Hugo Solís

Improvisations for a performative metaphor

Performance, 2025

This improvisation creates a sonic dialogue between a mechanical-digital installation—a fixed inhabitant of the exhibition space—and a real-time human performance. Through this exchange, networks of communication emerge, where the organic interrogates and interferes with the machinic, exploring the dynamics between a computationally controlled sound system and a human interpretation free from external constraints. The result is a coexistence of two distinct sonic entities: one programmed and deterministic, the other spontaneous and reactive. Both converge in the same time and space, generating a hybrid auditory experience—half machine, half human gesture—that challenges the boundaries between autonomy and intervention.

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Hugo Solís is an electronic artist focused on the creative and aesthetic possibilities arising from the intersection of sound, digital technologies, and interactivity. He has exhibited works and given concerts in Mexico and abroad. He regularly participates in specialized events in the fields of art, science, and technology. He has received support, scholarships, and recognition from FONCA, UNAM, TELMEX, MIT, the University of Washington, DXARTS, IMEB-Bourges, Centro Multimedia, Transitio_MX, and Leonardo, among others. He is currently a member of the National System of Researchers. In 2013 and 2019, he was recognized as a member of the National System of Art Creators. He is a full-time professor at the Metropolitan Autonomous University. /hugosolis.net

Gustavo Matamoros

Sound Poem in Surround

Sound Poem in Surround for amplified text, small piano sounds, radio speech, and video projection intermedia sound performance, 2025

A delicate piece about listening closely. Built for computer playback, with one live thread of writing, it blends physical gesture with distant, drifting voices. Writing becomes sound—pencil on paper, marker on glass—captured up close. Only the live text appears on screen; the rest hovers just out of reach. Shortwave transmissions break in and fade—speech in many tongues, blurred by distance and signal decay. What remains is accent, rhythm, breath—the body behind the voice. The poem forms between these voices and a stream of private thoughts, where memory and interference meet. A prepared piano replies in soft, tactile gestures: objects brushing strings, light sounding. The piece unfolds as a series of Audibles—brief sonic events, each defined by its texture, its gestures, not its meaning.

Gustavo Matamoros is a North American composer born in Venezuela who creates experimental music and sound art. He is the founder of the Subtropics Festival in Miami and a core member of Frozen Music—a sound art collective with David Dunn and Rene Barge that has included Russell Frehling and David Behrman. He is best known for his work with small sounds, as well as for his sound portraits; the use of “gated” recorded sound as an interactive element in live electroacoustic performance; his “noise melodies”; and for his site-specific and public sound art installations. / gustavomatamoros.subtropics.org

José Hernández Sánchez

From the Book of Modern Sorcery

performance, 2025

45 min set comprising 3 different pieces:

Stereo audio with performance: From the Book of Modern Sorcery, 2017 [00:09:15]

Video and quadraphonic audio with performance: A Brief History of the Vocoder, 2023 [00:16:00]

Immersive Audio: The Fight Against Default, 2025 [00:10:00]

José Hernández Sánchez composes music that extends to other media like performance and film. His pieces have been presented at Electric Eclectics (Canada), Subtropics Festival, NWEAMO Festival, Miami Performance International Festival (US), International Contemporary Music Festivals (Colombia and Lima Perú). Institutions as New York University, and the International Aesthetics and Philosophy of Music Congress (Ecuador) have invited him as speaker on Aesthetics and Contemporary Music. José held a faculty position in Music Composition at Javeriana University in Bogotá, Colombia from 2004 to 2010. He currently directs The Sound of Art experimental music program at MUD Foundation in Miami. \ josehernandezsanchez.com

Alexey Grachev and Alexander Bochkov

Symphony for 2 bicycles

Interactive sound installation, performance, 2021 (edition of 2022)

Real-time generated animation and sound Max/MSP, 2 bicycles, 2 synthesizers, projection screen, active speakers

Engineers: Alexey Grachev, Alexander Bochkov

Performers: Alexey Grachev, Alexander Bochkov

Produced in collaboration with and supported by CYLAND MediaArtLab

The artists on the bikes regulate the sound and rhythm by their pedaling, and together create the final work. How the “symphony” is performed depends on the motion of both cyclists. The intentions and aspirations of the participant acquire sonic expression. They may become synchronized, and try to turn the pedals in the same rhythm, to be in harmony. Or they may intentionally disturb this and cause harmonic fluctuations, creating complex combinations of sounds that arise when movements are not synchronized.

This is an experiment on what an object is capable of besides its original purpose. The functionality of a technological object here is valued not for its usability, but for the distinguishing feature which determines what sound will be created. The other aim of the work is to reveal rhythms and connections in space whose existence usually is not grasped in everyday life. Potentially, a sound may be produced from any object. In this project, the source of sound is the “bicycle-human” techno-assemblage. The abstract sound of a bicycle incorporated in the installation refers to all the “wordless” processes and objects which elude direct observation, but still play an important role determining the sort of world that we live in.