Messenger

Messenger, a diptych by the Rennes-based artist Flavien Théry, invites us to listen to the sound rendering of the “discs” that form the celestial planispheres of the northern and southern hemispheres, in order to access the musical message sent to us by the universe. 

The discs are read arbitrarily as they rotate: the stars (embodied by magnets) are detected when they pass under a magnetic sensor arm that transmits the sound data to an analogue synthesiser whose height is linked to the position of the magnets on the radius of the disk. The settings of this synthesiser can be adjusted, allowing infinite variations, so that the sound “message” is interpreted differently each time. A quest for meaning that gives rise to a multiplicity of possible interpretations, in the same way that cosmogonies(theories explaining the formation of the universe) coexist, offering various definitions of the constellations according to the time and culture.