Composer guitarist
DIY Performative Systems - Light, Sound, Objects, and Interactive Scenography
Li He & Soli Jang & Hye Yong Sin & Thomas Geissl & José del Avellanal
Registration at li.he@stud.hfm-berlin.de
The number of participants is limited to 15 per workshop, and advance registration is required.
Format
4 Workshops
About
This interdisciplinary workshop series, developed collaboratively between composition and stage design, explores performative systems in which sound, light, sensors, objects, instruments, and electronic media are approached as active spatial and performative elements. Through collaborative experimentation, participants develop small-scale interactive environments combining electronics, sound, light, and scenographic interaction within concert, theatrical, and installation contexts.
The workshop series is structured around four interconnected areas: Kinetic Sound, Wireless MIDI and Interactive Systems, Light, Stage, and Spatial Interaction, and Electronic Scenography. Participants experiment with motor-driven sounding objects, sensor-based interaction, responsive lighting systems, electronic stage environments, and the extension of instruments through electronics and kinetic systems.
The workshops combine artist-led sessions, collaborative lab formats, peer learning, and independent experimentation. Technical knowledge is taught through hands-on practice, and no prior technical experience is required. Participants are encouraged to develop individual or collaborative performative systems according to their own artistic interests and disciplinary backgrounds.
Overview of Workshops:
Workshop 1: Kinetic Sound
Led by Hye Young Sin, this two-day workshop introduces the artistic and technical foundations of kinetic sound. Participants learn the basic principles of electricity, different types of motors, soldering techniques, and how to build simple motorized circuits. Through hands-on experimentation, motors are attached to everyday materials, found objects, and instruments to create movement, vibration, and sound. Working individually or in small groups, participants develop kinetic sound prototypes and explore their musical and performative possibilities. The workshop concludes with a shared presentation of the resulting objects and ideas.
Time, Date & Location
16th & 17th Oct 2026 13:00 - 17:30
Room 340 Bundesallee 1-12
Workshop 2: Wireless MIDI and Interactive Systems
Led by Thomas Geissl, this workshop introduces the rapid prototyping of custom MIDI controllers and MIDI-to-actuator devices using the Enomik Toolkit, based on ESP-NOW MIDI. Participants use ESP-based microcontrollers and common sensors to translate gesture, touch, and environmental input into MIDI messages for software environments such as DAWs and Pure Data.
In the opposite direction, incoming MIDI data is used to control physical outputs including LEDs, vibration motors, and resonant electroacoustic objects. This allows participants to create systems in which performed or sequenced MIDI material produces light, movement, vibration, and sound.
The system is designed to be accessible: it uses off-the-shelf components, requires no soldering, and can be configured through a browser without writing firmware. Through individual and collaborative experiments, participants develop wireless and distributed interactive systems that can be further used in artistic practice
Dates, Times & Locations
Session 1
24th & 25th October 2026, 11:00–18:00
Room 340, Bundesallee 1–12
Session 2
7th & 8th November 2026, 11:00–18:00
Public Showcase:
8th November, 17:00
Time and location to be confirmed.
Workshop 3: Electronic Scenography: DIY Stage Systems and Electronic Ecologies
led by Soli Jang and Li He, this workshop explores how electronic components can be embedded into stage design, installation, and performative spatial structures.
Using microcontrollers, embedded display systems, LED strips and DIY circuitry, participants will create suspended electronic objects and distributed stage environments that combine light, media and sound.
The workshop approaches electronics not as hidden infrastructure, but as visible and active stage material, where cables, light, screens, and circuitry function as spatial and performative elements within the stage environment.
Dates, Times & Locations
15th & 16th & 17th Jan 2027
11:00 - 16:00
Location to be confirmed
Workshop 4: Light, Stage, and Spatial Interaction
led by composer and light designer José del Avellanal Carreño, focuses on approaches to light design from the perspective of musicians and performance makers. The workshop combines lecture, practical workshop, and showcase. Participants are introduced to basic theatrical lighting workflows, DMX systems, and accessible digital tools that allow artists to work with light without requiring extensive experience with lighting consoles. Through examples from the artist’s own projects, the workshop explores how sound and light can be integrated with varying degrees of synchronisation in different performative contexts.
The practical workshop focuses on the development of individual or collaborative projects. Participants will create their own sound-and-light compositions, using pre-recorded audio material of their choice as their starting point, such as fragments of music, radio plays, field recordings, or spoken text, and developing a synchronised light design for it. The workshop culminates in a public showcase in which the projects are presented as looping audiovisual installations or performative presentations within an open stage setting.
Dates, Times & Locations
1st & 2nd March 2027
Probensaal, Bundesallee 1-12
Times to be confirmed
Two additional workshop days to be confirmed
Hye Young Sin is a Seoul-born, Berlin-based artist working across visual art, experimental music, and live performance. In her sound performances, she develops sonic constellations in which objects become instruments and active agents. Using low-tech and DIY electronics, she engages sound, movement, and material behaviour, exposing tensions between human intention and material autonomy
Thomas Geissl is an artist and creative coder whose practice moves between interactive systems, sound, and experimental instrument making. He developed ESP-NOW MIDI and Enomik 3000, a zero-code toolkit for creating custom MIDI devices and networked instruments. His work explores how sensor-driven interfaces and wireless communication can shape performative and spatial experiences. He designs and builds his instruments under Grantler Instruments and is part of 3e8, a studio for interactive exhibits and productions with creative technologies, located in Vienna and Berlin.
https://thomasgeissl.github.io/whoami/
Soli Jang is a scenographer, costume designer, and performer whose practice explores the relationships between space, the body, material, and narrative. Working across theatre, dance, musical theatre, and film, she creates immersive visual environments in which costume, movement, and architecture become interconnected forms of storytelling. Her site- and performance-responsive designs emerge through collaborative and interdisciplinary processes, developed in dialogue with performers, directors, and audiences. Active in the field since 2023, she works as a stage and costume designer. Born in South Korea, she moved to Berlin in 2018 and graduated from the Universität der Künste Berlin with a degree in Stage Design.
José del Avellanal Carreño is a Spanish composer, performer and light designer working at the crossroads of contemporary music, multimedia art and experimental music theatre. His music, including instrumental, electronic, multimedia, and music theatre works, has been showcased in festivals such as impuls (AT), Echi (IT), Rümlingen (CH), Resis (ES), Foresty (IT) and SONIC MATTER (CH), and he has worked as a light designer for performances in, amongst other venues, the Shanghai Concert Hall (CN), St. Cecilia’s Hall (Edinburgh, UK), Tanzhaus Basel (CH), TD Theater (Berlin, DE) and the Grosse Halle of the Reitschule Bern (CH).
https://www.josedelavellanal.com/