CREATE A SOUNDSCAPE — COLLABORATIVE AUDIO-KILIM

Workshop & collaborative project · Meakusma Festival / Atelier Kunst und Bühne, Eupen · 2026

Saba Arat developed and led this collaborative project over several months, bringing together Eupen’s local weaving community and Meakusma Festival participants to create an interactive audio-kilim.

During summer 2026, six women from Eupen created a collaborative patchwork textile following the project’s interactive design, incorporating 12 conductive touch points into the weaving. Virginie Noël led the weaving process locally.

During the Meakusma workshop, Saba introduced participants to the electronic system behind her interactive kilims and guided the group through transforming the woven piece into a working sound interface. Together, they cabled and soldered the touch points, connected the textile to the electronics, tested the interactions, and selected and recorded sounds for the finished work.

The sound material was rooted in Eupen. Some recordings were selected from The Memory Room, a 2018 field-recording project led by Mike Harding and Chris Watson in the High Fens–Eifel region. Additional sounds were recorded together inside the weaving atelier, connecting the sound material directly to the place where the textile was made. Tarxun collaborated on the sound development.

The finished installation was exhibited at Meakusma Festival 2026, alongside Saba Arat’s interactive Yörük installation.

CREDITS

Project development & workshop lead: Saba Arat
Weaving direction: Virginie Noël
Sound synthesis & mix: Tarxun

Weavers:
Elizabeth Miesen · Lieve Deckers · Hildegard Kück · Margret Meyer · Irene Schumacher · Virginie Noël

Participants:
Lisa Marie Vandenbeagle · Judith Theleh · Michele Matice · Lucas Polydordy · Nina Reip · Andrea Lukić

Additional sound material: The Memory Room (2018), workshop by Mike Harding & Chris Watson.