A Message for Us
“A Message for Us” was composed for the OBFCS and premiered by the ensemble ChatterPDX. The piece is rooted in a call for transformation, a reminder that humanity is in urgent need of change. Through its musical language, it seeks to awaken a collective awareness: an invitation to reconnect with one another, to rebuild a sense of empathy and unity, and to embrace a peaceful coexistence with the natural world.
The work unfolds as a sonic dialogue, where instrumental textures merge and diverge like voices in a shared community. The music serves as both a warning and a hope: a message urging us to listen more deeply to each other, and to the planet that sustains us.
Microscopic Scene
Microscopic Scene explores the hidden micro-worlds that quietly shape our sensory experience. Using a simple mixture of water and soil frozen on a microscope slide, I filmed the gradual transformation as ice crystals dissolved, soil particles began to move, and mineral textures emerged. These shifting environments reveal a dynamic landscape normally invisible to us.
The sound is an original electronic composition created in Max/MSP, built from textured synthesis rather than traditional harmony. Audio and image mirror physical processes, pressure, friction, and melting, blurring the line between scientific observation and artistic abstraction.
Surrounding photographs taken in New Haven pair images of a decaying power plant with delicate traces of life still enduring. This contrast highlights the connection between industrial exploitation and increasingly severe weather patterns. The radio becomes a receiver of warning, a relic transmitting the future we have shaped. The installation asks viewers to listen closely before the signals and the ecosystems fall silent.
Radio Gallery No. 1 is a multimedia installation addressing the ecological consequences of human impact on nature. At its center is a vintage radio broadcasting a soundscape that merges field recordings of wind, birds, and water with archival hurricane warnings and storm coverage. The result creates a powerful tension: the serenity of natural environments is disrupted by urgent signals of the climate crisis.
The abandoned power plant in New Haven
I would be glad to share my works on Soundcloud.
Arshia Rahmati 