Judith Deschamps, artist in residence at Ircam - STMS (Analysis & Synthesis team) and PhD student at Paris 8 (ArTeC), presents with the researchers Axel Roebel and Frederik Bous, with the composer Antonio Sa-Dantas, their ongoing project “Quell’usignolo che innamorato“: The Resurgence of an Artificial and Deeply Plural Voice, as well as the filmic fairytale La Mue, built around her artistic research residency at Ircam.
This seminar can be followed on our YouTube channel, on the 26 th of January, at noon: https://youtu.be/FHoBEPBuSP8
You can listen it at the MEDIA website: https://medias.ircam.fr/xbb84b9_quellusignolo-che-innamorato-la-res
Abstract:
Drawing on advancements in vocal signal processing and deep learning, we wish to recreate a song that the Italian castrato Farinelli performed every night for King Philip V of Spain to alleviate his melancholy. At the intersection of the voice of a child, a woman and an adult man, our recreation of Farinelli’s voice is based on the voice of singers at different ages and tessitura. The aim is to develop methods to produce a hybrid chant, incorporating the specificities of each voice from external control parameters, or automatically, depending on the pitch sung.
In parallel, taking the shape of a fairytale, La Mue sets up an intergenerational dialogue between my grandmother, aged 93, and three singers participating in the recreation of Farinelli's chant. By shifting a scientific experiment into a fantasy world, this film, produced in collaboration with Ircam-STMS and the Centre Pompidou, explores transformations experienced throughout life, and the use of technology in coping with human finitude.