Exploring the Invisible – An Interview with Sound and Intermedia Artist Alba Triana

Alba Triana artistic practice is holistic, exploring the natural world as an indivisible whole in which the human condition is an inseparable part. With this exhibition, she deepens her ongoing research, transforming the space and pushing the boundaries of her work as she delves into “the ethereal realms from which everything originates”.

The artist creates immersive environments that expand our physical experience by revealing the natural vibratory activity of objects and spaces, both audibly and visually. Her works include multisensory installations, sound and light sculptures, and vibrational objects, utilising a fusion of analogue techniques and contemporary technologies.

“Dialogue with the Primordial Sea” was selected as a “Curator’s Pick” by Executive Director Lorie Mertes from the submissions to the 2024 Knight Digital Commissions open calls.

AT – My journey as an artist began in my childhood—or perhaps even before I was born. I grew up immersed in creativity and artistic inquiry, guided by an unconventional mom who placed the arts and sciences at the core of my education. My early years were filled with music, poetry, painting, mathematics, and corporeal expression. My maternal grandfather, a poet and cultural promoter, was one of the most important influences in my life; our shared love for the arts forged a profound bond between us. On my dad’s side, music was a passion: my father was a melomaniac, and his father one of the founders of the Symphonic Orchestra in Colombia. This legacy naturally led me to attend the conservatory at the age of eight. These influences wove together to make my childhood a vibrant foundation of holistic creative experimentation, with music at its center.
Later on, I began my artistic career as a music composer, creating symphonic and electroacoustic pieces. While I deeply loved and excelled in this practice, I used to feel something was missing—a connection to the holistic and exploratory creativity of my upbringing. Despite experimenting with electronic music and collaborative projects, I mostly remained creating within the system of my college education.
Then, a personal event disrupted my ability to sit and compose music. Believing I couldn’t work, I hired an assistant to help me experiment freely, without any professional expectations. The new situation presented an opportunity to be fully playful and unbound. This process reignited the “poetic state” that had defined my childhood. New, profound questions began to emerge, which they were organically answered by the experimental process.
Over time, I realised a new body of work had emerged. It felt like a rebirth, a new beginning. My pieces fully embraced the installation format. While musically conceived, they transcended the boundaries of music and sound, incorporating all forms of vibration and energy as main material. I came to understand that I didn’t need to be confined by culturally-set boundaries. Art was no longer just a form of expression but a powerful form of knowledge that enabled me to delve deeply into the unknown.

AT – Delirious Fields is a series of artworks and a line of research I began in 2018. The series explores the relationship between our tangible surroundings and the imperceptible forces that constitute and govern everything in the natural world, even us. At the core of each piece is an intangible “material” that we cannot perceive: electromagnetic fields. Though invisible and inaudible to us, the fields reveal themselves through their interaction with tangible elements arranged throughout the space.
The works in this series are inherently performative, crossing the boundaries of multiple disciplines. They can be experienced as choreographies, performances, sound art pieces, or installations. Imperceptible forces bring life to inanimate objects, generating ever-evolving movements that acquire an expressive character. These works delve into the intricate interplay between the tangible and intangible, the individual and the collective, chance and organisation, and the self-organising processes inherent to nature. Amid an apparent randomness, expressive patterns and synchronised behaviors emerge, naturally and spontaneously, shaped by the interaction between the elements within each piece.
Rather than directly creating each work myself, I establish the conditions that allow each artwork to self-generate and evolve over time. This approach mirrors natural processes of emergence and transformation, imbuing each work with its own unique life.
For the new installation at Locust Projects, I’ve taken the ideas of the Delirious Fields series to a new level in terms of scale and scope. For the first time, the installation engages with an entire room in such a dense and complex manner. This piece goes further conceptually by interacting dynamically with environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, and the presence of people in the room. These layers of interactivity deepen the exploration of unity and interconnectedness in nature, ensuring that every experience of the work is unique.

