NEXT Festival 2024 presents:
Hreyfð is a wearable electronic instrument that creates sounds with gestures using audio feedback and sensors. Thus, the performers are simultaneously dancers, musicians, and a sound system. The instrument is the result of Sól Ey’s extensive research on instruments that create sounds with movement. The workshop consists of a presentation and demonstration on the instrument, collective experiments on performing with the instrument, and concludes with a discussion. Students are encouraged to bring a short presentation of their own projects or ideas.

The workshop is led by Icelandic composer and new media artist Sól Ey and Slovak dancer Paulína Šmatláková. The workshop is primarily for students from composition, dance, and performance-making, interested in digital media in performance art, the connection between sound and movement, and musical instrument design. Sól Ey’s piece Materize, for 4 performers wearing Hreyfð, will be performed on November 28 at 17:00 at Dvorana VŠMU.

Photo: Materize performance with wearable electronic instrument Hreyfð, photographed by Alexis Rodríguez Cancino