Collaboration Develops Musical Instruments for the Hearing Impaired

On Friday, May 13, EMPAC artist-in-residence Tarek Atoui and Rensselaer Distinguished Research Professor of Music Pauline Oliveros will present WITHIN, the culmination of a year-long collaboration with Rensselaer students to develop new musical instruments for the hearing impaired. At 8 p.m., audiences will be encouraged to explore the public spaces of EMPAC, where a number of the group’s creations will be on display for performance and interaction.

A sound artist from Lebanon, currently living in Paris, Atoui says the project began with a simple question: “What really is listening?”

It’s a question that is near and dear to Oliveros, who has spent much of her esteemed career developing techniques of “deep listening,” which go beyond the basic function of the ear to incorporate the whole body through the honing of awareness to one’s full sensory field.