Selwa Abd, also known as Bergsonist, is a Moroccan-born, New York–based multimedia artist, composer, performer, and researcher. Her practice spans live performance, audio-video installation, sound composition, and recorded music.
Abd has received the Issue Project Room Residency, the Harvestworks Technology Immersion Fellowship, the Jerome Hill Artist Alternate Award, the NYFA x Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment Women’s Fund Grant, and the NYSCA x Roulette Intermedium Artist Grant. 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. It has been covered by The Washington Post, BOMB Magazine, GQ, Resident Advisor, Mixmag Mena, NPR, and Artforum.
Her work reconfigures archival material (found sounds, processed sounds, and live video) into immersive environments and recorded music. Drawing on electroacoustic and musique concrète traditions, and informed by Gilles Deleuze’s reading of Henri Bergson, she works with electronics, DIY instruments, and signal processing, including granular and spectral techniques. Through these she examines postcolonial identity, techno-futurism, and the psychological effects of virtuality in contemporary culture.
Intuition is both a critical and an operative framework in her practice, and her research in media theory uses sound as a lens on how time, memory, and perception are mediated by technology. In performance, she blurs the line between the real and the virtual, proposing speculative temporalities while confronting the tensions of the present.
Her recent projects, ASL أصل ⴰⵙⵍ and As If Reality, extend her sonic practice into larger archival and visual frameworks.
Her discography spans more than a decade, with over seven albums, fifteen EPs, and numerous features on labels including Optimo Music, Borft Records, Columbia Records, Dark Entries, and Tresor Records. She has also remixed artists including Depeche Mode and collaborated widely across contemporary art and experimental music.
Curation and community-building are integral to her work. Abd founded Pick Up The Flow, an NYC-based community resource for artists, and BIZAARBAZAAR, an independent publishing imprint.
She has been an NTS Radio resident since 2018, has curated events and label compilations, and hosts and produces the PUTF podcast, featuring conversations with NYC-based artists, curators, and creatives.
She has spoken about her practice at BEK, Moogfest, MoMA PS1, and New Inc’s Demo Festival, and has been 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).
Short bio (~90 words):
Selwa Abd, aka Bergsonist, is a Moroccan-born, New York–based multimedia artist, composer/performer, and researcher. Working across live performance, audio-video installation, and recorded music, she reconfigures archival material into immersive environments, drawing on musique concrète and media theory to explore postcolonial identity, techno-futurism, and mediated perception.
Her work has been presented at MoMA PS1, Roulette, MUTEK, and Sonic Acts, and released on Tresor, Optimo Music, and Dark Entries. She is the founder of Pick Up The Flow and BIZAARBAZAAR, and has been an NTS Radio resident since 2018.
Micro bio (~45 words):
Selwa Abd, aka Bergsonist, is a Moroccan-born, New York–based multimedia artist, composer/performer, and researcher. Her live performances, installations, and recordings reconfigure archival sound into immersive environments exploring postcolonial identity and mediated perception.
Her work has been presented at MoMA PS1, Roulette and MUTEK, and released on Optimo Music and Dark Entries.
contact cv
@bergsonist
@selwaabd
linktree
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/installation 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.
As If Reality by bergsonist
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.
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
Courtesy of ISSUE Project Room, 2022
Design by Gina Lee
Photography by Miri Levi, courtesy of EKKO Festival, 2024
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, ISSUE Project Room, 2025. Photography by Cameron Kelly McLeod.
As If Reality Part III, ISSUE Project Room, 2025. Photography by Cameron Kelly McLeod.
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