Artist Statement

NeverEndingStories is structured as a looped animation leading us deeper and deeper in the euphoria of communication. The animation begins with a Mickey Mouse head whose ears alternately can be changed (by pressing the computer keys) from spheres to globes, hearts, money signs, atom cells, record players and yin yang symbols. Culled from an encyclopedic array of globally recognizable symbols NeverEndingStories continues by displaying a world map on which rain a shower of angels, bombs, guns, ears, candy, eagles, shopping carts, clocks, machine wheels, bugs, ringing telephones, ticking clocks, waggling fingers, pigs, skulls with heart shaped eyes, analysis charts and more. The work allows for both directional and optional interaction, making it a dynamic tool comparable to a software application. The keyboard-driven trajectory allows one to replace scenes and choose one fragment after another, resulting in a linear deployment of interlinked events that develop semantic connections as well. The interactive keyboard provides for a choice of ingredients, an extensive vocabulary from which it is possible to produce many combinations. Consulting the work resembles “mixing”, the computer becoming a kind of musical instrument or assembly device, putting the visitor in the position of a “processor, ” the operator of a machine.

• Valerie Lamontagne, Sylvie Parent & Yan Breuleux completed his collegiate and university studies in visual arts to then dedicate his artistic production to video and electronic arts. Over the last few years, he has produced several videos and performances mixing music and images done in collaboration with artists, composers and performers. Notable is his musical video series Noise, A-LC Light, Clima(x) produced in collaboration with composer Alaln Thibault Within the context of the A-B-C Light project, he was invited as artist in residence at the Center for New Media at the Canadian Cultural Center in Paris. This pmject also received an honorable mention at Prix Ars Electronics 1998 (Austria) and a nomination in the category of best video of the year at the Rendez-vous du cine’ma que’be’cois 1999 (Montreal). In 2000, Yan Breuleux was invited to present A-Live at the Transmediale Festival in Berlin. His latest project entitled Faustechnology, also in collaboration with Alain Thibault, was presented at the ELEKTRA Festival 2001 in Montreal. Yan Breuleux also participated in the Sonic Acts Festival in Amsterdam. His last installation was presented at the New Museum of New York within the context of the Quebec New York 2001 event.