Danse, pouacre & Çavachute

13 June - 11 August 2011

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Installations by Véronika Usova

Mixing humour and information feeds, Véronika introduces two facetious installations: the world news shake a poor puppet and twitter messages make up a generic landscape where the most important is saved, all is going well...

Véronika Usova presents her works in a "showcase", a micro-exhibition allowing everyone to discover it during our events and workshops. Who knows, perhaps inspiring new vocations?

Graduated from the Digital Arts section of the École de Recherche Graphique (ERG/ESA), Brussels, Véronika has a background in animation and a certain taste for amusing details of everyday life.

Danse, pouacre

"Avec les doigts d'un pendu déjà vert
Le drôle agace une guitare
Et danse sur l'avenir grand ouvert
D'un air d'élasticité rare."
Un pouacre, Paul Verlaine

"He used to dance the farandole, the fling, the brawl, the jig, the fandango and even the hornpipe. He capered. For joy. Now that's the best he can do. Do you know what he calls it?"
Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett

Left, left, left, right, left. The strings are stretching and leading a puppet in a pathetic dance. Dance, Dance, misery!

Google News dictates his movements. The motors execute them. The puppet suffers them. Unless it is vice versa.

This piece is based on the Arduino platform that controls six 3,5/5V motors. It communicates with a Processing program that reads news feeds. Each puppet's limb is associated with a keyword.

Çavachute

"Çavachute" is an essential tool to fight against seasonal or others, more or less acute, nervous breakdowns. Its use is quite simple and is particularly indicated after viewing the TV news.

Developed in Processing, "Cavachute" connects to Google Blogs and Twitter's feeds and allow us to follow live posts mentioning "ça va" ("it's ok").