Pummeling, high definition cubes & beats flying beyond Dionysian Dread: A response to ATOTAL Tura Presented ATOTAL by Franck Vigroux & Antoine Schmitt
Author Identifier (ORCID)
Research Statement
Research Background
What does the operatic concept of the “total art work” mean in the international world of digital arts today? Interrogating the banging avant-garde techno performance from France “ATOTAL” (by Vigroux & Schmitt), I conclude that many key concepts from historic korpermusique and industrial music were present in the performance, though it’s a moot point whether the political critique Vigroux intended was achieved.
Research Contribution
Although Vigroux himself allies his work to a dazzling array of theoetical conceits (“Laplace's demon … Heisenberg's uncertainties … Schödinger's quantum mechanics … Gödel's infinite incompleteness … a clinamen of Lucretius”; see attached media releases), I conclude Nietschian ideas of total art and the Dionysian (which are a constant feature of European techno music criticism; see for eg Phillipov in “Southern Review” 2006) are the best context within which to evaluate this work and its precedents.
Research Significance
This is the first detailed critical review of this internationally toured production, and hence the first attempt by anyone to respond to Vigroux’s own notes (of which there has been some acknowledgement in the press, but no critical engagement). The review builds on my previous publications (to which links are included) and references the major ideas and artists which Vigroux and Schmitt refer to, sketching in detail the cultural contexts and histories out of which their work emanates (again, previous coverage of this has been sketchy). The piece was commissioned by WA’s only major organisation dealing with digital musics and noise art, namely Tura New Music. The artist himself, Vigroux, who introduces his work by reference to a range of critical precedents cited above, responded that he was “impressed” with my treatment of these complex theoretical and aesthetic models and histories.
Non-Traditional Research Output
Original Creative Work
Document Type
Non-Traditional Research Output
Date of Publication
2024
Publisher
Tura New Music
School
Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts / School of Arts and Humanities / Centre for People, Place and Planet
RAS ID
71593
Event Dates
May 2023
Event Venue
Tura New Music website
Comments
Marshall, J.W. (2024). Pummeling, high definition cubes & beats flying beyond Dionysian Dread: A response to ATOTAL Tura Presented ATOTAL by Franck Vigroux & Antoine Schmitt. [critical scholarly review of international digital arts]. Tura New Music.