A co-production of the National Film Board of Canada and Quebec City
What do your senses tell you about the world around you?
Ce qui brille dans le noir at the new Gabrielle-Roy Library in Quebec City invites you to explore the relationship between our senses and knowledge via four immersive sound installations. In the very first seconds of this intimate sensory experience, you encounter Humaine, who takes you on a contemplative auditory journey in four stages, each stop focusing, respectively, on the senses of touch and proprioception, sight, taste and smell, and hearing.
Composed of fragments of literary texts by more than 40 Quebec authors, the experience features the voices of Kim Thuy, Bruno Blanchet, Stanley Péan, Xavier Dolan and Anne Dorval, as well as an anthropologist, a seven-year-old child, a blind person and a singer. Activated by the visitor’s presence, each station creates an enveloping bubble that encourages reflection. They all share in firing up the imagination and shaping the quest that emerges through these immersive and playful environments.
What do your senses tell you about the world around you?
Ce qui brille dans le noir at the new Gabrielle-Roy Library in Quebec City invites you to explore the relationship between our senses and knowledge via four immersive sound installations. In the very first seconds of this intimate sensory experience, you encounter Humaine, who beckons you to plunge into its imagination and share its sentient experience of the world. With humour and lucidity, this candid, insightful voice takes you on a contemplative auditory journey in four stages, each stop focusing, respectively, on the senses of touch and proprioception, sight, taste and smell, and hearing.
Multiple voices are added to Humaine’s and heard in turn—those of Kim Thuy, Bruno Blanchet, Stanley Péan, Xavier Dolan and Anne Dorval, as well as an anthropologist, a seven-year-old child, a blind person and a singer. Composed of fragments of literary texts by more than 40 Quebec authors, including Dany Laferrière, Naomi Fontaine, Jay Jay, Marie Hélène Poitras and Anne-Marie Olivier, the experience tackles an array of topics, such as seduction, migration, night, food, solidarity, music, silence and death. Each station is activated by the visitor’s presence, creating a bubble that envelops you and encourages you to reflect. Accompanied by the music of Tire Le Coyote, they all join in firing up the imagination and shaping the quest that emerges through these immersive and playful environments.
For the past 15 years, artist Ariane Plante has been pondering our relationship to living things and the environment. Mixing the real and the imaginary, her approach is driven by sound but also integrates the languages of writing, photography, digital devices and video. The universe she creates here suggests a fragmented polyphonic narrative that mirrors her predilection for non-linear forms of storytelling.
Composed of four installations designed by the Bourgeois/Lechasseur architectural firm, this tour is geared toward the general public, ushering visitors through the three floors of the Gabrielle-Roy Library in Quebec City. Resembling the shape of a lantern, the installation’s wooden structures are embellished with original works by illustrator Paul Bordeleau that appear as anamorphic images. Inside, speakers and vibration transducers are activated when a visitor enters, creating an immersive bubble. At the same time, the lighting glows to the rhythm of the emanating sound content. Lasting from 2 to 15 minutes, each experience is randomly generated and changes with every visit. The links between our senses and knowledge are woven into the experience through ramification and idea association, much like human thought.
Creator
Ariane Plante
Technological Design
Tobie Horswill
Architectural Design
Bourgeois / Lechasseur architectes
Music Design
Tire le coyote
Sound Design, Editing and Sound Mix
Thierry Gauthier
Ariane Plante
Illustrations
Paul Bordeleau
Musician
Marc-André Landry
Installation Technical Artists
Quatro Design
Set Director
Benoit Rousseau
Voice Recordings
Geoffrey Mitchell
Luc Léger
Research
Geneviève Venne
Fadwa Lapierre
Writing Consultants
Mélissa Verreault
Pascale Renaud-Hébert
Original Texts
