Ritual / System
Created by MASARY Studios

2021 - Ongoing

Ritual / System is an immersive performance research project which explores relationships between frequency of sound, light, rhythm and space. This performance strives to reorient the audience in perspective and perception through quad-surround audio and wrap-around visuals.

The performance instruments are interconnected through sound analysis systems, enabling each medium to have direct communication with one another, allowing for both hyper synchronized motifs and procedural expressions based on the choices of the performers. This is an on going research-based artwork that continues to ask questions about frequency as it relates to our perceptual phenomenon and dance music.

Ritual System is a research / performance artwork experienced as a continuum.

Ritual / System is an artwork that presents sound not only as an acoustic phenomenon, but as a visually relatable expression as well as a physical (spatial) experience. Multichannel video and lighting arrays carefully place expressions of sound in these additional dimensions.

Realtime sound analysis drives the visual language in a balance of visual expression and true visualization of the sonic journey. There are no pre-rendered video files in this artwork. It is through the input of sound in real time that the visual landscape is generated, and then aesthetically managed towards various visual expressions.

The first section of the project explores the most simple elements of sound (vibrations) in space, often moving, and ultimately compiling, stacking and coalescing towards recognizable harmonic relationships and rhythmical patterns.

The second section of the Ritual / System continuum explore the placement and management of syncopation across various frequency centers. As this process unfolds, the sonic reference elements (*regular period / metronomic features) also travel to various places (frequency centers) in the audible spectrum. This active exploration of syncopation and reference frequency is at the core of the project.

Presented at WBUR City Space 2022
Presented at WaveForms Museum of Science, Boston 2023

Photos by Aram Boghosian