Marguerite JOSSIC

My research focuses on several projects, in particular :

• The “Vibrations and Conservation” project brings together a heritage and scientific consortium including the Institut National du Patrimoine, the Musée du Louvre, the Musée du Quai Branly, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the ECR team of the Musée de la Musique de la Cité-Philharmonie de Paris (USR 3224-ECR), the Sciences Techniques de la Musique et du Son laboratory at IRCAM (UMR 9912), the Institut d’Alembert at Sorbonne Universités (UMR 7190) and the SATIE laboratory at Cergy-Paris Université (UMR 8029), to investigate the impact of vibratory sources on the state of conservation of heritage objects. The project focuses on the various vibratory sources affecting works of art (public comings and goings in the exhibition space, movement of works of art, refurbishment work, sound events), in order to develop recommendations and solutions for their protection. Eventually, the project will also involve the development of user-friendly, low-cost tools to train heritage professionals and make it easier for them to measure the vibration of works in their collections.
   

• PADEJeu, a digital platform for decision support in maintaining the playing condition of musical instruments. Studies on the mechanical-acoustic behavior of musical instruments are based on relatively simplified experiments or models. Although these approaches may be representative of reality, they are not necessarily the best suited to studying the long-term impact of restoring a heritage musical instrument to playing condition. The PADEJeu project focuses on the static and dynamic behavior of musical instruments, to optimize their conservation and playability. The project is based on the development of a multi-parameter model to objectivize conservation choices for heritage instrument collections, and the creation of a user-friendly digital platform that will eventually enable the various players in the heritage sector to take ownership of these issues. The project brings together the SATIE laboratory at Cergy-Paris University (UMR 8029), the FEMTO-ST institute in Besançon and the USR 3224-ECR Musée de la Musique de la Cité de la Musique - Philharmonie de Paris.

   

• Experimental Virtual Archeological-Acoustics: Influence of performance spaces on Historically Informed Performance (EVAA). EVAA is a set of varied research projects on sound heritage using tools based on acoustic simulation and virtual reality. In particular, it focuses on the sound dimension of historically informed performance, i.e. the ideal match between musical instrument, repertoire and playing techniques. Thanks to the coupling of a real-time acoustic simulator and a visual hall simulator, the project proposes to include musicians playing rigorous facsimiles of instruments from the Museum’s collection in sound spaces associated with historic concert halls, in order to study the influence of the sound and visual environment on their musical practice. The tool will also enable us to understand the technical evolution of the instruments in the selected corpus in relation to the historical evolution of concert halls.
  Project website.

   

• « Plan de Numérisation et Valorisation » et « Synthèse Sonore des Instruments de Musique du Patrimoine » (PNV SySIMPa). A large number of heritage wind instruments cannot be played because of the humidity induced by the player’s playing. The Musée de la Musique’s Besson collection contains some 9,000 paper documents, including 150 technical drawings of instruments, as well as 27 period trumpets. The SySIMpa project aims to address the twofold issue of promoting this unique documentary collection to craftsmen, musicians and the general public, and the relevance of using sound synthesis as a tool for exploration, both to carry out organological hypotheses on wind instruments, but also to give voice to heritage instruments which, due to their fragility, cannot be played. The project, supported by the DRAC des Pays de la Loire and the French Ministry of Culture, brings together the Cité de la Musique-Philharmonie de Paris, the Institut Technologique Européen des Métiers de la Musique (ITEMM), the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA), the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France (C2RMF) and the Mission des Métiers d’Art en Pays de la Loire.
  Project website

As part of my research activities, I’m involved in the design of several scientific projects around the theme of Music/Science, including:

• The Guitar On/Off exhibition, a partnership with Le Mans Acoustique including the design of an exhibition and events around the scientific, technical and historical aspects of the guitar.
• The Gymnastique web serie (Arte TV), five short films dealing with the history and scientific approach to the conservation and playing of instruments from the Musée de la Musique collection.