Ariel Bustamante, artist-in-residence (2014 - 2015)

Ariel Bustamante, who is known for breaking the boundaries of traditional sound art, was elected to the Aalto University Residency Program through an open international search. In his work, Bustamante looks for ways to highlight the physical and cognitive dimensions of sound. Often, in his works, he combines architecture and sculpture with advanced media technology and scientific research.

During his two-year residency at Aalto University, Bustamente worked at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture at the Department of Media. The result of the residency, a comprehensive communal soundtrack "Why Do We Do the Things We Do?" consists of a series of self-reflective conversations between two or more individuals and a sculpture, an intimate, acoustically isolated conversation room. In the autumn of 2015, the conversation room was placed in the center of Helsinki at Kampintori, and it was a venue for numerous occasional conversations and encounters. The work still serves as a standstill for deep-seated conversations placed at Aalto University's Otaniemi campus.