Benoît Maubrey was born in 1952 in Washington, D.C. and graduated with a B.A. from Georgetown University in 1975. Numerous exhibitions and group installations, e.g. 1984 at "Art and Media", Staatliche Kunsthalle Berlin; 1986 at ARTCOM, Cologne; 1988 at "Art in the Container", Freiburg. He has participated in numerous performances and festivals, e.g. 1988 at "Parcours Sonores", La Villette, Paris; 1989 "Guitar Monkeys Tour" to Berlin, Nuremberg, Amsterdam, Cologne, Paris; 1990 at the "Urbane Aboriginale" Festival in Berlin.

The two basic elements in my mobile sculptures are human bodies and sound. These are in themselves not unusual materials. The art I make is not 'high-tech', it's normal: my tools are cheap and commonplace. Most of the electronics I use can be found inside the toys that litter the floor of most seven-year-old children's playrooms This is a mobile sound environment project consisting of 'Audio Ballerinas' wearing electro-acoustic skirts. This performance series was created on commission for the festival 'Les Arts au Soleil' (the 'Arts in the Sun') in summer of 1990 for the Lille-Pas-de-Calais area of France.

The female performers wear 'Audio Tutus' that are equipped with digital memories and looping devices (essentially mini-samplers) that enable them to interact directly with their environment by recording live sounds and then processing and amplifying them. In addition to being able to digitally record musical instruments or voices in their proximity, they are also equipped with radio receivers, contact microphones, amplifiers and light sensors that enable them to produce, mix, and multiply their own sounds and compose them as a multi-acoustic and environmental concert.

Technical Background

HW: Digital Memories