Mon mémoire portera sur la musique des jeux vidéo dans le cadre d’un effondrement systémique ou d’une autre forme de décroissance de l’économie. C’est dans ce cadre que j’exposerai mes idées quant aux différentes formes que pourraient prendre l’industrie vidéo-ludique et sa musique dans un contexte qui semble difficile à envisager. Quelles sont les sources de créativité dans un monde où les indicateurs liés aux sociétés modernes auront vraisemblablement changé du tout au tout ? Comment envisager que le jeu vidéo puisse rester attrayant, intéressant et passionnant dans un modèle économique décroissant ? Ce sont les problématiques auxquelles je vais tenter d’apporter des réponses ici. / My thesis consists on confronting video-game music with a case of systemic collapse or economical degrowth. Regarding these environmental and societal problematics, I’ll suggest ideas concerning the way we could look at the future of video-games, by thinking on the form the medium and its music could take in a context that we often fail to contemplate. How can creativity still emerge in a world where common society’s indicators will most likely be totally different from what they are today? Could we find ways for video-games and video-game music to be as interesting and inspiring as it is today in a context of economical degrowth? Those are problematics that I’ll specifically address in my thesis, by trying to find an approach and potential answers that suits a realistic future state of the world.

Le projet artistique Poésie de l’ADN prend source dans une démarche interdisciplinaire, en associant la programmation, la biotechnologie, la création sonore et visuelle, l’ésotérisme ainsi que l’art participatif et performatif. Ce mémoire passe en revue les différentes étapes de réflexion et création autour de ce projet, tout d’abord en le replaçant dans son contexte historique et artistique, à la fois au niveau du courant bioart, puis plus précisément dans l’utilisation de l’acide désoxyribonucléique1 (ADN) en arts. Nous verrons comment s’inscrit Poésie de l’ADN aux côtés des oeuvres d’art génétiques visuelles et sonores, ainsi que de portraiture, tout en présentant les influences artistiques et esthétiques qui inspirent mon travail. Ensuite, ce mémoire aborde trois questionnements qui sont au coeur du développement conceptuel de ce projet : 1) les tensions entre l’aléatoire et la subjectivité, c’est-à-dire la constante négociation entre le contrôle de l’artiste et l’autonomie de la machine; 2) l’interprétation des données afin d’établir la signification que l’on reçoit et apporte à la matière; 3) ainsi que les considérations bioéthiques que soulève ce projet. Puis, le mémoire détaille le processus technique et les outils utilisés, ainsi que le processus créatif au sein duquel l’approche ésotérique est fondamentale. Enfin, nous verrons l’impact des critères ADN sur les oeuvres, ainsi que les portraits qui en découlent. Poésie de l’ADN est un projet artistique qui réunit à la fois le développement d’une application dont l’algorithme et les paramétrages permettent de générer des matières audio-visuelles à partir de données ADN, ainsi que la composition de portraits, à travers l’interprétation artistique, ésotérique et humaine de cette matière, pour créer des vidéomusiques individuelles. / DNA Poetry is an artistic project rooted in an interdisciplinary approach, combining programming, biotechnology, sound and visual creation, esotericism as well as participatory and performative art. This thesis reviews the different stages of reflection and creation around this project, first of all by placing it in its historical and artistic context, first off within the bioart artistic movement, then more precisely within the use of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in the arts. We'll see how DNA Poetry fits alongside visual and audio genetic artworks, as well as portraiture, while showcasing the artistic and aesthetic influences that inspire my work. Then, this thesis addresses three questions which are at the heart of the conceptual development of this project: 1) the tensions between algorithm and subjectivity, that is to say the constant negotiation between the artist's control and autonomy of the machine; 2) data interpretation, in order to establish meaning in what is received and brought to the material; 3) and finally the bioethical considerations raised by this project. Then, the thesis details the technical process and the tools used, as well as the creative process in which the esoteric approach is fundamental. Finally, we will see the impact of DNA data on the audio and visual outcome, as well as the portraits that result from them. DNA Poetry is an artistic project that brings together both the development of an application whose algorithm and mappings make it possible to generate audiovisual material from DNA data, as well as the composition of portraits, through the human, esoteric and artistic interpretation of this material, in order to create individual videomusic art pieces.

