Matheus Leston is an artist, musician and developer based in São Paulo, Brazil, whose work explores the relationship between sound and image. He treats code as a language, building systems and observing what emerges rather than executing ideas that are already finished. Through his studio he develops commissioned interactive installations, generative design and immersive spaces with other artists and brands.
He has also minted pixel-based digital art on Tezos under the name 256x256x256x256, alongside work as a gif artist and the creator of physical installations.With the artist lowkolos he created temporal_coherence_1, an audio-reactive NFT released on the platform Versum.
In April 2023 Leston led the first session of the Music and Sound Narratives module in the Museum of Tomorrow's Arte do Amanhã program in Rio de Janeiro, framing generative music as an approach that replaces linear composition with systems and rules. He traced the practice's foundations to John Cage's open scores, Steve Reich's phasing technique, and Brian Eno's concept of ambient and generative music. At the session he presented Yesterday, the Beatles song stretched to 24 hours as a gesture of freezing time. He also presented his generative 3D series Pedra Pássaro, built in Blender from rule systems that generate infinite variations. Another work shown was Orquestra Vermelha, a live performance in which he plays guitar while recorded, silhouetted musicians appear on LED panels to explore presence, absence, improvisation and playback. He also showed Morrer, a piece for two computer-controlled acoustic pianos. He closed with a live demonstration of the software Max/MSP, including a Telegram bot that generates music from messages sent in the chat.
