A l’origine fut la vitesse

Science fiction after Alain Damasio
"We imagine a time when the wind no longer exists. The audience has come to relive this lost and forgotten sensation (...) Facing them is Sov Strochnis, a scribe with partial amnesia, the last survivor of this Horde.

La Horde du contrevent tells the story of an illusory quest, outside of time: an elite group, trained since childhood, sets off to the far reaches of a ferocious Earth, to seek out the origin of the wind, the Extreme Upwind. Twenty-three of them make up this horde of courage, crossing the world on foot in search of a goal that fades before them like a mirage...
Inspired by Alain Damasio's story, À l'origine fut la vitesse is a transdisciplinary work for which Philippe Gordiani and Nicolas Boudier have created an immersive show using sound, video and light.
The literary adaptation is built around the voice of actor Thomas Poulard, who is the centre and heart of a performance space in which forty-four spectators, equipped with a combo consisting of a blinding mask that can become a video projection screen and bone-conduction headphones, are connected, so to speak, to Sov Strochnis' memory. What can he tell us about his incredible adventure? Is La source du vent an inner quest, a quest for the self?
Welcome to the mental space of the last survivor of the 34th Horde.

The combo
The Combo is the hybrid device, between mask and helmet, developed for the experience and the show. It's a VR helmet, which stands for Retinal Vision rather than Virtual Reality, and it lets us experience real perceptions and sensations. It combines sound, light and video, allowing us to completely lose our bearings. It's a lightweight piece of equipment made up of a bone-conduction headset and a blinding mask that can be used as a screen. It assumes and amplifies the immersive and physical side of sensations. In this way, Sov's words are perceived in an intimate, mental way. An inner voice takes shape in the head of each spectator and speaks individually amid the gusts of the storm. The mask is augmented by a Holoscreen film that can receive the projected video image and the light, creating a depth of field, working on visual perception and creating immaterial and abstract landscapes, inner images that resonate with listening without ever countering or commenting on it.