ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

“This room is a research space, a classroom, a rehearsal room, and a very small venue,” said Badie Khaleghian, addressing the handful of people who had come to check out ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ’s new multimedia facility.

Assistant Professor of Digital Music Khaleghian is an accomplished composer and multimedia artist celebrated both nationally and internationally. When he joined the ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ faculty last fall, his main task was to oversee the design and construction of CEMA. “I had already made a small version of this at home, so I started by building a 3D model of the space to show to administrators, giving them an idea of what the room can do and what it will look like.”

The result is a thirty-by-twenty-foot room, half of which is a state-of-the-art 180-degree curved projection screen, illuminated by four high-resolution projectors that seamlessly cover both the curved screen and the floor. The space is designed for multisensory experimentation, where sound and visuals interact dynamically in real time, opening new possibilities for performance, installation art, and research.

How does it work? All the visual effects are live renderings, explained Khaleghian, meaning none of the moving images you see are prerecorded—every performance is different. Furthermore, he added, the visuals are all run from a single PC, which operates two high-powered graphic processing units.

This impressive visual setup is complemented by an eight-channel surround sound system, with all the audio controlled by a Mac. “The beauty of it is, these are all network-based systems, so they're all in conversation together. This makes CEMA very practical for multimedia projects, creating an environment that deeply engages both creators and audiences.”

This whole creative process is described by Khaleghian as “world-building,” because “you can immerse yourself in sound and images, creating a different world, effectively.” From his background as a musician and composer, he said he has often felt that one of the key things missing in music is the idea of performance. “With a recording, you don't get the visual aspect. So, the main motive for me was to provide this missing element and build something that you need to be there to experience.”

Some of the research areas CEMA will be used for, said Khaleghian, include brain-computer interfaces for music and visualization, developing real-time systems where neural activity influences sound and visual media; field recording and soundscape composition, transforming environmental sound into artistic expression; gaming and interactive sound design, integrating electronic music into video game scoring and interactive storytelling; and artificial intelIigence and generative art, using machine learning and algorithmic composition in multimedia artworks.

Beyond being a research and production space, he added, CEMA also serves as an educational platform that nurtures new generations of experimental artists.

The venue, which seats about thirty people, will also host regular concerts for the ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ community, featuring musical and multimedia artists. The Close Encounters series launched with a 45-minute interactive intermedia concert titled Electric Sky Blue, composed by Khaleghian and performed by pianist and movement artist Caroline Owen on April 5. The performance, which featured piano, dance, and real-time intermedia, played to a full house. The series continued with the Give Way album release party, where Director of Jazz Ensembles and Lecturer in Music Kate Campbell Strauss invited the audience to a collective listening session of her debut album.