Art you can touch is on display at this gallery. We promise

Most art galleries strictly follow the rule of look, but don’t touch.

A new exhibition at Kelowna’s Alternator Gallery turns that completely on its head.

‘The Noisebau’ is a sculpture/sound project by artistic duo David Gifford and Natali Leduc under the name Puppets Forsaken.

Inspired by the ‘Intonarumori’ of Futurist Luigi Russolo, author of the manifesto Art of Noises (1913), they built some acoustic noise generators first called ‘Nostalgia for Futurism’ that they used for live performances.

These machines contrasted our digital age and alluded to the mechanical. They produce sounds reminiscent of factories, gears, and machines.

While they had a terrific experience building their noise generators and playing them in public, Puppets Forsaken felt that the audience was missing a big part of the experience, since they could only listen, and not play the instruments.

“The Noisebau is more or less a hybrid between the two [projects], and even if we are breathing in the air that has already been breathed in by others, it gave us a solid base to build from,” Gifford told Kelowna10. “The premise was to make an instrument where the walls resonate the sounds, and the participants would be enveloped in the instrument itself.”

When visitors produce sounds emanating from ‘The Noisebau’, these become an extension of the participant, who has a certain control over their rhythm, pitch, and intensity.

By building an immersive installation, they wanted the audience to feel they are part of the work.

Being inside the noise generators is not meant as an act of transgression by the designers, or to aggravate or cause discomfort.

Rather, it is for the audience to pause and reflect on those noises that are usually forgotten in the background.

Producing the sound themselves, the visitors will feel the noises at a more personal and visceral level.

“There is a topic called Acousmatics and it is a phenomenon that was apparent at the inception of recorded voice and music, which is mostly lost to us now, where the cause and the effect of sound has become disconnected through a device,” Gifford explained.

“It is like listening to a record when the musicians are long gone. This is our attempt to re-evoke that sensation.”

Beside being experimental with acoustic noise, Puppets Forsaken’s projects are imbibed with their deep love for trees and their positive impact on the planet.

Wanting to pay homage to old growth trees that fell to humans, the duo decided to serenade them with their noise generators.

In this spirit, they did two concerts and two videos in a clear-cut area meant solely for trees that are no longer there, with no humans invited to these concerts.

“The gesture of performing for trees that are no longer there possesses the tambour of emptiness through the non-presence of an audience,” Gifford said. “These performances came on the heels of the protest and occupation that held ground for a time at Fairy Creek in Pacheedaht territory on Vancouver Island. Our voice on this topic is also silent as we are not declaring a position, or lay blame to a particular assailant because in some ways we are all culpable.”

Puppets Forsaken are currently working on a new instrument, called Knock-Knock, that mimics sounds of endangered species.

Their exhibition ‘The Noisebau’ will be on view in the Main Gallery of the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art until March 2, 2024.