POLYMETER Villa Arson

Sound design and musical composition for a series of audio-visual performances at Villa Arson, Nice, France. Working from recordings of natural, marine, and manmade materials, the score gives each of POLYMETER’s three material phases its own voice and its own tempo. These layers run in asymmetric loops that drift in and out of phase, never resolving into a single oscillation; An audible form of the Polymeter the piece is named for, a way of holding the work’s perspectives open rather than reconciling them.

POROUS FESTIVAL
Villa Arson – Nice, France
June 2025

A PLASTIQUE FANTASTIQUE PROJECT
Marco Canevacci and Yena Young

POLYMETER:
POLYMETER is an immersive, inflatable installation composed of three concentric, air-filled membranes—each made from a distinct material reflecting a phase in our material and ecological evolution. The outer shell, crafted from fossil-based polyurethane, speaks to the synthetic permanence of the industrial era. The middle layer, a biodegradable plastic developed by the Fraunhofer Institute, signals a transitional, science-driven phase of innovation. The innermost layer, handmade from algae, is fragile, organic, and ephemeral. Inside, a soundscape of plastic-derived textures—crackles, hisses, and drones—plays in shifting loops, echoing the musical concept of polymeter: multiple tempos coexisting in asymmetry. POLYMETER invites a pause—an attunement to the entanglement of plastic and water, not as extractive resources, but as memory, atmosphere, and temporal matter.

Material:
TPU (thermoplastic polyurethanes), Bio PBSA (polybutylene succinate adipate) material processed by Fraunhofer IAP, 100% bio algae material handmade by Plastique Fantastique with the support of Valeria Solari.

Dimension:
6m diameter, 4m diameter, and 2m diameter spheres.

PLASTIQUE FANTASTIQUE TEAM
Sarah Möller
Lucas Sere Peltzer
Pihla Pellinen
Sebastian Podesta
Carsten Reith

PERFORMANCE
Yena Young
Valerie Renay

SOUND
Misha Maclaren
Valerie Renay

SPECIAL THANKS FOR ADVISING ON BIOMATERIALS
Valeria Solari
Jens Balko, Fraunhofer IAP

SUPPORTED BY
S+T+ARTS
GLUON
VITO
Zebrastraat
STROOM Festival
Villa Arson Nice
Arts Council Korea
TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary