Taking place at the Vranken Pommery Monopole in Reims, France, La Fabrique Sonore combines ancient paper folding techniques with contemporary computer-aided-design and manufacturing processes. Curated by Charles Carcopino and Claire Staebler and designed by Hyoung-Gul Kook, Ali Momeni and Robin Meier, the form is inspired by mathematician and origami expert Taketoshi Nojima, especially his work reproducing organic forms from folded paper. More images and information on the exhibition after the break.
Their collaboration with architect Hyoung-Gul Kook allowed them to design, fabricate and assemble this suspended 345 cubic-meter structure from 285 flat sheets of aluminum/polyethylene composite, precisely folded 2,535 times. This structure acoustically amplifies the sound from a single speaker-driver in order to create an enclosed space that bathes the listener in its center in sound.
The fold, as a multi-layered metaphor for the relationship between mind and matter, inspires plis/replis. The installation is made up of a highly geometric, folded and suspended structure that amplifies the experiences and metaphors of champagne. The primary structure, a 10 x 10 x 12m cone suspended in a pyramid, underground cave (a “crayères”) – one of the largest crayères of Vranken-Pommery’s 18km long underground system of corridors and caves dating back to Roman times.
This architectural augmentation of the space also serves as a functional loud speaker. A glass platform suspended at the focal point within the cone holds a vessel filled with champagne. Using the actual sounds of effervescence picked up by a special microphone immersed in the champagne vessel, a real-time analysis/synthesis audio system creates a continually evolving sound environment, diffused downward from above.
