Alexandre Pépin has been playing classical music instruments since he was (15) years old where he went on to form his first band and performed his first public event. At (18) years old, he recorded his first album. He has recorded albums and toured with different musicians such as Canadian folk artist, Joseph Edgar, traveling all over the world for (9) years. He still works with the Queer rock band, "Samuele" and has accompanied them on tour since (2010) through Canada, France and Switzerland. The most recent recording was released in September (2023).

"Cereus" is a collaborative project that he shares with Dr. Juliana España Keller that explores acoustic ecologies of the Anthropocene.

Juliana España Keller, PhD is a Canadian/Swiss/British sound and performance artist engaged in radical entanglements with modular synthesis in sound art through speculative research. Juliana is interested in fluctuating sites with sensing subjects and tactile experimentation within participatory practices.

"capturing sound as a practice of sensing".

"we are in the world and the world is in us".

In her feminist new materialist practice, she uses simple electronic processes to observe different materialities of sound. She places electronic components which includes sensory stimuli in different situations of intra-action with the body. She experiments with organic materials, kitchen tools and appliances, and environmental stimuli. From these collisions, synthesized sounds emerge to create collaborative narrations or sonic recipes and observations that she observes as radical entanglements in the natural world.

Juliana's latest journal article published by Open Cultural Studies, DeGruyter Open Access Publishing Press. (2024).

Open Cultural Studies, Volume 8, Issue 1. Entering into a Sonic Intra-active Quantum Relation with Plant Life.

cereusnature

Activating a sonic relation by humans with non-human beings (plant life) as an electronic conduit with machines (electronic hardware) is a musical exploration in novel contrasts of communication. This work in progress explores the possibility of finding a creative critical stance towards non-human forms that surround us. Plants emit sound waves at relatively low frequencies of (50-120 Hz) as audio acoustic emissions and may embody an internal meridian system. Vibrating at this internal frequency, plants create sound matter quite possibly when in pain or suffering. This affective sound matter, which is not audible to human ears, can be heard by non-humans such as bats, mice, and other plant life too.

keywords: Acoustic Ecologies, Bioacoustics, Radical Affection, Environmental Humanities, Multi-Species, Speculative Inquiry, Symbiosis, Anthropocene, Posthumanism, The Biosphere.

"Le plateau des miroirs", PHI Foundation, Montréal, Quebec, Canada (2024).         

CEREUS are also pleased to announce our collaboration with San Diego based multi-media American artist, Jared Kuvent. Jared is an AI expert with over 20 years of experience in visual storytelling. With a background in working with prominent institutions such as Nickelodeon Animation Studio and the University of Melbourne, Australia, Jared has honed his skills in digital video production, photography, visual effects, animation, and 3D design.

In his first collaboration with CEREUS, Jared created a 20-minute AI-generated video that explores nature's evolution through the intricate lifecycle of plant life and the impact of environmental changes. This immersive generative AI video work was accompanied by the live sonic and spatial performance of CEREUS..

all AI generated video stills courtesy of ©Jared Kuvent 2024

immersive landscapes

The ability to listen to plants through technology or 'cybernetics' is to transcend the idea of an electronic signal as a transformative medium in art creation. The multi-channel audio system reveals sonically a plants inner life through a plant's ability to transmit electromagnetic pulses. To think about communication in terms of electrical signaling is no longer thought of in exclusionary, human-centered ways.

The sound piece can be perceived as a 'deep listening' meditation and requires your full attention. Please lie down and feel comfortable and immerse yourself in a multisensory ode to the planetary transformations unfolding all around us. The voices gathered from different plants will orient us as the world we have known comes undone and new configurations begin to take shape as we are experiencing the throws of the climate emergency.