Magdi Mostafa: The Surface of Spectral Scattering

[From above, Magdi Mostafa`s installation offers a birds eye view of a familiar city. Image courtesy of Medrar TV.] [From above, Magdi Mostafa`s installation offers a birds eye view of a familiar city. Image courtesy of Medrar TV.]

Magdi Mostafa: The Surface of Spectral Scattering

By : Medrar TV مدرار تي في

 

Magdi Mostafa: The Surface of Spectral Scattering

May - June 2014 

Townhouse Factory Space, Cairo

 

For his latest project, Egyptian sound artist Magdi Mostafa created a multi-channel, site-specific sound and light installation spanning six hundred square meters at the Townhouse Factory Space. The installation translates the city of Cairo into a high energy discharge system with boundaries dictated by a poetic physics of transmission, where human actors play the role of inert conduits charged by abstract, external forces of zeal and fury.

Electric currents pulse through roughly ten thousand hand-embroidered LED lights, pumped by fifteen different power centers through more than twenty-three thousand hand-soldered electric connections. Each power supply is triggered by sound waves radiating from the periphery of this field of scattered illumination. A consistent thrusting of deep frequency sound defines the sum total of the shape of light, while intermittently, the speakers transmit a parallel track of high frequencies—the aural equivalent of the sharp point of the individual LED light itself, the basic unit of the work.

This video documents the installation and offers insights into Mostafa`s motives behind the project and the long process to realize it.

 

     

        

A Scenography Workshop by Hussein Baydoun

A Scenography workshop by Hussein Baydoun

8-16 September 2013

Falaki Theater, Cairo, Egypt

 

Hussein Baydoun is a Lebanese artist, architect, and scenographer who is known for his unique approach to set design. Baydoun frequently participates in the creation and development of performances from their early stages with the view that scenography is an essential component to the creation of theatrical work, one no less important than the script. His designs are often inspired by the performance spaces in which he works, where he creates fascinating sets from whatever is available as he challenges conventional notions about theater production, such as in his most recent performance "Alice," which was produced in collaboration with Lebanese playwright and director Sawsan Bou Khaled. In September, Baydoun returned to Cairo to lead a scenography workshop following the same vision. At the American University in Cairo`s Falaki Theater, he worked with six upcoming set designers, in addition to amateurs, on creating imaginative environments from the remnants of old sets and other discarded objects. This video highlights the vision and development of the workshop as Baydoun describes the aim of his teaching methods.  


 

      

     [This video is produced by Medrar TV and is featured as part of a new partnership with Jadaliyya Culture.]