EX MACHINA

EX MACHINA

The Image Mill

Since June 20, the evening of the summer solstice, this forty-minute visual and audio production has been projected against the grain silos in the Port of Québec. This huge concrete structure became a narrator that tells the tale of Québec City’s 400 years of history.

“Its geographic location, urban culture and history make Québec one of the world’s most beautiful and highly photogenic cities. Québec City has been mapped, drawn, engraved, painted, photographed and filmed, and we have invented a mill that transforms, animates, dramatizes and pays tribute to these 400 years of images. The images are almost all drawn from archives dating back to the time when Samuel de Champlain drew Québec.” Robert Lepage

The Image Mill is a sort of animated mosaic that, moving from engravings to paintings and from photos to videos, creates an impressionistic portrait of the city over time. The work consist of four movements corresponding to the city’s four centuries of history: waterways, the age of exploration and discovery; road building, clearing and developing the land; the railroad and industrial expansion; and finally, the age of air travel and the development of communications

The production draw on all the technological expertise and experience that Ex Machina brings to the integration of images to the narrative. 

These 81 silos measure 600 metres long by 30 metres high. Twenty-seven video projectors, 20,000 lumens each, project millions of pixels onto Bunge’s south and west façades. With 238 spotlights, 203 of which are DEL, and 329 speakers in place, the audience can see the show from several viewpoints: from the Château Frontenac to the Marie-Guyard building, from the ramparts to the Louise Basin piers, Espace 400e and the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. 

The soundtrack for this unique sensorial experience was composed by René Lussier and can be heard in different ways depending on the location of the audience. The entire south shore of the Louise Basin is wired for sound. The public can listen to the original composition in the section adjacent to Rue du Quai St-André from the Pointe-à-Carcy to the west end of the basin. Outside this zone, the public can tune into 88.3 (CKIA-FM) on the radio for a simulcast of the soundtrack.

The Image Mill is presented until September 7, 2008 in the Port of Québec, and admission is free. Please note that starting August 25, the show will begin at 21h30 instead of 22h.

The Image Mill’s Technical Card.

PERFORMANCE TEAM

EX MACHINA

ROBERT LEPAGE INC.