Choreographing Sound
In the fall of 2024, Albert Zhang and I hosted a weekend residency with dancers Laura Coe and Rafael Candela and cinematographer Daniel Huang. We wanted to explore the expressive possibilities of the Magical Musical Mat when used in creative contexts. The residency is documented in a short film, and our findings were published in the proceedings of NIME 2024.
After a successful first residency, we formed the Double Yolk Collective, a creative group dedicated to experimental performance art. In summer of 2024, the DY Collective took the MMM on tour in Chatham and Berkshire counties, Jacob's Pillow, and finally, Utrecht, NL for NIME 2024, where we won the best music/installation award with our performance of A Thousand Mornings.
In spring 2025, we exhibited the project at the Smithsonian as part of Sound Fest 2025 at the Hirshhorn Museum. We hosted a performance workshop series and fostered connections among hundreds of museum visitors during the festival.
Development of the Magical Musical Mat has its roots in design research with nonspeaking autistic children. The following video documents some of its evolution. To learn more about the instrument's history, see www.magicalmusicalmat.com
This project is made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and administered by CREATE Council on the Arts; from The Arts Integration Grant by the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College; and with the generous support of Berkshire Pulse and PS21 Center for Contemporary Performance.