ΞllllllΞ [pronounced “imm”] is a transdisciplinary sensory narrative by composer Pedro Melo Alves, at the intersection of music, techno-performance, and digital arts. Exploring the shared connections between classical culture, mainstream pop, urban movements, and their ancestral roots, ΞllllllΞ presents itself as an open stage for contemporary ontological discussion and transhumanist and posthumanist inquiry.
Four musicians, a team of multimedia artists, and a performer occupy the centre of the space. How well do we know ourselves? Where are we heading? The audience is invited to inhabit a 360º immersive environment — a living organism in which sensors and an interactive platform translate their gestures, memories, and opinions into an exploration of the human condition. The music is rooted in the urgency of pop movements and urban beats, intersecting with the languages of contemporary music, jazz, and experimental electronics. An original body of digital artwork and a reactive multimedia structure of video, light, and sound drive the narrative through the hybrid languages and real-time processes of post-internet culture. What is the primordial human impulse to transcend our limits made of?
With each presentation, ΞllllllΞ collaborates with a new performer and engages with a new community, feeding into an ongoing compositional process that transcends the stage and takes shape on the ΞllllllΞ:MATER platform. Bringing together critical thinking and audiovisual creation, physical and virtual formats, the project expands through a cycle of art exhibitions, a digital platform, a record label, and a programme of debates.
An international team of 18 artists and programmers specialised in the research of new artistic practices was brought together for its creation. The project also features the participation of renowned guest performers, such as Vera Mantero, and a network of partnerships with institutions including the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, MAAT — Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Carpintarias de São Lázaro, the Iminente Urban Arts Festival, ZABRA — Posthuman Art Research Center, LuxFrágil, Lovers & Lollypops, and GrETUA — Experimental Theatre Group.