Mémoire en recherche-création / L’expérience sonore immersive est souvent associée à la spatialisation du son. Mais, le phénomène d’immersion est plutôt complexe et le réduire au seul emploi d’un dispositif technique ne permet pas d’en apprécier les causes multiples sur le plan de la réception. Ce mémoire présente un projet de recherche-création intitulé Cathédrales, dont l’objectif est de mieux comprendre la réception d’une œuvre de musique acousmatique spa- tialisée en 3D et intentionnellement immersive. Ce travail porte notamment sur les stratégies de composition adoptées et leurs effets, au regard des intentions de départs et de l’analyse des commentaires émis par un ensemble d’auditeurs-participants. Les trois premiers chapitres présentent les aspects conceptuels soutenant la démarche de création des œuvres Ville Aux Cent Clochers et Réverbérence. Le premier chapitre vise à préciser d’entrée de jeu ce que signifie l’immersion sonore, de sa compréhension plus générale jusqu’à ses significations plus particulières; le deuxième chapitre présente ensuite l’immersion sous l’angle d’une narratologie naturelle de la musique; tandis que le troisième chapitre intègre cette approche narrative au langage du cinéma pour l’oreille et adapte le tout au contexte multidirectionnel du médium de diffusion sonore. Les deux parties qui composent l’œuvre Cathédrales : I. Ville Aux Cent Clochers et II. Réverbérence, sont présentées au quatrième chapitre. Après avoir introduit le propos de l’œuvre dans son ensemble, les intentions et les stratégies spécifiques à chacune de ces pièces y sont également développées. Enfin, le cinquième chapitre présente les résultats de deux études de réception, impliquant un certain nombre d’auditeurs, sur l’écoute de musiques spatialisées pour dôme de haut-parleurs. L’analyse esthésique découlant de ces enquêtes permet de proposer différentes catégories conceptuelles de l’expérience sonore immersive. Ces catégories peuvent éventuellement servir à schématiser les effets de certaines stratégies de composition, combinées à l’emploi d’un dispositif technologique particulier, sur la réception d’une musique spatialisée en 3D. / The immersive sound experience is often associated with sound spatialization. But the immersive phenomenon is rather complex and reducing it to the sole usage of a technical device does a disservice to our appreciation of its multiple causes in terms of a work’s reception. This memoir presents a research-creation project, entitled Cathédrales, that aims to better understand the reception of an intentionally immersive 3Dspatialized acousmatic music. This work focuses on the adopted compositional strategies and their effects, with regard to initial intentions and the analysis of comments made by listener participants. The first three chapters present the concepts underlying the creative process for the works Ville Aux Cent Clochers ("City of a hundred bell towers") and Réverbérence ("Reverberence"). The first chapter clarifies the meaning of sound immersion from the outset, from its more general understanding to its more specific meanings; the second chapter then presents immersion under the scope of a natural narratology of music; while the third chapter integrates such narrative approach within the language of a "cinema for the ear", while adapting it to the multidirectional context of the sound diffusion medium. In the fourth chapter are presented the two parts composing Cathédrales ("Cathedrals") : I. Ville Aux Cent Clochers and II. Réverbérence. After introducing the concept of the work as a whole, the intentions and strategies that are more specific to each part of the work are then exposed. Finally, the fifth chapter presents the results of two case studies on the reception behaviors of multiple participants listening to spatialized music over a loudspeakers dome. Aesthesic analysis arising from these surveys allows to provide different conceptual categories of the immersive sound experience. Such categorization may eventually serve to schematize the effects of certain compositional strategies, in combination with the usage of a particular technological device, on the reception of 3D spatialized music.

The years 1815 to 1867 marked the first protracted period of peace in Nova Scotia’s colonial history. While the immediate effects of peace were nearly disastrous, these years ultimately marked a formative period for the province. By the eve of Confederation, various social, cultural, political, economic, and technological developments had enabled Nova Scotia to become a mature province with a distinct identity. One of the manifestations of this era of community formation was the emergence of a cosmopolitan-oriented music culture. Although Atlantic trade routes ensured that Nova Scotia was never isolated, the colonial progress of the pre-Confederation era reinforced and entrenched Nova Scotia’s membership within the Atlantic World. The same trade routes that brought imported goods to the province also introduced Nova Scotians to British and American culture. Immigration, importation, and developments to transportation and communication systems strengthened Nova Scotia’s connections to its cultural arbiters – and made possible the importation and naturalization of metropolitan music practices. This dissertation examines the processes of cultural exchange operating between Nova Scotia and the rest of the Atlantic World, and the resultant musical life to which they gave rise. The topic of music-making in nineteenth-century Nova Scotia has seldom been addressed, so one of the immediate aims of my research is to document an important but little-known aspect of the province’s cultural history. In doing so, I situate Nova Scotia’s musical life within a transatlantic context and provide a lens through which to view Nova Scotia’s connectivity to a vast network of culture and ideas. After establishing and contextualizing the musical practices introduced to Nova Scotia by a diverse group of musicians and entrepreneurs, I explore how this imported music culture was both a response to and an agent of the formative developments of the pre-Confederation era. I argue that, as Nova Scotia joined the Victorian march of progress, its musicians, music institutions, and music-making were among the many socio-cultural forces that helped to transform a colonial backwater into the civilized province that on 1 July 1867 joined the new nation of Canada.

The years 1815 to 1867 marked the first protracted period of peace in Nova Scotia’s colonial history. While the immediate effects of peace were nearly disastrous, these years ultimately marked a formative period for the province. By the eve of Confederation, various social, cultural, political, economic, and technological developments had enabled Nova Scotia to become a mature province with a distinct identity. One of the manifestations of this era of community formation was the emergence of a cosmopolitan-oriented music culture. Although Atlantic trade routes ensured that Nova Scotia was never isolated, the colonial progress of the pre-Confederation era reinforced and entrenched Nova Scotia’s membership within the Atlantic World. The same trade routes that brought imported goods to the province also introduced Nova Scotians to British and American culture. Immigration, importation, and developments to transportation and communication systems strengthened Nova Scotia’s connections to its cultural arbiters – and made possible the importation and naturalization of metropolitan music practices. This dissertation examines the processes of cultural exchange operating between Nova Scotia and the rest of the Atlantic World, and the resultant musical life to which they gave rise. The topic of music-making in nineteenth-century Nova Scotia has seldom been addressed, so one of the immediate aims of my research is to document an important but little-known aspect of the province’s cultural history. In doing so, I situate Nova Scotia’s musical life within a transatlantic context and provide a lens through which to view Nova Scotia’s connectivity to a vast network of culture and ideas. After establishing and contextualizing the musical practices introduced to Nova Scotia by a diverse group of musicians and entrepreneurs, I explore how this imported music culture was both a response to and an agent of the formative developments of the pre-Confederation era. I argue that, as Nova Scotia joined the Victorian march of progress, its musicians, music institutions, and music-making were among the many socio-cultural forces that helped to transform a colonial backwater into the civilized province that on 1 July 1867 joined the new nation of Canada.