During Tarek Atoui’s month long residency, he continues his Empty Cans project and conducts a two-week music and technology workshop with New York City teenagers from the New Museum’s high school program, G:Class, in collaboration with New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Tonight’s engagement is the culmination of this workshop, in which the participants present work they have created using Wii controllers to manipulate original video in live performance.

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Atoui initiated his practice of working with youth in France in 2005 with Empty Cans, a music and video workshop for teenagers based on Atoui’s software program of the same name. Atoui developed the performance software Empty Cans as a tool that is accessible and easy for youth. The application runs synchronized music and video manipulated with Sony PlayStation or Nintendo Wii controllers. He subsequently brought the project to several groups of Palestinian teenagers in refugee camps in Lebanon, and has since realized workshops in the Netherlands, France, and Egypt.

Atoui’s final work from this workshop as well as documentation of the performance, will be included in the Museum as Hub “In and Out of Context” project opening August 2009. Atoui will also host an artist talk in the Museum as Hub space to discuss this work and his wider varied practice.

Tarek Atoui is an electro-acoustic musician who creates a distinctive soundscape using digital technology in intensely expressive performances. Using dedicated programs of his own design for each composition, Atoui’s experimental practice draws on traditions of electronic music, performance art, and digital technology to create a unique method of working across disciplines and social groups. Born in 1980 in Lebanon, Atoui moved to France in 1998 to study contemporary and electronic music at the French National Conservatoire at Reims. He currently lives and works in Beirut and Amsterdam. In addition to the Empty Cans workshop, Atoui will perform as part of the New Museum’s Get Weird music series in a special showcase of electronic music July 24, 2009.