Collectif Scale
Worldwide famous, Multigenerational, and Collective, French new media art group
Collectif Scale
16 years ago, behind Collectif Scale was a group of passionate friends who wanted to do something unique by mixing their expertise together.
Today, Scale has grown and is multigenerational, its work is exhibited all around the world but the collective is still attached to the DIY and homemade culture.
The members do not consider themselves individual artists, but they rather aim to produce new media art installations, by taking inspiration from sciences, the realm of contemporary art, as well as from mainstream and pop culture, all under the same, collective name.
Together, they question the links between music and visuals, light and architecture, entertainment and art, nature and future, man and machine.
Over the years and creations for stages or exhibitions, Scale has developed its own language to create sensory, narrative, playful works with a strong focus on innovation, which are accessible to as wide an audience as possible.
Artworks
Flux
Over the past 4 years, Flux has been highly demanded, traveling the world and appearing on music stages and artistic events.
Its mutant, innovative and modular form has made it an undisputed success since its creation.
The formal multiplication of the luminous lines associated with a precise motor control lets Scale plays with subtle variations of phases, speeds and amplitudes to sculpt an organic object.
Adaptable to its environment, Flux redesigns its surroundings and offers an unique, playful and frenetic show in which the choreography intimately dialogues with the music.
Ammonite
Created in 2017, Ammonite is one of the collective’s most iconic works, achieving overwhelming success over the past six years. Though Scale have previously produced similar creations, this is still considered to be one of their main works, in great part due to its modularity and attractive visual form. Thus far, Ammonite is Scale's most-shown installation worldwide.
Composed of 112 repeated lines of light, its organic design is precise and balanced. Since its creation, Ammonite has taken varying forms, but Scale has been working to ensure that, although perfectly still, it gives the illusion of being a dynamic object.
In addition to the powerful design, light plays a major part in the show’s narration with the precise visual transcription. The object comes to life and spectators have the opportunity to contemplate an emerging poetry.
Hulahoop
Though built on the same techno-logical base as Flux, Hulahoop offers us a very different kinetic show. The eye of the spectator is aligned with the line forged by the installation. Scale aims to make us forget the presence of technology, to give us a look at a raw and sensitive work.
Hulahoop moves in a mesmerizing and hypnotizing ballet of lights. We witness a series of geometric patterns orchestrated to the music. The softness of the score is reflected in the lightness of the movements, which flow in harmony with the sound waves, as the material dances to form a poetic and aerial waltz. Hulahoop is maybe the most poetic installation by collectif Scale
Toron
Toron is a luminous structure. Suspended, its design looks like a DNA strand. It is described by the circular repetition of 24 identical pieces of wood 3m high, each of them being broken down into 3 sub-parts of 1 m. The height of the installation is approximately 6 m (7 m including the suspension). In the pieces of wood are integrated strip leds. The animation of the light is programmable in real time and interactive. Toron is imagined as a permanent or semi-permanent installation.
Figures
Figures is the latest installation produced by the collective, which reinvents itself using wood as a primary material. Figures is a succession of 48 wooden slabs laid in an unbalanced fashion. This tenuous controlled balance gives an impression of movement and even lightness to the overall design.
The light augments the installation and blurs the perception. A delicate and violent narration emerges, raised by the dialogue between light and music. The show is as intimate than it is exuberant.
Playground
Created in 2015, Playground was one of the collective’s most important installations. Sadly lost during a flood, Scale chose to reproduce the work as a new version.
Playground 3 is a real playground, both for spectators and for the collective. The installation mainly focuses on sound, with a wall of 33 automated percussion instruments. The obvious absence of a percussionist makes us question the role of the musician in an era of new technologies.
The spectator, probably a novice, but likely a creative, becomes the conductor of this robotic orchestra. At the controls, they initiate, put together, compose and play with rhythmic sequences that spread through the instruments.
As usual, Collectif Scale reflects on the link between sound and image, between music and light. With the intention of making the acoustic spatialization readable, each sound effect is synchronized with the triggering of a laser projection. The sound sequences become visual as light transposes sound.