Parisian 19-year-old Louis is obsessed with discovering the alternative sound trapped inside children’s electronic toys. He was first inspired to investigate the circuit boards of gadgets like talking teddy bears and singing birthday cards at the age of just seven. After accidentally breaking a toy robot that was a gift from his Dad, Louis became interested in the inner electronics that made the toy work. He was so upset at the “death” of the robot that he tried to bring it back to “life”. Over the years, the French artist came to realise the sound possibilities held within the circuit boards of these everyday items, and he became intrigued with the notion of subverting them. “You could say that all printed circuit boards have something ‘hidden’ inside them,” he explains.

“By creating short circuits, I manage to get sounds out of them that have never before been heard by anyone.” Louis often spends entire days and nights in his studio without sleep, searching for the unconventional sounds hidden within the wiring he has prised out of its brightly-coloured plastic body. Rather than legitimise his work by presenting the finished object in a gallery space, Louis prefers to reintroduce the modified toys back into the public realm. Leaving them in large, open, urban spaces, to play out their twisted and distorted sound until the batteries die, it is the idea that someone may, or may not, discover them, which excites him. “Sometimes I wonder if anyone heard it,” he says, “but all that really matters, is that it existed.”

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