Lyraei – Mihalis Shammas
The Lyraei is an electromagnetic string instrument developed over the course of the last 9 months at the iii workspace. It is a hybrid between electronic and acoustic instruments; its modular brain generates electromagnetic pulses, imposing them on a set of steel strings. The complexity of the circuitry is reflected in the timbres of its sound, as the oscillations of its strings are constantly wavering between chaotic motion and natural resonance. This artifact can be used for live performance, or simply left to act on its own.
Mihalis Shammas is a Cypriot (born 1988) artist and designer. His work is driven by an urge to create narrative objects and tools for musical expression. It explores the intricacies of movement and sound in animating materials, by manifesting tensions between the mechanical and the chaotic. Amidst mechanical precision and poetic error, his artifacts carry about the imaginary dimension of the useless machine, their technical nature muddled by their narrative capacities.
Curated by Anastasia Loginova
Video by Erfan Abdi
