Chloé Bieri

Chloé Bieri, written for Ensemble Latenz Bern 06.10.2024

 

A big thanks to Stanislas Pili for the help in the artistic research.

 

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In the 1950s, across Europe and beyond, the role of telephone operator was predominantly held by women. They worked in vast halls organized into rows of desks, where they managed imposing switchboards. Armed with cables, headsets equipped with microphones and earpieces, they connected and disconnected calls by inserting jacks into plugs in front of them. Each workstation was equipped with a rotary phone and a complex network of wiring, turning their work into a kind of synchronized ballet.

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The operators' rooms buzzed with a mixture of sounds: the murmur of conversations, the clicking of switches, and the echo of operators’ focused voices. The atmosphere was both methodical and frenetic, a rhythmic universe where the noise of human activity mirrored the pulse of bustling metropolises. These spaces, both lively and stressful, were the beating heart of a rapidly expanding communication system.

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"Services for Imaginary Telephone Operators" is a musical and performative composition that reimagines this historical reality through a contemporary artistic lens. Blending musical theater, voice, analog electronics, and immersive installations, this work immerses the audience in a complex sensory and visual network.

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The performers embody telephone operators connected to “imaginary clients.” At their desks—attached to them and designed as sound sculptures—each performer manipulates jack cables and effect pedals to transform the sounds they emit or capture in real time. These sounds, distorted and reinvented, are broadcast through small Marshall MS-4 amplifiers, adding a raw and textured dimension to the performance.

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In contrast to this mechanical universe, the performers’ voices become living instruments. They whisper, murmur, mumble, or speak in languages that are part real, part invented, sometimes composed of onomatopoeia and unintelligible sounds. These vocal masses create sonic textures that blend with the chaos of technical noises, crafting a music that is both organic and industrial.

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The collective dynamic of the piece draws inspiration from the fluid and synchronized movements of schools of fish or flocks of migrating birds. The performers move through the space, sometimes in harmony, sometimes in opposition, weaving invisible connections that give the impression of controlled chaos. This apparent disorder gradually reveals a structure where every element, every gesture, and every sound contributes to a cohesive whole.

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The aim of this creation is to immerse the audience in an experience where the past resonates with the present.
"Services for Imaginary Telephone Operators" explores the boundary between functionality and poetry, transforming a technical universe into an artistic celebration of human communication.

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Inspiration: 

This piece draws its inspiration freely, its starting point, from the film Playtime by Jacques Tati.
I encourage performers who wish to perform this piece to watch the film in order to absorb the energy of certain scenes, the crowd movements, the architecture of movement in space, etc.

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