Seth Ayyaz

A sound artist, composer-performer, and transdisciplinary theorist based in London who  makes exploratory sound with listening machines (human or otherwise). He received a PhD in Music Composition from City University London and holds post-graduate degrees in medicine, psychiatry, and psychology (University College London). Composition commissions & exhibitions include Maerz Musik,  fig-2 ICA London, Wave Field Synthesis Artist in Residence AE Lab & in collaboration Arts at CERN. As a musician he studied clarinets & saxophone in the National Youth Orchestra, Islamic musicking traditions (nay & percussion) across the MENASA region and has performed at SPOR festival (Denmark), Konzerthaus Berlin, Berliner Festspiele,  Alte Oper Frankfurt, Alte Schmiede Vienna, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Kunsthalle Luzern, Haus Für Elektronische Künste Basel and Irtijal Beirut. Ayyaz writings have been published by The Wire Magazine, Organised Sound & Afterall Journal. His teaching and lecturing include  Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (IMD), IoPPN Kings College (London), City University London & Homeworks Programme Ashkal Alwan (Beirut).

Ayyaz researches (dis)embodied perceptions through their material construction by biological, psychological and social processes. His work offers counter-narratives to authoritative discourses on sound, and current metaphors of cultural exchange and hybridity, instead foregrounding areas of friction, displacement, and translation.

AAdM: Audio-adaptive machine listening system for installation with two or more microphones and six or more speakers

Evolution Isn’t Fast Enough: A Call from the Library | installation & durational performance | AAdM 8-channel machine listening system | collaboration with interdisciplinary artist Lisa Skuret (field writing, text, score) | featuring Kay Grant & Guy Harries (vocals, objects, bodies) | (former) Rose Lipman Library, London 6 – 7 sept 2014

Listening Through A Beam of Intense Darkness: On the Admissibility of Sound Sound as Art & Music