OPERATOR

Fun and Awe

FILE SÃO PAULO 2026: Inter-creativity – Art and Technology – Augmented Realities
Electronic Language International Festival

Operator – United Arab Emirates

OPERATOR is an XR music production tool for Apple Vision Pro. Inspired by industrial design and architectural models, it allows for an intuitive interactive experience that is closer in its mechanics to arranging the building blocks than it is to using the audio production software. The app uses the language of simple spatial interactions and moves away from the traditional flat-screen experience — each created composition exists as a sculpture integrated into a real space through the XR mode.

BIO

A studio with a diverse experience that includes artists, engineers, writers, and designers, they build applications, design interactions, and develop concepts for XR that are focused on humans and our shared experience. Our boutique-sized team, founded by designer and director Maxim Zhestkov, explores the possibilities of the XR medium independently and in collaboration with brands.

Sphere Packing
“Sphere Packing” is a series of 3D-printed pieces designed to concentrate the entire musical production of a composer in a single dense multi-channel device. The size of each sphere is directly proportional to how prolific the composer was, for example the sphere for Johann Sebastian Bach has 48 cm diameter and holds 1100 loudspeakers playing simultaneously Bach’s 1100 different compositions, while the sphere for Hildegaard Von Bingen only has 11 cm diameter and 69 loudspeakers. The project presents at a glance the comparative production volume of many composers. As people are a couple metres away from a sphere they hear a quiet murmur of sounds, but as they approach and put their ear up close to individual speakers they can hone in on specific compositions. The series is inspired by American composer Charles Ives’ practice of simultaneity as a compositional tool.