MIYAMELO is a Zürich–Tokyo duo (MELO, Zürich; MIYA, Tokyo) of two sensor-augmented flutes and two self-developed improvisation machines. At index freiraum, their project Sensing Maps rethinks what a performance space can be.

Each of us carries hidden maps — deeply personal schemas of how we relate to our own bodies, to one another, and to the world around us. These maps of relation and perception are invisible and never fully knowable, yet we can learn to grow more sensitive to their presence. The philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty described perception as something rooted not in the mind alone, but in the living body: an invisible architecture that shapes how we encounter reality long before conscious thought begins. We consider these as hidden maps that in our project we wish to explore.

Our residency will begin with a series of experimentations towards developing embedded sensing interfaces that everyone in the room can interact with. Through multiple discreet sensors, the smallest thing a listener does — leaning in, stepping closer, holding a breath — can travel through the sensors and quietly change the sound the performers are playing inside. The sensors let one person's hidden map touch another's, but we don’t aim to explain these maps to anyone. Rather, through our intertwined human-machine sensing space, we hope to cultivate a sensitive realm where people can feel their way toward each other’s maps and where heightened sonic empathy can continue reverberating even when one leaves our special space. Our work will culminate in a series of intimate concerts of a few people each towards the end of August.

Freiraum-Aufenthalt im Jahr 2026 im Rahmen von index freiraum COLLAB.