FIELD starts from the principle that sounds can be generated from the electromagnetic fields omnipresent in the environment. In this performance, residual electric signals, imperceptible to the eyes and ears, are picked up by electromagnetic transducer microphones and become the materials of the work. Even though they are intangible, they are subject to manipulation.

On stage, Martin Messier interacts with two aluminum panels with multiple patches whose inputs and outputs are interconnected. The sound and light composition emerges through a continuous movement of plugging and unplugging between the panels – the possibilities are endless. By his performative gestures, Martin improvises audiovisual configurations that are similar but never exactly the same. Variations between the ambient electromagnetic flow and the connections made by the artist generate an effect of fluctuation from one performance to the next – a fluctuation that constitutes the constant of the work.

With FIELD, Messier gives material form to this otherwise inaudible, invisible flow. He becomes the operator through whom the work is activated and brought into the real world. A veritable mimesis of electromagnetic current, the visual aspect can plunge the audience into a hypnotic state: the omnipresent imperceptible power that surrounds us is stripped of it mystery here and finally seems accessible to us.

FIELD speaks to the invisible forces around us: their ascendancy and their interdependence. Although they interact at an absolutely indiscernible level, they underlie our gestures and movements and carry us in a way. In this sense, the work and the artist arrive together at an exchange that determines the conditions of the visual and sound elements of the performance: blinding lightning and electricity conduction.

« show was like nothing that had even been seen before »
—Exclaim

« a virtuosic gesamtkunstwerk »
« Messier's stage presence is mesmerizing; he communicates abstracly but directly with his audience, without artifice. »
—vanclassicalmusic.com