The recent Festival of Sound and Space offered a dazzling synthesis of new and recent eletro-acoustic and mixed media works by Gregory W. Brown, seasonal sounds, words manipulated in real time and improvisational dance.

The performance took place on Thursday, March 8 in Helen Hills Hills Chapel. The stars of the galactic show included Brown, Assistant Director of Choral Activities and Lecturer at Smith; Kevin Devaney, spoken word advocate and recent graduate of the Sarah Lawrence College MFA program; and Chris Aiken, a leading international teacher and performer of dance improvisation and contact improvisation.

The Festival of Sound and Space consisted of five succinct performances: “The Lily in a Crystal,” “Study #1 for Vibrabalneoaves,” “Why I Believe in Winter,” “The Buzzing” and “The Jeweled Prize.” The performances all act under the overarching theme of Word Made Noise.

The festival began on a dramatic note: with a heavy thump, the lights flashed on, immediately immersing the audience. For a “Lily in a Crystal,” the composer played a piano with computer-controlled electromagnets, manipulating the strings to produce lingering, ominous notes. This performance was characterized by interjections, altering pitch and frequency, and a sense of being encapsulated by the indefinable recitation of words.

In “Study #1 for Vibrabalneoaves,” the composer poured water onto a machine, creating a space-like quality. The instrument, better known as a vibrating birdbath, “receives computer generated sound waves and displays cymatic patterns in water.” The bouncing drops of water resemble active space matter.

“Why I Believe in Winter” is a “poem in five parts that strives capture with emotional honesty what it’s like when [things] get bleak,” said Devaney. The poem presents a series of personified conversations with nature, marked by the changing months of Winter. Brown mirrors the feeling of the poem with music compliant with its stark tone.

Short film “The Buzzing,” utilized footage of Samuel Beckett’s 1972 monologue Not I in a ghostly fashion. The increase in sound inputs created varying levels of coherence. At times, shouted words were definable and emphasized while at other times the screen seemed to be a flickering whisper.

The final act, “The Jeweled Prize,” featured music created by Aiken. Using the popular Microsoft Kinect device, Aiken improvised with equal amounts of slow, whirling movements, fast-paced sliding and daring handstands.

The Festival of Sound and Space emphasizes space in a figurative sense. Through music and literature, it recreated the elements of emotional space, and the dramatic structure of the event truly made one feel as if in another world.