Duration : 15' approx. First performance on March 3, 2018 at the Auditorium-ONL in Lyon by Jean Geoffroy - Biennale Musiques en Scène

Virtual Rhizome received in 2018 a grant for the writing of an original musical work from the French Ministry of Culture

Smart Hand Computer concept and development : Christophe Lebreton

Virtual rhizome responds to a proposal by Christophe Lebreton and Jean Geoffroy to compose a work for the original Smart Hand Computer system (*) , developed within the GRAME-CNCM from the FAUST language and allowing to play smartphones as an instrument.

The work takes the form of a labyrinth, a kind of virtual architecture that could be compared to Borges' "garden of forking paths", within which the musician evolves by adapting his gestures to the constraints of different types of situations. Each situation is characterized by an autonomous functioning of the system that the musician must apprehend in order to find the key allowing him to modify it and to move towards another situation. But in order to orientate himself well, he must create a mental representation of the structure of the work. The performer then becomes an explorer of a world that he unveils, but isn't that what he has always been?

Virtual rhizome owes much to the availability and enthusiasm of Jean Geoffroy and Christophe Lebreton. It is friendly dedicated to them.

(*) Smart Hand Computer (SHC) is a concept of application for smartphone and expert gesture