by CHRISTINE REDFERN

"We have worked with fake cockroaches and real pigs, with washing and drying machines, with garbage and cans, with hooks and skin, with rotten vegetables, St-Hubert barbecue chicken leftovers and neuropsychology books," says Simon Laroche, of the materials that he and partner Étienne Grenier put into their catchy new media creations.

Calling themselves EVA (Électronique et Vivant Asservis), the Montreal-based duo's biggest research project in 2005 is Nuées. The installation will capture the image of the viewer and transmit the information to a screen projecting ultraviolet light linked to a translucent vivarium filled with live cockroaches. The insects, repelled by the UV light, will thus unwittingly create a two-toned portrait of the individual. Other projects on the list for the new year, says Laroche, are "more noise, performance and hardcore things that we like to do too."

Répétition pour la fin du monde is a new sound sculpture by the pair and collaborator David Lemieux, recently presented in Quebec City and going to São Paolo, Brazil, in 2005. The installation consists of a vibrating metal ceiling, wired with mics, that descends on the audience, "almost crushing them." The noise of the movements, combined with the public's actions, is remixed in real time to create an industrial aural cacophony. "Sometimes, interactive works can be disappointing when used with large groups," Grenier says. "But in fin du monde, all the interaction is fed back into the system and incorporated into the performance so that the audience can contribute to the composition - but in a way that preserves the aesthetic integrity of the piece."

Check Laroche and Grenier's current and past work at http://eart.concordia.ca/~simon/eva. Also, keep an eye out for their upcoming Electro Death Band, a group composed of computers, drums and guitar, making its debut in Montreal sometime this year.