Les Sculptures Sonores—The Sound Sculptures of Bernard and François Baschet by François Baschet (review)

336 Leonardo Reviews sciousness in the context of three simple aspects: 1. Models, which deals with issues of perception and cognition, especially virtual reality. Of particular interest is “The Actualisation of the Virtual” by Mike Palmer. “Our memories, real but virtual in nature,” he says, “only become actualised through perception. But it is memory that borrows from perception . The intellect’s attempt to retrieve memory is futile, existing as it does in another realm.” 2. Memory, which explores issues related to the construction, storage and retrieval of memory. Bruce Brown makes the point, in “Memory Maps and the Nazca,” that Cyber Space is really Psychic Space, the inner landscape of biological memory made visible by technology and globalisation. And tomorrow’s cultures will constitute groups of individuals who, though they have no geographical coherence, will each share a collective memory defined by the electronic frontiers of their shared digital landscapes. 3. Transcendence takes an in-depth look at aspects of culture and religion in cyberspace and also delves into various hypotheses of paranormal perception. The second section of the book, Body, discusses space, time and the post-biological body, exploring notions pertaining to man-made beauty in films using computer graphics. As Naoko Tosa and Ryohei Nakatasu discuss this subject in “Recreating Ourselves”: “If we move from the era of machines to the era of images, it can be said that we will bring forth a new world of consciousness deeply related to imagination. This will generate a new consciousness for humans that communicates with machines.” Art, the third section, introduces the reader to the new strategies emerging in art and architecture. While providing stimulating perspectives on the role of technology and interactive art, this section opens our eyes to the aesthetic value of technology-aided art by presenting a superb array of projects (a VRML poem, Xmantic Web design). The section also deals well with the creative process and its transformation in the context of technology and consciousness . Finally, the fourth section, Values, examines the important role of values and ethics as a part of the triad art—technology —consciousness. To what extent can technology be applied to promoting an individual and collective sense of identity? According to Anna Jean Bonshek and Gurden Leete, in “Future Present: Reaestheticising Life through a New Technology of Consciousness”: “By activating the universal level of pure consciousness through the appropriate technology anything can be changed, transformed, reaestheticised; visual culture can begin to represent the underpinnings of culture.” While it is common for the layperson to shy away from the world of the artist for want of “sense and sensibility” in that realm, Reframing Consciousness, despite its multidisciplinary and multicultural offerings, ensures that the content is within everyone’s grasp, with its easy language and superb visuals. It is definitely an immersive experience. LES SCULPTURES SONORES—THE SOUND SCULPTURES OF BERNARD AND FRANÇOIS BASCHET by François Baschet. Soundworld Publishers , 1999. 153 pp., includes CD. ISBN: 1-902440-02-1. Reviewed by Rahma Khazam, 3 Rue Poliveau, 75005, Paris, France. E-mail: . The early 1950s was an exciting time for music. In Paris and Cologne, the pioneers of musique concrète and electronic music were using the tape recorder and sine-wave generator to produce new timbres and sounds far beyond the range of traditional instruments . Meanwhile, a short distance from Pierre Schaeffer’s studio in Paris, the Baschet brothers were also investigating new sound palettes, but with instruments of a very different kind. Their purely acoustic constructions created a wide range of sensuous, organic textures, which were a far cry from the lifeless, unnatural sounds produced by early electronic devices. The Baschet brothers’ sound sculptures went on to tour the world during their heyday in the 1960s and 1970s in a series of exhibitions and performances that took them from the New York Museum of Modern Art to the 1970 Osaka World’s Fair. Today, however, they have been relegated to the sidelines, victims of the proliferation of electronic instruments. Les Sculptures Sonores provides a detailed account of the history of these fascinating instruments. Written by one of the brothers, François, it consists of three books, two of which contain, for...