“The Eye & Isabel’s Bathroom” – Live Music Performance and Interactive Visual Art at Newman Cinema

The Eye & Isabel’s Bathroom is a live music performance that combines original musical composition with interactive visual art. The musicians and the visual artist create together, in real time, a unified audiovisual composition. The image does not function as a background or accompaniment, but as a living visual element that interacts with the sound and shapes the final outcome alongside it. The audience experiences a staged performance in which music and visual composition evolve simultaneously.

The performance consists of two parts, both revolving around the central theme of the gaze.

The first part, The Eye (15’), focuses on the eye as a timeless symbol in art, connected to perception, memory, and the recording of experience. From painting to contemporary image-based media, the gaze functions as a carrier of presence. Drawing references from Pablo Picasso to contemporary artistic practices, the work translates this idea into live sound and moving image through live electronics, double bass, and interactive visual art that transform in real time on stage.

The second part, Isabel’s Bathroom (40’), is inspired by the work of Isabel Quintanilla and her realistic approach to intimate interior spaces. Simplicity, clarity, and attention to detail are transferred to the stage through double bass, baritone saxophone, voices, and live visual composition. The music, incorporating elements of improvisation, builds an internal narrative, while the visuals enhance the sense of space and intimacy.

The Eye & Isabel’s Bathroom is a performance of contemporary live art, where music and visual art coexist on equal terms and the gaze becomes the central meeting point of sound and image.

The visual palette combines realistic photography with digital processing, creating a result that moves between the real and the dreamlike. In the first part, participants photographed their own gaze, inspired by works of painting. In the second, they captured their personal perspective of a space, from a characteristic viewing angle.

Artists

Nefeli Stamatogiannopoulou (Nefeli Stam.) is a composer, performer, and researcher based in Athens, with a strong presence in the contemporary and electroacoustic music scene. She has composed more than 60 works for theatre, dance, film, and independent productions, exploring the relationship between sound, movement, and dramaturgy through a personal system of creation and notation. She performs on double bass, electric bass, piano, and electronics, while experimenting with the limits of the human voice. She is a PhD candidate at the Ionian University and founder of the artistic music groups Ov Off, Exactly That!, Low Feeders, and Spooky Redrum, as well as the Ov Off Studio.

Tasos Assonitis is an audiovisual artist whose work focuses on immersive audiovisual environments created through the creative fusion of synthesized sound and computer-generated 3D graphics. His artistic practice also includes multi-channel fixed-media compositions, sound installations, and music for moving image. He holds a PhD in Electroacoustic Composition from the University of Manchester.

Haris Pazaroulas is a double bassist based in Athens, born in Thessaloniki. He studied at the Ionian University, the Athens Conservatoire, and the Sibelius Academy in Finland. He is principal second double bass of the Athens State Orchestra and a member of the ensembles TETTTIX, Ov Off, and TANGartO. He is active in contemporary and experimental music, performing at international festivals and collaborating with leading orchestras and composers.

Joe Tornabene is a baritone saxophonist and performer with an international presence in music, theatre, and dance. For more than four decades he has been active in free improvisation and multimedia performance, appearing across Europe and the United States and collaborating with contemporary dance and experimental artists. He also teaches workshops on improvisation, sound, and embodied practice.

Low Feeders is a duo of contemporary exploratory music inspired by the combination of two low-register instruments and their potential interaction. The group consists of Joe Tornabene (baritone saxophone, voice) and Nefeli Stamatogiannopoulou (double bass, voice, electronics). Formed in 2022, they have released one live recording album.

Since 2015, the Ov Off group has developed a distinct artistic identity, combining contemporary music with other art forms to create multidimensional performances. Through works such as Quintet ’84, άϊζο, the bird, J., and The Glass Between, the group explores the relationships between sound, movement, and image. Under the artistic direction of composer Nefeli Stamatogiannopoulou, and in collaboration with specialized artists, the group has participated in notable festivals and venues.