For his MATRIX 258 project, WITHIN 2, produced in concert with the Experimental Media and Performing Art Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York, Atoui continues his exploration into how sound is perceived by both the hearing and nonhearing. In March 2015, Atoui spent three weeks at UC Berkeley coteaching an instrument-making seminar with art professor Greg Niemeyer, with the ultimate goal of realizing a few of the designs for instruments explored during the course. During this initial residency phase, Atoui gave a public lecture on campus introducing WITHIN and his experience with making musical instruments. He also performed a concert utilizing his own customized electronic instruments at Meyer Sound’s acoustically unique Pearson Theater. The second phase of MATRIX 258 comprises a series of concerts in early November 2015 that have premiered new instruments developed out of Atoui’s spring residency, played by William Winant, James Fei, and other Bay Area musicians. Atoui developed the first of these instruments, Zero Point Nine, in collaboration with Greg Niemeyer, Perrin Meyer of Meyer Sound, Jeff Lubow from Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT), and UC Berkeley sophomore Mitchell Karchemsky. The instrument is in essence a novel bass synthesizer that produces ultra-low-frequency electronic sounds that are physically felt, perhaps even before they are heard. Tones are generated through interference that occurs among the nine channels of speakers that emit sonic frequencies in the range of 1 to 125 Hz. The musician stands on a platform above the speakers and performs gestures that relate to conducting and sign language that in turn generate audible sensations. For the concert, performers will activate several connected subwoofer speakers to create a subsonic experience variously perceptible to deaf and hearing members of the audience. The SuperPac, the second instrument Atoui is developing for MATRIX, is a percussive instrument played by one to four musicians in front of a limited audience ranging from twelve to twenty-four. Soft, Subpac speakers that induce vibrations press against the audience members’ backs as they are seated and generate a physical experience rooted in felt vibrations. These speakers connect electronically to a computer station and to a set of tables that have unique surfaces that can be played like a drum with objects such as mallets or sticks. A conductor stands at the computer station to control the sensorial connections between the performers and the audience. WITHIN will continue during the months of September 2015 and January 2016, when Atoui will be in residence at EMPAC in Troy, New York. He will work with musician and Distinguished Research Professor of Music Pauline Oliveros to engage RPI students in designing and building additional instruments and interfaces for performance. The entire project will culminate at the Bergen Assembly 2016, a citywide series of performances, workshops, events, and lectures Atoui will organize in Norway, working with local institutions, musicians, artists, and audiences centered on his expanded exploration of sound with deaf communities.