Sous les vagues

Strom­bos / Reverse Inher­ence, 2024

Strom­bos / Inhérence inver­sée is a sound creation that is concep­tu­ally based on the evol­u­tion through the ages of the differ­ent inter­pret­a­tions of the sound that can be heard inside a shell. From a mouth that sings, speaks and sighs, echo­ing myths and distant oceanic pasts, the shell has been trans­formed over the course of history into an object that captures and repro­duces our imme­di­ate envir­on­ment. The analogy with the sound of the waves is based on the fact that we instinct­ively asso­ci­ate the shell with the sea, its native envir­on­ment, which explains why, when we bring the shell close to our ear, we believe we hear the echo of the ocean. Later still, the claim emerged that what we hear inside the conch shells is the flow of our own blood.

Thus, super­sti­tion is gradu­ally replaced by rational reas­on­ing, and sublime enchant­ment is replaced by fascin­at­ing facts. Follow­ing this narrat­ive line, Strom­bos / Inhérence inver­sée, which comprises a wide palette of sounds of exclus­ively marine origin, invites each and every one of us to explore, through listen­ing, our own intim­ate link with the immense expanse of water from which life once emerged.

Dura­tion: 1h

Start: On the hour

In 2024, mudac acquired two design research series by Elise Rigot. Each looks at coral and its future in the light of climate change.

Amon­celle­ment et dissol­u­tion, 2021

(Accu­mu­la­tion & Dissol­u­tion)

In the begin­ning was a heap. This is how the early life strategy of red coral begins, in a shape­less heap. The larva, lying and cling­ing to a piece of land­scape, surrounds itself with precisely sculp­ted shapes. Each piece produces differ­ent shapes of scler­ites, small elements of calcite, which will soon form the basis of the coral’s hard skel­eton. Scient­ists are concerned about the acid­i­fic­a­tion of the oceans. CO₂ emis­sions in our atmo­sphere are reach­ing the oceans. The CO₂ dissolves in the water, which, through a chem­ical reac­tion, acid­i­fies the ocean. Some research­ers, notably Daniel Vielzeuf and Lorenzo Bramanti, have observed changes in the geometry of the scler­ites of Medi­ter­ranean red coral. What happens if the growth strategies of corals are altered from their first weeks of life? These tiny mineral struc­tures are placed oppos­ite each other, mirrored, enlarged as evid­ence from the seas. One is ampu­tated from a piece of the other.

Retour d’ex­pédi­tion océan Indien, 2023

(Return from Indian Ocean exped­i­tion)

These five micro-archi­tec­tural pieces repres­ent small altars dedic­ated to seaweed, the coral­line algae: five objects of cultural outreach and dialogue that invite us to bring to life, in our mouths, these inhab­it­ants of the ocean, which look so much like pebbles but are in fact encrust­ing algae. Are you famil­iar with coral­line algae? Clearly one can only look after what one knows and cares about. These common yet little-known algae popu­late the Saya de Malha bank, a plat­eau covered with an under­wa­ter meadow that was the subject of the Indian Ocean mission led by Les Explor­a­tions de Monaco in 2022. Each of these objects high­lights a partic­u­lar prop­erty of coral­line: its abil­ity to aggreg­ate species on itself, its very ancient geolo­gical time scale, the place where it was discovered – Saya de Malha – and its hard, pink mater­i­al­ity due to the photo­syn­thetic reac­tion of its pigments.