Adriana Sá holds a PhD in Arts and Computing from Goldsmiths, University of London (2016) and a graduation degree in Fine Arts from the University of Lisbon (1996). She is a transdisciplinary artist, performer-composer-musician as well as editor-in-chief of the Live Interfaces journal. Her research bridges artistic practice, interaction design, audio-visual theory, neuroscience and experimental psychology. She published with Routledge (2022), MIT (Leonardo Almanac/ 2013 and Leonardo Transactions/ 2015 & Leonardo/ 2023), the Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts (2015), McGraw Hill Education (2012) and Documenta (2023), beyond xCoAx - Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X (2014/ 17/ 19) and NIME - Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (2007/ 14), among others. She chaired the International Conference on Live Live Interfaces in 2022 and 2014, and was the lead editor of a related e-book. Sá has been an invited professor at Coimbra University (2016-18), at ESAD / Upper School for Arts and Design (2016-2021), Lusófona University Lisbon (2016-2021) and Noroff University College (2024). Currently she is a member of the board at Lusófona and a member of CICANT - Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture and New Technologies. Simultaneously she continues to develop her artistic projects.
Sá found early recognition as a transdisciplinary artist, musician-performer-composer. Her custom instrumentation emerged in the context of residencies at STEIM, Metronom Electronic Arts Studio and Experimental Intermedia Foundation NY. In the 1990s she started using sensor technologies to explore sound connected to light, space, movement, architecture, weather and social context. Since 2008 she works with an audio-visual instrument that combines a custom zither and software that processes sound and image based on the zither sound, extending the physical space to a digital 3D world.
Sá’s artistic projects have been presented worldwide, in venues such as Aomori Contemporary Art Center in Japan; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Serralves Museum, Maria Matos Theatre, Bairro Alto Theatre, Chiado Museum, Casa da Música, Culturgest, Luzboa Biannual and Rivoli Theatre in Portugal; Caixa Forum, Arteleku and Museo Vostel in Spain; Institute of Contemporary Arts and Iklectic in the UK; Monty in Belgium; Experimental Intermedia Foundation and EyeBeam in NY. Her performances and installations were also presented in contexts such as the Circular Festival, Colina Project, Lisboa Soa Festival and Dar a Ouvir Festival (Pt); Ultrasound Festival, Atlantic Waves Festival and xxxxx (U.K.), Version Beta (Switzerland) and Festival Novas Frequências (Brasil). In addition to her shows, Sá produced and mixed two CDs released by Clean Feed, and participated with audio tracks in CDs released by EMF (State of the Union, 2000), MoMa (Volume: Bed of Sound, 2001) and The Wire (Atlantic Waves, 2005), among others.