Luna Park (2011): An Aesthetics of Shock

Abstract

In 2011, Greek composer Georges Aperghis was commissioned by IRCAM to compose Luna Park, a key work in his output that deals with the themes of video-surveillance. Involving dance-like gestures, flutes, video projections, and motion sensors, the composer found a new path for artistic expression through multimedia. Georges Aperghis is one of the leading composers of Contemporary Music Theatre. Already well known for his a series of works composed for the Avignon Festival [Salzman, E., & Desi, T. (2008). The new music theatre: Seeing the voice, hearing the body. Oxford: Oxford University Press], he has built a multi-disciplinary practice, combining comedians, dancers, and instrumentalists within ambitious projects (Commentaires in 1996, Avis de Tempête and Machinations in 2000). Following the different stages of the creation and realisation of the piece, one is struck by a crucial fact: there is no score. We will demonstrate how Georges Aperghis created the work in a process of selection and combination, gradually arriving at the final structure. The visual dimensions of this work are particularly significant, including gestures that are amplified with the use of motion sensors. But how can we understand the structure of a piece where gestures can have as much as structural power than music? The aim of this paper is to analyse Luna Park using material in IRCAM’s archive: interviews, photos, films, as well as the software and hardware used in the performance. Invoking Benjamin’s concept of ‘schock’, the authors will show how these features convey a multi-layered and multi-modal aesthetic perception from the local to the global form. The essay is illustrated by a video of the performance, with dynamic meta-data highlighting these multi-layered aesthetic and semantic dimensions.