OUT OF THE TECHNO-COCOON
OUT OF THE TECHNO-COCOON
AMÉLIE NILLES
Immersive live performance
Out of the Techno-Cocoon is a large upcoming project that brings together an immersive sound live performance, an audiovisual installation and a book. It questions our relationship as human beings with intrusive technology, on the one hand, and less accessible nature, on the other, by contrasting two distinctly different listening spaces: that of the metropolis and that of nature. The concept of the 'techno-cocoon' has been developed by French writer Alain Damasio: “The techno-cocoon is a comforting sphere that nurtures us and sometimes does us good. The techno-cocoon protects and shelters us, but its sphere also confines us. [...] I feel like we have slowly inserted ourselves into a kind of fibre-optic chrysalis and that we interact with the world mainly through smartphones, screens, and laptops.”
Amelie Nilles presents the first version of her project for V-F-X Ljubljana. She performs within a multichannel speaker system symbolizing the 'techno-cocoon', specially set up for the live performance. Organic textures, field recordings, vocals, and electronic rhythms converge to create a sonic landscape that yearns for the absent nature within urban environments. The audience is immersed within this ever-evolving environment, traversing from enchanting places to darker ones.
Organization: SCCA-Ljubljana and Kino Šiška. In collaboration with the French Institute in Slovenia.
Amelie Nilles is a French composer and spatial audio expert from Paris, drawing inspiration from her background in singing and drumming on the jazz music scenes. Explorer of experimental realms, she offers an aesthetic approach to spatialisation in her music. Under the guidance of composer Régis Renouard-Larivière, she honed her skills in electroacoustic composition, while simultaneously pursuing her Master's degree at Paris 8 University, delving into research exploring the spatial dimension of music. Constantly in the process of creating sound environments, she crafts captivating soundscapes weaving together her voice, field recordings, electronic textures, and organic rhythms. In November 2021, she unveiled her debut EP, A croqué le fruit étrange, with the Planisphère label, introducing listeners to her deeply personal and experimental universe, both dark and pop. Since then, she has performed live at various venues across Austria, France, Germany, and Greece and has designed multichannel sound installations, collaborating with diverse artists along the way. Among the themes dear to her, she challenges the intrusion of technology in every aspect of our lives without us ever questioning it. While we tend to forget that humans are living beings among others, she advocates for a re-humanization of society, in opposition to trans-humanism.