AT – My work emerges from a deep interest in nature and its inseparable relationship with the human condition. It delves into the essence of the natural world—omnipresent vibration, interconnectedness, and nature’s self-organisation. I am particularly drawn to observing how these fundamental phenomena manifest through our human condition, shaping our desires, social structures, creations, and everything we express.
I am in awe of the fact that all of this—even art itself—originates from minuscule interactions among waves and energy. This realisation fuels my exploration of how these invisible forces influence both individual behaviors and collective dynamics.
Through the contemplation of nature at a primordial level, my goal is to induce a sense of communion and profound identification with the fundamental elements that animate and unite us. Connecting with this shared essence—the very essence of everything—has the potential to expand our consciousness. It helps us recognise our true role and position within the world, attune to the sublime, and access layers of wisdom and understanding that remain beyond our logical understanding.

AT – My creative processes are often lengthy and unfold in phases. They typically begin with a curiosity or question, sometimes vague or undefined. From there, I dive into experimentation in my studio, which functions as a sort of creative lab. During the experimentation process, at some point I encounter something that I find fascinating. That’s when the actual creative process begins. I isolate this subject, manipulating and refining it until I feel it has transformed into a finished work of art.
Since I aim to reveal the natural world rather than illustrate or simulate it, my pieces manifest in the physical realm. The final artwork is presented to the public through analog means.
However, I integrate both low-tech and high-tech approaches during the creative process. Low-tech and DIY methods help me make intangible aspects of reality perceptible. I use digital technologies to devise systems from which the work will self-generate and evolve over time. Digital tools also allow me to analyse natural systems and figure out the techniques that help me manifest ethereal aspects of reality in the physical space.
Collaboration is at the core of my practice. I work with a small team of exceptional individuals who help bring my abstract and intuitive ideas to life. Together, we experiment and develop the technical components necessary for the work to exist.

AT – My creative journey has evolved organically over time. I began with a focus on music composition, but as my practice matured, it expanded to embrace visual and spatial elements. This integration happened naturally, driven by my desire to explore vibration as phenomena that extend beyond the audible realm. The installation setting allows me to manifest the natural world in its fullness—temporal, spatial, audible, tactile, visible, or ethereal—without being confined to any single sensory channel.
As I mature as an artist, I’ve come to see myself as a vehicle for the artwork to emerge. I view art as an expression of the universe through the human being. I approach the creative process by allowing the artwork to guide me, staying receptive to its needs and incorporating whatever is necessary for it to take form.
This approach has led me to extensive research and collaboration with scientists, engineers, and designers who help devise the techniques and functional elements each work requires. For example, I’ve devised scientific methods informed by interferometry to visualise vibrations, or AI to design self-generating systems. I don’t collaborate or experiment for its own sake; it’s always driven by the questions and needs emerging from the creative process. I follow where the process leads, responding to what it asks to bring the artwork into being.

AT – My practice has evolved from music composition to sound art and, more recently, to newer, less defined explorations. Lately I have been integrating biometric technologies into my practice, examining the human body as a natural, vibrational entity that is shaped by its psycho-cultural context.
Recognising the technological era as a natural step in our evolutionary process, I aim to further incorporate bio-technological interfaces, AI, and robotics into my future explorations. I’m interested in creating a link between the essence of nature—from which everything originates—to the digital revolution we are witnessing, which will greatly transform us and the art we create.

AT – Miami is defined by a natural beauty that I deeply resonate with. I adore its lushness and living surrounded by plants, animals, parrots, peacocks, and other birds, embraced by wonderful weather. Every day, I take a sunset walk, just when birds begin heading to the empty islands in the bay to sleep. Hundreds of them soar through the sky in swooping, intricately coordinated patterns. Their songs mingled across species. It’s a truly multisensory experience—I get to see the shifting sunlight spectrum, smell the ocean, and feel the heat and humidity in the environment. This is primarily how Miami nurtures my practice.

The city is also home to many beautiful parks. I recommend visiting the Fairchild Botanical Garden, taking the water taxi, exploring a botanica in Little Haiti, and heading to the Cape Florida Lighthouse at Bill Baggs Park in Key Biscayne.