All welcome, pre-registration encouraged

Strings/∅ is an intimate, process-based session exploring calibration through sound, an ongoing negotiation with feedback, error and environment. Guitarist and ambience-focused sound practitioner Lucio Avancena transforms the space into a bedroom studio set, improvising live with self-modified guitars and pedalboards shaped through texture, space and repetition. As he works the signal in response to the room and the feedback of his own sound, corrections become material. Visitors are invited behind the scenes of music creation, where sound takes shape as a form of worldbuilding.

This programme is organised by Assembly 2025-2026 member Saiki Padhy as part of the Youth Takeover 2026.

This programme happens in conjunction with Community Assembly: Sound & Music gathering. This session builds a natural community bridge between the exhibition and the UAE’s active independent music scene through hands-on musical experiences and activities.

Lucio Avancena is a guitarist and artist who focuses more on feeling than just technique. His playing leans into ambient and alternative styles, using tone, effects and layering to create sounds that feel immersive and atmospheric. Instead of just playing parts, he builds moods and textures that pull you in. He is always experimenting—trying new ideas, shaping his sound and not sticking to the usual rules. For him, the guitar isn’t just an instrument, it’s a way to express something more personal and cinematic.

Saiki Padhy is an artist-researcher and sound designer from India. His work explores the interplay between emerging technologies, urban policy and the top-down structures that shape urban spaces.