South Florida Center for Percussive Arts (SFCPA) will come alive January 30 and 31 with Chameleon, a two-day, multi-sensory performance and art installation merging live music with cutting-edge technology. Created by MF Dynamics with support from MAD Arts and funding by the Knight Foundation, the project reimagines how audiences experience sound and musical movement, turning the entire SFCPA into a playground of rhythm, color, and emotion.
Each evening audiences will experience four intimate performances that unfold across both outdoor and indoor environments. The event begins with an outdoor transformation of the SFCPA’s grounds into a stage and large-scale video canvas, inviting the public to witness the blurring of projection and performance. The evening continues inside, where attendees are surrounded by a 360-degree live music and visual environment. Within this space, new technologies will sonify the performers’ pulse and translate their movement and brainwave data into dynamic visual and sonic compositions revealing the living interplay between body, instrument, and environment.
Conceived by composer, percussionist, and new media artist Maria Finkelmeier (she/her/hers), Chameleon is inspired by her personal journey as an adoptee and lifelong curiosity about identity, perception, and transformation. Through music, projection, and motion, the work asks: What versions of ourselves exist in the minds of others? As our personas shift from one community to another, we adapt, recalibrate, and reveal new layers of who we are. Chameleon makes these invisible shifts visible and audible, inviting audiences to reflect on how we construct identity in response to the world around us.
Performances will feature students from South Florida Center for Percussive Arts with Finkelmeier and Boston-based hybrid artist Greg Jukes. Together, they create an experience that is both deeply human and technically daring, bridging generations, disciplines, and communities through shared rhythm and motion.
“Chameleon embodies what happens when art and technology intertwine to reveal something profoundly human,” says Finkelmeier. “We’re not just layering visuals on top of music, we’re uncovering the inner pulse of the performance itself.”
What: Chameleon — An Immersive Drum + Tech Experience
When: January 30 and 31 at 7:30 PM - Doors open at 6:00 PM
Where: South Florida Center for Percussive Arts, Miami, FL
Admission: Free - open to all ages and abilities
Chameleon is made possible by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, created by MF Dynamics with support from MAD Arts and presented by South Florida Center for Percussive Arts.
For guests with sound sensitivity, hearing protection is available. Due to the technology required to bring this work to life, performances will feature full wall projections that may be overwhelming to some individuals. for more information please contact: info@chameleonexperience.com