© Patrizia Ruthensteiner

13.10.2023 – ‘Chimeric Chimes I – Rocaille’
with Cat Jimenez (Performance, choreography)
Patrizia Ruthensteiner (Concept, composition, instruments, choreography)

21:30 – Concert at ‘Shut up and listen!‘ Transdisciplinary Festival for Music and Sound Art | Echoraum, Sechshauser Straße 66, 1150 Vienna.
The instrument will be part of the exhibition throughout the festival days (12.-14.10.).

Chimeric Chimes I – Rocaille’ is an electro-acoustic music performance based on a chime that can be worn as a sculptural extension of the body and set in motion by the dancer. Thus the instrument can be played through her movements. The chime is composed from various materials. Shells, glass, aluminium and the dancers body form a transformation cycle of organic and inorganic materiality, narrating the emergence and decay of temporary forms. Noise meets concrete tones.
The composition is based on two independent, coordinated tonal sequences deriving from each side of the sculpture. Through the spatial distribution and interplay of acoustic and electronically amplified sounds they become a sculptural medium. The choreographic composition and improvisation with this wearable instrument unfolds its musical potential during the performance.

‘Rocaille’ draws inspiration from the European stilistic period ‘Rococo’. The interchange between art and nature and the interest in the exotic was at the core of this period. Nature and organic forms were coalesced with various other shapes asymetrically in volutes and ornaments. The materials and aesthetics chosen for the piece ‘Rocaille’ are reflectant upon Cat’s intercultural background. The sculpture is based on a pentatonic composition, that unites the stilistic musical approach of lightness and the asymmetry of the Rococo.

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Chimeric (Composite being; organism that has genetically different components)
Chimes (Windchime; melodious ringing sound)
Rocaille (Shell-shaped ornament; german: Muschelwerk)

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~‘Chimeric Chimes’ is a transdisciplinary project based on a collection of wearable chimes that are set in motion by the movement impulses of dancers. The instruments are assemblages of processed natural and industrial materials and therefore exhibit different acoustic properties.

Chimes have been utilized in various cultures since thousands of years. They were hung in gardens, courtyards and similar transition spaces, played by the wind movements. Wind chimes are an important element of Feng Shui, an ancient Chinese Taoistic concept linking the destiny of man to his environment. The Taoistic perception of nature is based on the idea that the land which surrounds us is alive,
aiming to live in balance with these energies and in accord with the flow of nature.

The emergence of modern natural sciences came along with the separation of psyche and matter, human and non-human beings, living and dead, culture and nature, as well as resultant concepts of the ‘domination of nature’. In this project these concepts are aimed to be reconsidered and transformed. ‘Chimeric Chimes’ undertakes artistic attempts to imagine and explore alternative, yet unknown relations of man and nature, culture and technology.

‘Domination of nature’ describes the attempt to control, manipulate and design non-human beings, things as well as the human inner nature.
In the modern world this is associated with the idea of progress, while the encroachment of the natural realm is resulting in the decrease of ecological diversity and progressive endangerment of natural resources that are crucial for human and non-human beings. Instead of the imagined emancipation from nature, it is our relationship with nature that would have to be transformed.

Funded by BMKÖS, MA7, Bildrecht (SKE-Fonds) and district 1150

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Cat Jimenez; © Patrizia Ruthensteiner

© Patrizia Ruthensteiner