Le silence de Vincennes

A connected microphone abandoned on the old site of the Centre Universitaire Expérimental de Vincennes continuously records the sound environment on the site in real time. Founded in autumn 1968 and located in the Bois de Vincennes, this centre constituted the beginnings of what became Université Paris 8. It stood out at the time for the experimental teaching given there, the fact that it was open to foreigners and students who did not have their baccalaureate and the political engagement of the university community. The building premises were knocked down in 1980 when the university moved to its current site in Saint-Denis. The site previously occupied by the campus is now a clearing in the wood, left fallow and surrounded by extensive, wooded areas. Any trace of the site’s past activities seems to have disappeared.

The microphone installed there records the site’s silence, the collection of sounds that make up its atmosphere and its daily hum: from the noise of the wind rustling in the leaves to the quiet sounds of animals busying themselves with occupying the area, as well as the various users (walkers, who come through the site, the refugee camp close by) and the sounds of the road traffic from the Paris ring road (le périphérique) that runs beside the wood. This recording is broadcast live and unedited in the waiting room at the Université Paris 8 President’s office on the second floor of G block (bâtiment G) in Saint-Denis. It thus creates a link between the two sites, which, historically, founded Université Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis, the silence of one reverberating in the other, in a space given over to the activity of waiting.