Selwa Abd (Bergsonist) is a Moroccan-born, New York–based interdisciplinary artist, composer, and design researcher whose practice spans sound, performance, time-based media, and recorded music.
A recipient of the Issue Project Room Residency (2022), the Harvestworks Technology Immersion Program Grant & Fellowship (2022), the Jerome Hill Artist Alternate Award (2023), the NYFA x Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment Women Fund Grant (2024), and the NYSCA x Roulette Artist Grant (2025). Her work has been presented at MoMA PS1, Roulette, Moogfest, EKKO Festival, Mutek Festival, Sonic Acts Festival, Batalha Centro de Cinema, Amant and The Brooklyn Film Festival. Her practice has been recognized by The Washington Post, BOMB Magazine, GQ, Resident Advisor, Mixmag Mena, NPR and Artforum.
Her work engages the reconfiguration of archival material - found sounds, processed sounds, and live video - into immersive audiovisual environments and recorded music. Drawing on electroacoustic and musique concrète traditions and informed by Gilles Deleuze's interpretation of Henri Bergson, she employs electronics, DIY instruments, and granular and spectral techniques to examine postcolonial identity, techno-futurism, and the psychological effects of virtuality in contemporary culture.
Intuition serves as both a critical and operative framework throughout her practice.
In performance, her work blurs distinctions between the real and the virtual, proposing speculative temporalities while confronting the tensions of the present.
Her recent projects
— including ASL أصل ⴰⵙⵍ and As If Reality — expand her sonic practice into more complex archival and visual frameworks.
She has collaborated extensively across contemporary art and experimental music contexts, and has produced remixes for artists including Depeche Mode.
Her discography spans over a decade, comprising more than 7 albums, 15 EPs, and numerous featured releases on labels including Optimo Music, Columbia Records, Dark Entries and Tresor Records.
Abd is equally committed to community infrastructure and curatorial work. She is the founder of Pick Up The Flow, an NYC-based community resource for artists, and BIZAARBAZAAR, an independent publishing imprint.
She has been an NTS Radio DJ resident since 2018 and has curated music and events for projects including 3afak and various label compilations. She has also hosted and produced the PUTF podcast, featuring interviews with artists, curators, and creatives. Her curatorial practice is an ongoing and integral dimension of her work.
She has been invited to speak about her practice at Moogfest, MoMA PS1, and New Inc’s Demo Festival, and has served as a guest in classes at The New School, CalArts, and Pratt.
She holds a BFA in Communication Design from Parsons School of Design
(The New School).
contact
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design portfolio
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@bergsonist
@selwaabd
As If Reality is a multimodal series exploring the tension between physical and virtual worlds, ecological decline, and speculative futures — developed across performance, installation, album, and international residency formats since 2022.
As If Reality has been supported by:
Issue Project Room Artist-in-Residence Program (2022)
Harvestworks Technology Immersion Program Grant & Fellowship (2022)
Jerome Foundation Grant (2024)
Bergen Senter for Elektronisk Kunst (BEK) / EKKO Festival Residency (2024)
Batalha Centro de Cinema (2025)
As If Reality takes as its starting point David Chalmers' Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy, which proposes that as the physical world deteriorates, virtual worlds will offer new landscapes and possibilities.
Abd engages this thesis with both hope and unease, a position she calls Opti-pessimism, informed by Henri Bergson's philosophy of duration and intuition. The work confronts audiences with conflicting realities, prompting reflection on the future of humanity amid planetary decline.
The project draws on fragment-based systems and intuition as compositional methods, building sonic and visual worlds that function as simulations, altering scales of perception and extending creative research into speculative futures.
Initiated during Abd's Artist-in-Residence program at Issue Project Room in collaboration with Harvestworks (2022), the series has since expanded across five iterations on three continents.
Iterations:
Part I — Live Performance & Video Diptych Governors Island / Harvestworks / ISSUE Project Room, NYC — June 2022
A diptych comprising a 9-minute video work featuring footage from Governors Island alongside 3D fragments, paired with a 23-minute live performance using environmental sounds to immerse the audience in a physical representation of As If Reality. Taking inspiration from musique concrète, Abd harnessed found sound as raw energy — manipulating and decontextualizing it before merging it with sounds generated by her synths. Presented at the Harvestworks Art and Technology Program, Building 10a, Governors Island. Link
Part II — 360° Audiovisual Performance ISSUE Project Room x Center for Performance Research, NYC — November 2022
A multimedia performance featuring 3D and designed objects, 360° video projections, and a live sonic and visual score. This iteration incorporated footage and visual fragments captured during Abd's travels in Morocco in summer 2022. Developed during her residency with the ISSUE Artist-in-Residence Program in collaboration with Harvestworks and the Center for Performance Research. Video production support: Greg Zifcak (Wavdwgs). Link
Album — As If Reality Released on BIZAARBAZAAR — May 2024
The album builds on the works created during Abd's 2022 residency at Issue Project Room x Harvestworks, supported by a grant from the Jerome Foundation. Design: Gina Lee. Mastering: Loric Sih.
Part III — Bergen, Norway Residency at Bergen Senter for Elektronisk Kunst (BEK) in collaboration with EKKO Festival — October 2024
Invited by BEK for a week-long residency, Abd recontextualized As If Reality for the city of Bergen — recording underwater field sounds from the city's piers, creating new electroacoustic compositions, and manipulating visual footage captured during her outings. The resulting performance at EKKO Festival drew additional inspiration from TJ Demos' Radical Futurisms, reflecting on the pressing political and climate challenges of our time. Abd also conducted a masterclass at BEK, presenting the full As If Reality series and sharing insights into her creative process.
Part IV — New York City Return performance at ISSUE Project Room — February 2025
A new iteration of As If Reality presented at ISSUE, incorporating material developed during the Bergen residency. Footage and photography by Cameron Kelly McLeod, courtesy of Issue Project Room.
Part V — Porto, Portugal Batalha Centro de Cinema, as part of Câmara Sonica — June 2025. Curated by Diana Policarpo and João Polido.
Documentation courtesy of ISSUE Project Room, 2022
As If Reality Part I, ISSUE Project Room (Streamed), 2022
As If Reality Part I, ISSUE Project Room x Harvestworks x Governors Island, 2022
As If Reality Part II, ISSUE Project Room x Center for Performance Space, 2022
Design by Gina Lee
Still from the audiovisual project As If Reality, Norway, 2024
As If Reality Part III, ISSUE Project Room, 2025. Photography by Cameron Kelly McLeod.
As If Reality Part III, Batalha Centro de Cinema, Porto, 2025 (Excerpt here)