I envision my very own life as a hundred year long survey (give or take) aiming at experiencing the genuine idea of transdisciplinarity. And then only shall I write a book about it.
SxR, born one century after Надежда Крупская, is a trans-disciplinary artist-researcher, a music producer and an academic. Their artistic research thrives on a sensitive conversation between art and autonomous machines that investigates the ambivalence of postmodern subjects in their relation to technology, showing how actes manqués underpin every act of resistance to a rational and optimised organisation of the world. Traces, unspeakable legacies, and multiscale approaches form the core of their recent work, making use of various mediums, from interactive electronic & robotic installations to tailored-made sound devices to performing arts. The concept of digital gestures in particular, that is, gestures linked to digital craftsmanship (coding, PCB design, 3D CAD, ...) is central to their practice, with bugs and faults - both inextricably linked to digital technology - figuring an extra medium in itself. In this respect, their work is indirectly shaped by hacking and circuit bending subcultures, but also relates to the dialectic between intimacy and universality that is so deeply rooted in the concept of gesture.
They have collaborated with visual artists Olga Kisseleva and Eric Maillet, Cantierezero Translocal Collective for new music, activist Gaspard Delanoe (as the co-founder of dada inspired political party PFT). Works in collaboration with Kisseleva has been exhibited at Art Paris, FIAC, Louvre-Lens, Ekaterinburg biennale, HKW Berlin and Moscow Laboratoria. As a songwriter and music producer they've had a long-standing career in pop music, with prominent signatures to indie labels New Rose/Lively Art (Anechoic Chamber) and Z-Records & Semapop (Pink Noise Party). They've released six albums and played hundreds of shows in Europe and in the UK. Some of these projects have also contributed to explore the porosity between pop music and contemporary art through dedicated shows or performances, including the first ever submarine pop show on the Black Sea for Balaklava Odyssey 2010 Media Art and Performance Festival or R.I.O.T., a street- performance for Nuit Blanche Off 2014, Paris.
They're a tenured professor of Science & Technology Studies (with a focus on Art & Science and the Philosophy of Technology) at ENSEA Graduate School and a lecturer at Paris-Cergy School of Art.
Pseudonym policy: use of R., Rey or Reynal depends on the discipline or community involved ; music production is always signed as Syd X. Rey ; acting, as Syd Rey ; academic publications and some early visual works are signed as Syd or alternate deadname Sylvain Reynal.
