Setting up at Les Ateliers de Bitche in Nantes for Electropixel. After creating a clean floorspace, I look for two anchors in the space to connect the cocoon to. I find them in one pillar, and the foot of a set of seats that won't really be used during the evening. I spend way more time than expected to get the cocoon back into shape - I guess it needs practice. Once I succeed, I set up the lights around it and the rest of the equipment.

(note to self: I need 2 a longer cables for the DMX to make the connections a bit more easy to make.)

After discussing with Julien, we decide that the performance will be at the start of the evening - the first show of the night. I prepare the last things, test the systems and crawl inside the cocoon. I entangle myself within the white cloth inside and lie down and put myself in a restful state. Then I activate the physical model again and let the sound fade in. I make subtle, slow movements with my body; and at some points during the performance I shift my weight to roll onto my side and stomach, and back; trying to let the weight of my limbs guide me in the movement. With the white cloth covering my face, my own perception is also changed - which helps me to concentrate on the movement. The intensive reaction of the sound and light when I move a lot, bring me to then stop my movement and quiet down again.

I have remote control to start and stop the physical model and fade in and out the sound, using the Twiddler - at least, that is the plan. The start works fine, but when I want to fade out at some point, I find out that the connection is lost, as I did not use the Twiddler for too long.

(note to self: I need to check the timeout on the connection of the Twiddler - I believe there was a setting for it. Otherwise I will need to change the way I control this.)

So I cannot stop the performance by letting the system get to rest and then fade out - I will have to crawl out of the cocoon and end the performance like that.

Once I am out, I look back at the cocoon for a while, and then move to the computer to fade out the sound. I have no sense of time, of how long I have been in there - how long the performance lasted; the recordings that I got afterwards tell me it was about 15 minutes. According to feedback I get from some of the audience, I could have stretched it out a lot longer.

Personally, I feel excited - not just from performing a piece for the first time, but also from the experience inside the cocoon itself - the change in concentration and focus from everyday life, the altering of the sensation of the body.

The audience has been watching attentively, and seems excited judging from the applause I get, and the reactions later on during the evening.

The rest of the evening, I leave the cocoon in the space as an installation - the light is still reacting to movement of the cocoon - and occasionally the bass of the other performances are so loud that they create slight movements of the cocoon. Those who did not see the performance, see the installation as a curious object in the space.

(Photos 6 to 10 made by APO33).