In this edition of Kein Kino, Matheus Leston traces a through-line across his practice as artist and musician: how technologies of making and seeing shape what we perceive as art.
Starting from the friction of translating and comparing design histories, Leston uses generative methods, delegating decisions to algorithms or co-performers, to test where authorship, interpretation, and measurement begin to slip. This thread culminates in a reconsideration of the concert as a distinct artistic form rather than “music with extras,” asking how staging, apparatus, and material assembly co-produce meaning. Across works, the point is less to reconcile sound and image than to dwell in their incompatibilities, and to show how those tensions recalibrate spectatorship itself.
Kein Kino is an interdisciplinary lecture series presented by the Department of Design of Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), focusing on projects at the intersection of design, arts, and technology, with the goal of examining trends critically and identifying productive collaborations between disciplines. The theme of the current edition of Kein Kino is “Design Realities – Future Technologies.”
Program
- 12:30pm – Event Starts
- 1:30pm – Q&A
- 2:00pm – End
iCal / Outlook
Event start time
-
New York
12:30PM -
Switzerland
6:30PM
Keynote
Matheus Leston is a musician, artist, and creative technologist whose work probes the gap, rather than the harmony, between sound and image, body and algorithm, presence and mediation. With a BA in Literature (USP) and training in audio engineering, he treats the computer not as a tool but as matter and method, composing experiences where code, light, and acoustics become dramaturgy. Leston also teaches Max/MSP, sharing a process-driven approach that privileges systems, rules, and real-time decision making.
Key works include Orquestra Vermelha (2013–, album 2019), an expanded band where he performs alongside life-size projections of absent musicians to question what counts as “live”; Moiré (2019), for two computer-played acoustic pianos, modular synthesis, and programmed light; and Céu Zero (2024–25), a light-and-sound installation that reframes horizon and depth as temporal sculpture. His generative series, Pedra Pássaro and 256×256×256×256, translate algorithmic constraints into organic visual motion. Beyond the art field, Leston builds responsive environments for brands and architecture, including interactive visuals for Hermès, a generative identity for Galeria Melissa – 20 years, pop-up activations for Mizuno, and runway/immersive collaborations (e.g., BRIFW/Renner). He has composed for film and TV (notably Contos do Edgar) and performed with Patife Band.
Partners
This edition of Kein Kino is present in collaboration with the Department of Design of Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and Swissnex in Brazil.
