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ATEC Prof Stages Audiovisual Exhibit in France

By Office of Media Relations | April 28, 2011

With a new exhibition in France, Dr. Frank Dufour, assistant professor of sound design in UT Dallas’ Arts and Technology (ATEC) program, has officially gone global.

“Acoustic Shadows: An Exploration of Sense of Space” is an experimental interactive sound installation Dufour created alongside wife Kristin Lee through the entity Agency 5970. The piece is currently on display at The Vasarely Foundation in Aix-en-Provence, France. Dufour worked on the sound and music aspects, while his wife tackled the visual side.

Two ATEC graduate students have been working with the Dufours: PhD student Sherri Segovia as choreographer and graduate student Djakhangir Zakhidov as videographer.

Of the installation, Dufour said, “It is an immersive audiovisual environment that senses and responds to the presence and movements of the spectators on the basis of the concept of ‘Acoustic Shadows.’ ”

Dufour describes the latter as “the auditory perception of the movements of silent objects and bodies by means of the changes they cast on a background sound.”

The installation was designed to exemplify the phenomenon and make it known to a wider audience.

“Exhibiting in France is great, but our ultimate goal is to present this work here in the U.S.,” Dufour acknowledged.

Dr. Dennis Kratz, dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at UT Dallas, said, “Professor Dufour’s ingenious and vital contribution to the marriage of technology and art is its focus on the artistic possibilities of sound in not only its most sophisticated, but also its most basic aspects.”

Full story available from the UT Dallas News Center.