News/Research

Revisited: Tarek Atoui's MATRIX 258

03 Nov, 2015

Revisited: Tarek Atoui's MATRIX 258

Tarek Atoui's MATRIX 258 Concert was held at the Hearst Memorial Mining Building at UC Berkeley on Saturday, November 7th! Organized in conjunction with the Experimental Media and Performing Art Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, Atoui’s MATRIX project is a continuation of his recent exploration into how sound is perceived by both the hearing and nonhearing.

You can read a response by attendee Olivia Ting below, or view the photos of the event on our Flickr album! Banner photo provided by Olivia Ting.

"I feel quite lucky to have been able to experience the performances (one rehearsal, actually) at the two venues. Owing to the differences in the building materials and spaces- the experiences were so different.

At MILLS the wood material and the low ceiling, and closer proximity of the walls seemed to hold the vibration more intensely. I felt like I was a molecule in the belly of a Leviathan. The musicians conducting the 0.9 instruments were like gods (or team of X-men) playing with the forces of nature.

HEARST- With larger space, bricks, marble, steel, and high ceiling, I didn't fell the vibration as much downstairs, but as I went upstairs, the closer to the ceiling, the more intense/encompassing the vibration.

I was running up and down the stairs to feel the differences in vibration - reminds me a bit of the book "The Poetics of Space" by Gaston Bachelard, who explored the emotional resonance of intimate spaces within architectural enclaves. In the opening chapter he talks of the vertical consciousness of a house in which the attic and the cellar, while both have similar functions as storage spaces, have polar emotional qualities; the attic at the top has dual qualities of light and dark and thus can be rationalized, where as the cellar below is always dark and calls to mind subconscious fears. What I find interesting is the idea of spatial memory connected to physical properties of a space.

The Hearst Building is beautiful - I love the repetition of roundness theme that made me think of concentric circles of sound wave graphics."

Photos below.

2015 Tarek Atoui Concert