Haroon Mirza's immersive sculptures, performances and installations test the interaction and friction between sound waves, light waves and electric current, which he manipulates as a living, invisible and volatile phenomenon. In 2009, in homage to Brion Gysin's Dreamachine, he designed Dreamachine 2.0. In place of the cobbled-together stroboscopic device, they substitute computer-controlled LED lights and incorporate sounds at frequencies that correspond to the brain's electrical activity. As part of the Biennale du son, he revisited this work in a performative version he named Self-transforming machine elves , in reference to Terence McKenna (1946-2000).

Haroon MirzaDuring your studies, you became fascinated with McLuhan's essay on acoustic space. Could you tell us how this inspired your work?
On the one hand, McLuhan 's essay essentially described how information broadcast on media platforms such as television or a newspaper behaves acoustically, because acoustic space, unlike linear visual space, is spherical, with sound propagating omnidirectionally at the same speed. This idea provided me with a practical basis for understanding that my work is in some way a synthesis between the visual and the acoustic, and that there is a spatial geometry in the way the content of my work (or any other work) is perceived.
The other important influence Mc Luhan's essays had on my work is the idea that before language, sight and hearing were one and the same mode of perception. So there was no distinction between eye and ear, visual space and acoustic space - it was all part of the "experience" of reality. This is the kind of space I want to explore in my work. That of pure experience, devoid of all sensory distinctions.

I read in an interview that you define yourself more as a composer than an artist. Could you elaborate on this?
I tend not to do that anymore, as it has sometimes gotten me into trouble with the stuffy, rich, old white men who dominate contemporary classical music. I like the term composer, because it describes the way we organize and record material, whether it's acoustic material in time, visual material in space or conceptual material with language. Most artists compost, and the term "artist" has no fixed meaning - it's a general term to define something we can't fully define. Besides, when I say I'm an artist, I feel like I'm telling people I'm unemployed! 

As evidenced by recent works such as Stone Circle and For A Dyson Sphere, you take environmental issues into account: is this a limiting or inspiring constraint for you?
It's not a constraint or limitation, but an awareness and responsibility that we all have as organisms on this planet. When we did the Stone Circle project, it was the most practical and efficient way to generate electricity in the desert. Before this project, I hadn't seen a single solar panel on the three-hour drive from El Paso to Marfa. After the project was launched, the solar company that sponsored us, Freedom Solar, opened a store in Marfa in response to demand! Although I'm no longer sure that solar power is the most efficient form of energy production, it is much more sustainable than the oil that makes Texas so rich.

Let's talk about the performance you presented on September 16 as part of the opening of the Biennale son. The performance took place in a disused hydroelectric plant: what role does the site play, physical or symbolic?
I've been making works and performances with electricity and water for a long time, sometimes using the chaotic nature of these two organic materials and, more often, their sound. The white noise of water and the pulse of electrical signals constitute an unlimited spectrum of compositional materials. The combination of water and electricity is always a critical and political act. One generates the other, but the combination of the two can be so dangerous that it is often used to facilitate suicide.
In this case, we're talking about a type of mediation that induces trances and hallucinations with the aim of synthesizing a near-death experience (NDE) through sound and light. These are "Self Transforming Machine Elves", as Terence McKenna calls the entities encountered under the influence of nn-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), the psychotropic substance used in Ayahuasca and naturally present in all plants and mammals, including us human beings.
The electrical signals are derived from earlier work carried out in collaboration with Siobhan Coen and in consultation with neuroscientists at Imperial College, whose groundbreaking studies have established the link between this near-death experience and dimethyltryptamine.

To conclude these interviews, I'd like to ask you the same question: What does this first son Biennale in Switzerland mean to you?
It's wonderful to be taking part in this inaugural biennial. There are a myriad of sub-groups within the general idea of art: sound art, media art, digital art.

Interview by Anne-Laure Chamboissier

Photos © David Bebber
Photos © Rowdy Dugan
Photos © Courtesy Lisson Gallery