l_ava

l_ava is an audiovisual project composed of mechanical contraptions, acoustic drums and synthesizers, where human intuition is transcribed and echoed back by machines in a continuous flow of mutual interpretation. Within this ecosystem, all participants are shaped by error, malfunction and unpredictability. The projected image reacts, deviates and amplifies. It becomes both witness and agent.

Diogo Arranja (drums, composition and sound devices) and Tiago Maduro (video, mechanical systems and interactive devices) were artists in residence at Casa das Artes Bissaya Barreto in June and now return to present the project live. They propose inhabiting and organising this performative ecosystem, where sound, image and machine operate in interdependence, within a narrative in which listening and observation guide us through melodic spaces and textured landscapes.

The relationship between sound and image is both bidirectional and structural. Audio influences the behaviour of the visual system, which in turn generates data that modulates and triggers sonic events. This closed loop establishes a continuous feedback system in which authorship is shared between performer, machine and process.

The project is based on the construction of a hybrid system in which modified musical instruments, physical mechanisms and digital devices are specifically designed to generate, transform and interconnect sound and visual material.