Ariane Plante
Mélissa Verreault
Bruno Blanchet
Jay Jay
Stanley Péan
Natalie Fontalvo
Leading Voices
Marie-Josée Bastien
Xavier Dolan
Anne Dorval
Olivier Gervais-Courchesne
Marie Gignac
Christian Laveau
Secondary Voices
Bruno Blanchet
Nathalie Fontalvo
Jay Jay
Stanley Péan
Ariane Plante
Benoit Rousseau
Adelle Tarzibachi
Kim Thúy
Literary Excerpts
BEAUCHEMIN, Jean-François. Archives de la joie: petit traité de métaphysique animale, Les éditions Québec-Amérique, 2018
BELL, Vanessa et autres. “Liste des choses qui restent,” Prendre pays, Éditions du Quartz, 2021
BIRON, Charlotte. Jardin radio, Le Quartanier, 2022
BOUCHARD, Serge. La prière de l’épinette noire, Les Éditions du Boréal, 2022
BOURNEUF, Roland. L’usage des sens, Les heures bleues, 2004
DAIGLE, France, et al. S’appartenir(e), Atelier 10, 2015
CÔTÉ, Véronique. La vie habitable, Atelier 10, 2014
DÉSY, Jean. Non je ne mourrai pas, Mémoire d’encrier, 2021
DUPRÉ, Louise, and YOUNSI, Ouanessa. Nous ne sommes pas des fées, Mémoire d’encrier, 2022
EDDIE, Christine. Les carnets de Douglas, Éditions Alto, 2009
ÉMOND, Eugénie. Savoir-faire, Beside Média et les Éditions Cardinal, 2022
FERLAND, Catherine. 27 faits curieux sur la mort, d’hier à aujourd’hui, Les heures bleues, 2022
FONTAINE, Naomi. Shuni, Mémoire d’encrier, 2019
FOREST, Isabelle. Ne plus planter de ciseaux dans ton cri, Le lézard amoureux, 2019
FORGUES, Valérie. Radiale, Le lézard amoureux, 2021
FORTIER, Dominique. Les ombres blanches, Éditions Alto, 2022
FOUCHER, Carolanne. Deux et demie, Les éditions de ta mère, 2020
GAGNÉ, Mireille. Bois de fer, Éditions La Peuplade, 2022
GILBERT, Bernard. Les singes bariolés ou le déclin de l’espèce humaine, Les éditions Québec-Amérique, 2021
HOTTE, Sylvain. Aréna 3: Échappée, Les Intouchables, 2010
JEAN, Natalie. Le goût des pensées sauvages, Leméac Éditeur, 2020
JEAN, Michel. Kukum, Les éditions Libre Expression, 2019
LAFERRIÈRE, Dany. L’exil vaut le voyage, Les Éditions du Boréal, 2020
MCCOY, Kevin. “Fantômes,” Norge, Les éditions de L’instant même, 2016
MORENCY, Pierre. Lumière des oiseaux, Les Éditions du Boréal, 1992
NAVARRO, Pascale. La menthe et le cumin, Leméac Éditeur, 2020
OLIVIER, Anne-Marie. Faire l’amour, Atelier 10, 2014
PICARD-SIOUI, Louis-Karl. Yawendara et la forêt des Têtes-Coupées, Éditions Hannenorak, 2022
POITRAS, Marie Hélène. La désidérata, Éditions Alto, 2021
SAGALANE, Charles. 68 Cabinet de curiosités, Éditions La Peuplade, 2009
TAGAQ, Tanya. Croc fendu, Éditions Alto, 2020 (French version of Split Tooth, Penguin Random House Canada, 2018)
TARZIBACHI, Adelle. Les filles fattoush: la cuisine syrienne, une cuisine de cœur, KO Éditions, 2023
THÚY, Kim. Vi, Les éditions Libre Expression, 2016
TURCOTTE, Anaël. Une sorte de renaissance, Les éditions Triptyque
VADNAIS, Christiane. “Incisivus,” Faunes, Éditions Alto, 2019
WATT-CLOUTIER, Sheila. Le droit au froid, Les Éditions Écosociété, 2019
NFB INTERACTIVE STUDIO
Executive Producer
Louis-Richard Tremblay
Line Producer
Laurence Dolbec
Senior Production Coordinators
Stéphanie Quevillon
Isabelle Limoges
Administrators
Camila Blos
Marie-Andrée Bonneau
Interactive Media Coordinator
Caroline Fournier
Senior Production Coordinator – Administration
Evelyne Cortes Oquendo
Legal Services
Christian Pitchen
Julie Patry
Marketing Director
Johanna Lessard
Marketing Manager
Laurianne Désormiers
Marketing Coordinator
Julie Fortin
WITH THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE INTERACTIVE STUDIO TEAM
Marie-Ève Babineau, Luc Binette, Marianne Bourdages, Isabelle Gatti, Marie-Pier Gauthier, Isabelle Repelin and Martin Viau
COLLABORATORS
Avatar, centre d’art audio et électronique
Mathieu Carpentier
Guillaume Côté
Louis Larouche
Samuel Sérandour
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Marc-André Bellavance
Erica Bisesi
Alain Cuerrier
Alexandra de Turris
Luana Estevao
Alexandre Faille
Florence François
Ian Gailer
Zoé Gagnon-Paquin
Pénélope Horswill
Xavier Kronström Richard
Catherine Lepage
Andrée Levesque Sioui
Johanne Lévesque
Maxime Lizotte
Nicolas Lieu Binh Chau
Jocelyn Maclure
Vincent Paquette
Julien Riel-Salvatore
Simon Rivest
Mathieu Savard
Lise Tanguay
Christiane Vadnais
Véronique Vézina
Théâtre Périscope
© 2023 City of Quebec and National Film Board of Canada co-production.