine Reihe von unverwechselbaren “bühnenreifen” Einzelcharakteren geboren – die AUDIO BALLERINAS, der Elektronische Kerl, der FEED BACK FRED, die AUDIO GEISHA u. v. a. Der Reiz besteht darin, daß dabei die übliche Grenze zwischen dem Publikum und der Bühne gesprengt wird: der Zuschauer darf hautnah erleben, wie die Akteure ihre individuellen Klänge “tragen” und diese durch eigene Bewegungen ändern und gestalten.
Das jüngste Projekt heißt der AUDIO PFAU. Es ist ein Kostüm aus Polykarbonat-Plexiglas (Lexan), das sich dem Fächer eines Pfaus ähnelt. Das “Audio-Gefieder” ist mit 16 Lautsprechern (150 Watt), Verstärkern, Empfängern, Solarzellen und wiederaufladbaren Batterien (12 Volt) versehen. Diese Konstruktion – eine Art elektroakustische Radarschüssel – ermöglicht es, die Klänge mit immenser Effizienz zu steuern. Denken wir nur an die Wirkung der aufgespreizten prächtigen Federn eines Pfauhahns, der einer Pfauhenne imponieren will. Der Audio Pfau ist imstande, sowohl seine eigenen elektronischen Instrumente zu verstärken, als auch mit Hilfe der Sender die Klänge von außerhalb zu empfangen und sie im Raum zu verstreuen. Außerdem kann er dank den Empfängern (unter anderem Wireless Microphones) als öffentlicher Rezipient.
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source: wooloo
Benoît Maubrey is the director of DIE AUDIO GRUPPE a Berlin-based art group that build and perform with electronic clothes. Basically these are electro-acoustic clothes and dresses (equipped with amplifiers and loudspeakers) that make sounds by interacting thematically and acoustically with their environment. For example the AUDIO BALLERINAS use — among other electronic instruments– light sensors that enable them to produce sounds through the interaction of their movements and the surrounding light (PEEPER choreography). Via movement sensors they can also trigger electronic sounds that are subsequently choreographed –or “orchestrated”– into musical compositions as an “audio ballet ” (YAMAHA choreography). A variety of other electronic instruments (mini-computers, samplers, contact microphones, cassette and MP3 players, and radio receivers) allow them to work with the sounds, surfaces, and topographies of the space around them in a variety of solo or group choreographies.
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source: asci
AUDIO PEACOCKS is the most recent performance from Benoit Maubrey. These wearable electronic instruments are constructed from polycarbonat plexigalss material shaped into a peacock¹s fan-like plumage. The plexiglass surface is equipped with 16 loudspeakers (150 watts power), amplifiers, and rechargeable 12 volt batteries. The “audio-plumage” is highly directional and functions like an electroacoustic radar dish — esthetically it has much in common with the way a peacock parades itself in front of the pea-hen (the audience). An Audio Peacock can either amplify its own electronic instrument and voice or receive sounds from outside sources via transmitter/receiver and disseminate them in a space by orienting his high-tech “plumage”. Four Audio Peacock units can be acoustically choreographed as a mobile quadrophonic loudspeaker system. VIDEO PEACOCK. An Audio Peacock costume (constructed from white polycarbonat-plexiglass) is used as a mobile projection screen. This is a solo audio-visual concert where the electro-acoustic quality of an Audio Peacock is visually enhanced via a video beamer: moving images (both live and recorded) can be projected directly onto the performer’s costume. A story is told “live” by a figurant who simultaneously samples his own amplified voice, manipulating the sound (loop and pitch): the performer dubs his own hallucogenic dream.
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source: benoitmaubrey
1952 born in Washington, D.C. of French parents. 1975 Bachelor of Arts Diploma from Georgetown University since 1979 in Berlin. lives and works since 1990 in Baitz (Brandenburg) and Berlin. Co-founder of the non-profits arts organization Kunstpflug e.V, Baitz. 1992.