THE SNORKS: A CONCERT FOR CREATURES
Loris Greaud’s long-term project and film, The Snorks: a concert for creatures, is the conception of an urban legend and a hallucinatory epic inspired by the discovery of a mysterious land, the world of the abyss.
The Snorks has been thought of as a spatiotemporal capsule in which the possibility of “alien communication” is constantly hatched and replayed. This concept is driven by the abstract hip-hop of iconic group, Anti-Pop Consortium; the extreme explorations of the Antares deep-sea station; research by MIT Sea Grant College and the experimental pyrotechnics of group F. For almost 36 months, the Snorks phenomenon has travelled all over the world, from Abu Dhabi to Paris via Los Angeles, Boston, New York and even Hawaii. It has been through the air, across the ocean and underwater, and in its wake it has brought on board a plethora of experts, authors, artists and other collaborators who are all endeavoring to meet the project’s demands and obsessions.
Today the depths of the deep sea remain a foreign space, in which recent discoveries literally call mankind’s acquired knowledge into question. Deep-sea creatures appear to behave peculiarly, adopting mystifying ways of life. The latest scientific observations have brought to light an astounding communication system: bioluminescence. Phytoplankton and other creatures use bioluminescence for various reasons, producing gigantic “clouds of light” that are visible from outer space. Moreover, scientists claim that bioluminescence is the most widespread form of communication on earth.
It is when faced with these obscure and almost unfathomable spaces that fascination thrives, and with it comes a growing desire to expose and recreate this curious communication system above sea level. Having seen the first images released by sub-aquatic exploration systems, researchers agree to begin talks on “deep-sea fireworks”. The aim is to achieve “equivalence” between the deep-sea phenomenon and its potential reproduction in the immensity of the open sky. The idea to recreate the luminous activity of phytoplankton and other bioluminescent creatures through a pyrotechnic experience develops independently, and the concept of these obscure spaces thereby resurfaces as a backward story of the exploration of the universe. The planned fireworks in Abu Dhabi then explode onto the giant screens of Times Square, and the artificial lights act as an electric representation of bioluminescence. The largest communication interface on earth is thereby receiving the most widespread communication phenomenon on earth – albeit unknown to human beings.
Utopia develops within the real, and the illusion of “intraterrestrial” communication materializes as a concert specifically for deep-sea creatures. By responding through their own alternative and luminous communication system, these life forms are both sensitive and reactive to sound frequencies. Anti-Pop Consortium is invited to compose music exclusively for the deep-sea creatures through an innovative concert format, which will serve as the film’s original soundtrack. The music will be broadcast via probes, submarines and other sub-aquatic stations between -3500 and -5000 metros below sea level, to the real terra incognito.
Today this sequence of events, performances and other attempts at achieving equivalence are coming together as fiction documenting reality. Between the technical and nebulous information conveyed through David Lynch’s narrative and his digressions in search of a story to tell, the film unfolds at the pace of the author’s thoughts, like so many stray ideas and continually developing stories. The Snorks is therefore a protean and erratic film, which cannot be classified by any existing formats. It is a project that has lost all notions of centre, margin or destination; a genuine machine in constant production that is essentially a reality reflecting a story.
PROCESS
MAKING OF PART 01
MEETING WITH M.I.T/BOSTON
MEETING WITH ANTARES
ART BASEL/BASEL
PALAZZO GRASSI/VENISE
ATELIER SEVRES/PARIS
