Mydriasis is a multisensorial performance, research, and artist duo formed in 2022 by visual artist Anna Matveinen and musical instrument designer Mateo Mena. They are focused on the ephemeral nature of stimuli and the dynamics of perception; how we observe the world around us, and how these experiences are imprinted in our brain. Their most recent work, Latent Remembrance, deepens into the emotional role of memory when exposed to sound, scent, or speech patterns, which areas of the brain they activate, and the synesthetic combinations that these phenomena arouse in the listener. Focusing on smell and hearing, the narrative of this piece is designed to present an evolving and dissolving memory restoration. As the performance unfolds and the sensorial information hits the spectator, several regions of the brain -from the olfactory bulge to the neocortex- are activated through external brain waves. The neural resonance recreates a recall impulse for activating both the perpetual memories and the conceptual memories. By using scientific concepts such as brainwave synchronization, olfactometry, or cognitive studies in a frame of an artistic practice it is possible to bring a new perspective on how the synergy of stimuli can create a work of art that touches a person’s emotions on multiple levels, and provide a visceral yet gentle bodily event. —--- Regarding the sound, it is built around a specially designed instrument that enables different brainwave combinations to be played live. These oscillations, electrochemical impulses produced naturally by neurons to synchronize, are recreated using isochronic tones, rhythmic patterns that emerge in the collision of two or more sine waves tuned less than 40 hertz apart. The project investigates also the possibilities of the human voice and the different textures that it can create, through a text inspired by the phenomena of a primal memory recall that a scent can trigger. The language is deconstructed as a metaphor for the ephemeral qualities of recollections and aromas themselves. -- *A entrada no Desterro é exclusiva a sócios da DARC, pelo que para os não sócios acresce 3 euros da quota mensal *DARC is a members-only non-profit association, for non-members will be added a monthly membership fee of 3€
