GOBO GOBO HEY! an exhibition by Cécile Babiole

Between low and high tech, analogue and digital, obsolete and new media
Opening: 19 April, 18:00-22:00, Brussels


Cécile Babiole, first artist in residency at iMAL FabLab, proposes a visual and luminous installation revealing the confrontation between the digital and the physical. Her Miniatures, small-scale musical instruments directly produced by 3D printers, will immerse you in the sounds of popular culture.

The installation ‘Gobo gobo hey!’ presents a variation on the gobo concept. A gobo is a lighting technique consisting of “a physical template slotted inside, or placed in front of, a lighting source, used to control the shape of emitted light” (see Wikipedia). Starting from this concept, Cécile Babiole proposes to make gobos in plexiglas by means of a laser cutter and to place them in front of a set of slide projectors that shine through them.

The large-scale projection system reveals the roughness of the fabrication process: it appears clearly that the laser beam heats up, deforms, burns, melts and blackens the plastic material. Depending on the speed of the beam, the material is brushed or pierced. The visual result looks more like handwriting with the downstrokes and upstrokes of a quill, or even like spray paint graffiti, than like a product of a machine from the digital era.

The engraved patterns are inspired by the music world. They are graphic representations of sounds, score elements, graphic notation, wave forms, all revealed by the luminous vibration that passes through them.

The title is a wink at the punk culture from the 70s and expresses the aggressive nature of the machine (‘Gabba Gabba Hey!’ is a catchphrase associated with the Ramones, the first American punk rock band).

More on : http://www.imal.org