“I’m interested in creating a space where students can come in and actively participate.”
Mani Mazinani has been named the 2026 Connected Minds Artist-in-Residence supported by Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology.
Mazinani will work closely with students from York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD) creating opportunities for knowledge exchange across the three Connected Minds pillars of society, neuroscience and behaviour, and intelligent technologies.
In his on-campus studio, where he’s been working since October, the first work he introduces is Solar Organ.
Designed and built by Mazinani, he describes it as a pentatonic tonal sound field generator, operating as both an instrument and an audio/visual installation work.
“My approach to art making has always been multidisciplinary,” says Mazinani. “Some people might wonder why Sensorium would support a ‘music’ project, but my background has always moved across many forms.”
Central to Solar Organ is Mazinani’s research into pentatonic scales and their relationship to human experience. Drawing from musical traditions across cultures and time, he has studied how pentatonic systems align with the way people naturally perceive sound, and how these structures can shape listening as a bodily, intuitive experience rather than a specialized skill.
Mazinani’s background and influences
Born in Tehran and based in Toronto, Mazinani has spent more than two decades building a practice that moves fluidly between disciplines, institutions and public space.
As an undergraduate student, Mazinani studied studio art alongside philosophy, with a particular interest in ancient thought. That study led him to question linear, Eurocentric narratives of knowledge, and to see perception, culture and history as deeply interconnected.
This perspective continues to inform how he approaches sound, space and interaction in his work.
"I’ve always been interested in perception,” he says. “Not just how people experience an artwork, but how becoming aware of your own perceptual systems can carry into everyday life.”
Mazinani frequently works in collaboration with musicians, community spaces and audiences who may not see themselves as artists.
Installation view, MOCA Toronto. Photo by LF Documentation
Installation view, MOCA Toronto. Photo by LF Documentation
For a 2022 project entitled Mobile Melody, he developed a multi-channel sound installation in collaboration with Hirut, an Ethiopian restaurant on Toronto’s Danforth neighbourhood, transforming the space into an immersive sonic environment rooted in pentatonic music traditions.
For Mazinani, these settings are essential to how the work functions.
“I don’t see music as something only specialists do,” he explains. “Making sound, listening closely, improvising together, those are human activities. You don’t need training to benefit from them.”
Collaboration with students
Throughout the residency, Mazinani plans to open his studio as a space for experimentation, conversation and collective listening. He is especially interested in working with AMPD students across different programs, from visual art and design to music and digital media, creating opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and low-pressure creative exchange.
“I’m interested in creating a space where students can come in and actively participate,” he says. “Not just to see finished work, but to be part of the process as it’s unfolding.”
Improvised music sessions, open studio visits and hands-on workshops will form a core part of that engagement at AMPD.
Rather than focusing on technical mastery, Mazinani hopes to foster environments where students can explore sound, perception and creative risk together.
“What excites me about being at York is the range of students working across disciplines,” Mazinani says. “I’m interested in what happens when people from different backgrounds come together.”
The first public SOLAR SESSION will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 3.
More details will be shared on AMPD's events page.
About Mani Mazinani
Mani Mazinani is a Toronto-based artist making installation, video, film, sculpture, photographs, multiples, sound and music. His practice evolved from an early interest in sound recording, now working with the process of translating thoughts into recordings in various media. His visual work thinks about scale and perception, often combining subject matter and medium. Mazinani is currently researching origins of ancient thought, perceptual limitations of humans, and improvisation. Exhibition and performance history includes Evergreen Brick Works (2024), MOCA Toronto (2024), Tate Modern (2019), The Bentway, Toronto (2018), Tehran International Electronic Music Festival (2017), SIP Culture Centre, Suzhou (2016).
Learn more at manimazinani.net.
Sensorium
Housed within AMPD, Sensorium is a leading research centre dedicated to creative inquiry at the intersection of media arts, performance, and digital culture. Bringing together artists, scholars, and technologists, Sensorium serves as a dynamic hub for interdisciplinary collaboration and artistic experimentation.
Connected Minds
Led by York University in partnership with Queen’s University, Connected Minds is a first-of-its-kind research program that studies the risks and benefits modern technology has on society, now and in the future. Connected Minds brings together experts from across multiple disciplines to explore and seek answers on how best to balance technological progress and its unintended consequences for society, particularly for equity-deserving groups.
Cover image: Mazinani performing with Dastgāh, 2024 by Alexis Nanibush-Pamajewong