Sound Creation Workhop in an Immersive Audiovisual Context 

In 1972, Iannis Xenakis' Polytope de Cluny was a rare combination of sophisticated and popular art: an immersive sonic and visual experience, the prototype for many multimedia works. The spatialized soundtrack, the crackling flashes, the figures drawn by the laser beams and reflected by the mirrors... this unconventional work plunged the spectator into a hurricane of lights and electronic music.

In June 2022, the digital art studio ExperiensS and Pierre Carré (IRCAM) readapted the Polytope for the first time with its original monumental scale, alongside a new creation by the Italian collective /nu/thing with ExperiensS, Where You There at the Beginning. The new 2025 edition includes two new electronic creations, 665.99 (TremensS x Ténèbre) and CHLOÉ.

For the ManiFeste Academy, TremensS, Ténèbre, and Pierre Carré will be using the Polytope 2025 installation to explore the creative, experiential, and technical issues involved in an immersive audiovisual installation or performance.

The 6 selected composers: Tania Cortès Becerra (Ecuador/Colombia), Xinglan Deng (China), Li He (China), Joseph Higgins (Ireland/United Kingdom), Oktawia Pączkowska*(Poland), Natalie Szende*(Germany/Hungary).
*part of Ulysses journeys for composers, with the support of the Ulysses Platform, co-funded by the European Union

Among the topics covered:

• How can sound and visual creations be coordinated so that they work together to deliver a coherent multi-sensory experience, without competing or overshadowing one or the other? What technical strategies (hardware, software), particularly real-time and/or interactive for a live performance, enable this coordination and their simultaneous control?
• How might we think in terms of ‘audiovisual instruments’ to go beyond the conventional logic of ‘visual illustration of a sound creation’ or ‘sound illustration of a visual creation’?
• How can we standardise, invest, and spatialise the 3D volume of an immersive installation in terms of light and sound? How can the sound and visual references be aligned to ensure the coherence of the events perceived by the audience? How can an ‘invisible’ sound score be superimposed on physical and tangible visual/scenographic manifestations?
• How can the spatial trajectories of audio and visual events be composed, designed, programmed and coordinated (workflow, software tools and protocols)?

Participants will be guided in the development of a spatialised musical work coordinated with a visual framework (LEDs, lasers) programmed by ExperiensS, which will be synchronised with the sound score (MIDI/OSC).

Warning: Polytopes has been identified as a potential seizure trigger (strobe or flashing lights) and is not recommended for peopel photosensitive epilepsy