Bas-Relief

“Bas-Relief” is an interactive sound art piece for mixed media. It reflects on the silenced bells of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The piece consists of eleven tracks that become spatialized based on the audience’s movements. Each audience member is asked to scan a QR code whose HTML target randomly redirects to one of the tracks. Individually, each track is unrecognizable as a bell. However, collectively, they fit together like a sonic jigsaw puzzle to reveal a processed field recording of the full ten-bell plenum of Notre-Dame de Paris.

The title comes from the sculpture technique used by French artist Virginie Bassetti to decorate the outside of each bell.

The premiere of “Bas-Relief” took place in Paris on Mar 6, 2022.