Aysar Sara Abdelgelil

History and Music major

Throughout my time at Wellesley College and MIT, I have had the opportunity to explore novel avenues in music technology and the material arts-- anchoring in an experimentation with sound and sensory embodiment. With tangible, albeit unconventional user interfaces, I build instruments that ask visitors to make decisions with dynamic and unpredictable responses. My research in Arab contemporary and experimental cinema, in my broader study of History, has challenged me to examine the qualities of what allows the human body to experience an immersive memory, and alternatively what stands in the way.

Extending this practice other other experimental digital forms, I have found film as an intermediate between the anthropomorphic digital sound instrument, the two-dimensional limitations of the reel, and the ironically confined nature of virtual reality. When these tools are merged, sonically-spatialized realities can be achieved.

Hard/Soft

mixed media

Jewett Sculpture Court

two hands interacting with a sculptural box on a pedestal, touching buttons; wires lead to two white hand sculptures affixed to a nearby wall; a video projection below the hands shows a pale form in grass with the word 'softness' superimposed

two hands carefully holding a large shard of blue, red, and white pottery with its edges covered in copper foil

hand grasping a stick that has been partially wrapped in copper foil

two hands carefully manipulating large shards of pottery with their edges covered in copper foil; at left is a wood box with buttons and shells attached to wires on its lid

video still of a peach rhomboidal form in long grass

video still of a white form, difficult to discern, in long grass

installation view showing shards of pottern with edges covered in copper foil on pink bubble wrap with a box featuring buttons and wired seashells; in the background are two large white hand sculptures, heavily wired, and a video projection with the word 'softness' superimposed on the image

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