Artist Talk: Creating Interactive Playgrounds for Artistic Exploration in between the Arts mit Prof. Dr. Jacob Sello (MHL)
Artist Talk: Creating Interactive Playgrounds for Artistic Exploration in between the Arts mit Prof. Dr. Jacob Sello
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Creating Interactive Playgrounds for Artistic Exploration in between the Arts
In this lecture, Jacob Sello offers insight into his artistic practice, sharing compositional and technological strategies that shape his work. At the heart of his approach lies an ongoing dialogue between artistic vision and technological innovation.
Two opposing yet complementary processes can be observed: in some cases, a clear musical or conceptual idea demands the creation of a new technical tool; in others, the process begins with open-ended experimentation or the intuitive exploration of emerging technologies—processes that generate new performative ideas and compositional methods. These, in turn, are tested and refined in live contexts, framing artistic research as an embodied and experiential practice.
Jacob’s work resists repetition and embraces risk. His ever-evolving practice spans a broad aesthetic and technological spectrum, yet a common thread across nearly all his pieces is a high degree of interactivity. This introduces not only complexity, but also the inherent possibility of failure—an artistic risk he continues to embrace even after 25 years. It is precisely this tension between control and unpredictability that fuels his creative momentum and keeps the work alive.
BIO
Prof. Dr. Jacob Sello (*1976) studied Audio Engineering (SAE Hamburg) and Multimedia Composition (HfMT Hamburg, M.A.), and earned his PhD in Systematic Musicology from the University of Hamburg with a dissertation on the history and perception of sound installation art.
His artistic focus lies in exploring the creative potential of interactivity in hybrid stage formats. This interest has led to works such as compositions for clarinet-controlled RC helicopters, dance performances generating instrumental scores in real time, and music for a turntable-controlled, pneumatically prepared Disklavier.
Since 2010, he has been developing the award-winning Hexenkessel—a multitouch-enabled timpani that merges percussion performance with digital interface design.
Jacob heads the InnoLab at the ligeti center, where he develops new musical instruments and interfaces for interdisciplinary performance. His works have been featured at the San Francisco Symphony’s SoundBox, the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, the Margaret Guthman New Instrument Competition (Atlanta, USA), the NIME Conference (Oslo), and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie Greatest Hits Festival, among others.