Biography /
Martin Leduc

An islander during his youth, his ears attuned to the soundscapes provided by night along the water, he found a guitar in a boat and, very early on, began to compose using a variety of tones. For 20 years a Montrealer, Martin Leduc designs unique electro acoustic instruments and creates interactive sound installations in which algorithmic composition is combined with a systemic approach that makes spectators a part of the compositional system. His instruments are sculptures that are to be viewed, heard and modulated through their interaction with the public and the environment.

Totem sonique, his aquatic sound installation, provides a collaborative creative experience that is equipped with a variety of sound capturing devices, including an underwater microphone, that are integrated with the instrument. It is assisted by a sound transformation program that listens to the interactors’ gestures and transforms the sound material in response to it. Totem sonique has been shown in Montréal, at the University of Maine museum in Bangor, in Sao Paolo, Brazil in the framework of the FILE festival, and at the Jardins de Métis in Gaspésie, as an outdoor interactive installation and interactive performance sound sculpture.

An instructor and research assistant at UQAM (CIAM, LMI, GRAMI), his academic career has taken him from the pure sciences to literature via anthropology, resulting in a Bachelor’s in Anthropology, with courses in ethnomusicology. He completed a Master’s in interactive media communications and coursework in electro acoustics in 2006. In 2007, he began an inter-university doctorate in the study and practice of the arts at the Université du Québec à Montréal and in electro acoustics at the Université de Montréal.