Mo H. Zareei’s Material Music is a kinetic sound sculpture that exploits the materiality of sound production to highlight the effect of physical material in the transmission of vibrational energy experienced as sound. Upon activation, actuators strike blocks of matter simultaneously, but they slowly fall out of sync; the left and right actuation instances of each unit become offset by delays driven by variations in the speed of sound as it travels through each material. At times chaotic, and other times rhythmic, Material Music proposes a potential for a musical language that integrates the phenomenological qualities of matter as an essential consideration for composition.
Mo H. Zareei
Mo H. Zareei grew up in Ekbatan, a brutalist residential complex developed in the mid-1970s in western Tehran, and his artistic sensibilities were shaped by the stark materialism and geometries of his environment. Zareei’s fascination with brutalism is woven through his research and practice, which draws on music, sound, light, and kinetic sculpture, and references both his affinity for minimalism and his educational background in physics.