nicolas clauss - bio - artist statement - website

turbulence.org

White Vibes

11-2003



interactive sound "paintings"; a series of prints; pixel as texture; a nod to the CD-rom "Alphabet" which showed me the digital way. Four years after dropping the brushes, a virtual comeback to painting.

Heritage

08-2003



with Jean-Jacques Birgé, sound

"We cannot hope to only leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a loving parent." -George Bush, Sr.

Quotes and TV images of George Bush--father and son--put together in what could be described as the Bush psychoanalytic nightmare.

A sarcastic look at a heritage story which poses questions about the world we are leaving to our children.

Three Studies

07-2003



3 video studies about chance and destiny that show a couple
making soap bubbles in the sky.

Formal research on video loops and associated random sounds (mostly recorded from an accoustic guitar).


Jumeau Bar

01-2003




with Jean-Jaques Birgé, sound

An interactive rural short taking place at the Jumeaubar in the French countryside. Two friends are having coffee and liquor. The user, by moving the mouse on and off the stage or by clicking, changes the direction of the movie which in turn, changes the sounds. Sounds and music give a humoristic and nostalgic touch to the scenes.
Scalpel

01-2003



video portrait of a friend who once faced a serious illness.

a mixture of biographical elements and pictures (including a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci) showing us what we are made of.
Le Cri
the Scream
12-2002




Interactive painting based on "the Scream" by Edvard Munch and after Francis Bacon; uses video and radio samples, and music by Stockhausen (that you can stretch by clicking).

Research on video layers texture about primal scream and crazyness.
Les dormeurs
the Sleepers
09-2002




a short work about World War 1 inspired by Arthur Rimbaud's poem: "The Sleeper of the Valley" (Le Dormeur du Val) and based on archived pictures from 1917.

"A young soldier, open-mouthed, bare-headed, his neck bathed in cool blue cresses, sleeps; he is stretched out on the grass, under the sky, pale on his green bed where the light falls like rain."
--Arthur Rimbaud.
On day on the air

07-2002



This piece consists of 16 radiophonic bits which were recorded on Monday, July 8, 2002 from 4 to 5 p.m., online. The user navigates --by using the mouse--in what could be described as a photograph of the French radiophonic landscape at a particular moment.

Sound loops are arranged with respect to one another in order to question this landscape and find new interpretations of the original broadcast as they are manipulated by the site visitor. It's up to the user to create their own interpretation of this potentially iconoclastic material, which consists of news (the Tour de France, the stock market…), testimonials, and advertising.

Biography

Born in 1968, Clauss is a self-taught artist who stopped (provisionally) painting in 2000 to work on computer.

He has a master's degree in experimental and social psychology (1993) and a bachelor's degree in arts and picture technologies (ATI, 2000). Beginning in 1989, Clauss has exhibited his paintings in solo shows (Galerie Arnoux in Paris, Centre Culturel Français in Seoul and Seoul International Art Fair in Korea, Crawford Gallery, Beatty Gallery and Sidney Art Theater in Australia for instance), and collectively.

Clauss is co-founder of the site "lecielestbleu" that he left to create his own space, flyingpuppet.com, in 2001.
There he has conceived and realized over 50 on-line interactive pieces, often collaborating with musicians (Jean-Jacques Birgé mostly, but also François Baxas, Denis Colin, Patricia Dallio, Pascale Labbé, Thomas Le Saulnier, Jean Morières, Hervé Zénouda, Didier Petit).

Passionately fond of contemporary dance, he was nominated at the Möbius 2001 for the "Danse !" project (DadaMedia) and he created "Soaring Steps" for BBC-On-line, and "DeepSea" and "Temptation" for Diesel clothes. During an artist residency at the ECM des Mureaux, following statements of immigrants, he realized the online project "Five elsewhere"; and, more recently, J'ai10ans (I am 10) with the ECM of les Ulis about multicultural issues with kids between 8 to 12. Clauss has worked on several projects with children and teenagers, as well as pedagogical interventions around his work and conferences-performances (Centre Pompidou, Numer, Cité du Livre, ECM, Le Cube...). In 2003 he returned to dance with the online choreographic project somnambules (somnambules.net) with Jean-Jacques Birge and Didier Silhol. Recently he and Birge performed live in concert.

Clauss received the Centre Pompidou Flash Festival 2002 Special Award (Show: Interactive Dance), the SCAM Award of the Best Internet Site 2001-2002 for LeCielEstBleu, a Net-Art Award at La Villette Numérique 2002, and the Special Jury Prize at the Seoul Film and Net Festival 2003 (SENEF) for somnambules.

His work has been shown in many art exhibitions, festivals and online events all over the world.
for further information please check here and visit the websites :

flying puppet
somnambules
j'ai 10 ans (in french only)
five elsewhere

 




Artist's statement


My work on computer is a recent story starting 4 years ago. It is the story of someone working on paintings made out of texture and found objects or photographs who felt, after 12 years of painting, that he needed more to express himself. Computer technology brought me the chance to go further in my work and to make some digital interactive paintings (tableaux interactifs in French) dealing with videos, sounds, user's gesture, time and narratives.

What I'm seeking in Art is a way to express or feel a depth going beyond words and concepts, a depth into ourselves, a deeper layer which link human beings across space and time. I try to express something close to what I can feel in many places like traditional Korean music, diaphonic (throat) singing, a bow on a cello string in a free jazz concert, a rotten wall in a street, founds objects, a child laugh, an old person face or any evidence of (the struggle of) life.