LAMENTS
an interactive project by Barbara Mydlak and Yann Deval
2023 - ongoing

LAMENTS is the next phase of the Mourning diaries project, giving material objects an interactive dimension.
In 2023, the textures of diaries and the information they encode have been an inspiration for Yann Deval to develop tools to scan and explore the sounds hidden in the objects created by Barbara Mydlak.
The first tool is a scanner, based on a tablet camera and utilizing the OpenCV computer-vision library, which analyzes the surface of diaries, including aspects such as color, shape, and contrast.
The second one is an audio synthesizer, coded in Pure Data, which converts this information into musical notation, allowing us to hear the sounds from the fiber structures.

Viewers use a tablet to scan objects and listen at their own pace to the evolving sections of the dirge.



Ideas for the future development of this work are to explore the narrative potential of this setup, but also the possibilities in terms of musical composition.
How can we give the spectator maximum ‘agency’ to make the composition evolve according to his own feelings?

For the first time B. Mydlak and Y. Deval had the opportunity to test the interactive aspect of LAMENTS in November 2023 during the exhibition-laboratory 'I only count sunny hours' at BLANCO, Ghent, Belgium.

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Mourning diaries it is a set of visual images portraying experiences and emotions associated with mourning. Barbara Mydlak made handmade paper processing the linen funeral clothes.
The work on them was intuitive, every day, and the process became a ritual. The material was not insignificant - unstable, delicate, vulnerable to destruction.
The same material could be repaired. A dying object could obtain a new life.
Every card (~ 8 x 13,5 cm) marked for her a one day. She linked those cards together, so days started to build weeks, then months and years, and then the time had no matter.
Objects have become a form of timelessness referring to infinity.
Mydlak used irritant and corrosive substances to obtain specific images. To stop and recover those processes she used other, smoothening substances.
The images are the result of a structural destruction and repetitive 'healing'. They react and change over time under the influence of external conditions.

The current length of the elements is more than 100 meters.
Some of them have a form resembling a folded book, others are partially open, others are in the form of flat cards.
Together they construct a single narrative line surrounding the space, dividing the view, defining the horizon.

Mourning diaries
size of one page: ~ 8 x 13.5 cm
installation length: currently more than 100 meters
materials: flax cellulose, various substances
technique: handmade paper

Work on the material installation is still in progress (since 2016).