CHAMELEON
a drumming + technology experience
January 2026
Presented by and at the South Florida Center for Percussive Arts, Miami
Funded by The Knight Foundation
The South Florida Center for Percussive Arts came alive with Chameleon, a two-night, multi-sensory performance and immersive art installation merging live music with cutting-edge technology.
Created by Maria Finkelmeier with support from MAD Arts and funding by the Knight Foundation, the project transformed the entire SFCPA into a playground of rhythm, color, and emotion.
Each evening featured four intimate performances unfolding across indoor and outdoor spaces—beginning outside with large-scale projections and percussion ensembles that blur the line between stage and screen, and continuing inside with a 360° environment of live music and visuals.
New technologies translated performers’ pulse, movement, and brainwave data into dynamic sound and imagery, revealing the living interplay between body, instrument, and space.
Featuring SFCPA students alongside Finkelmeier and Boston-based hybrid artist Greg Jukes, Chameleon is both deeply human and technically daring.
Chameleon: Resemblance
for flexible percussion ensemble, back track, and fixed media
Music by Maria Finkelmeier
Video by MAD Arts and Maria Finkelmeier
Performed by Students from the South Florida Center for Percussive Arts
We are layered, flawed, and uniquely individual. The collective experience of Chameleon: Resemblance is inspired by the many skins that we put on as we move through different communities and environments. When workshopping with the students at the South Florida Center for Percussive Arts, one student shared “is this like when I’m one way with my family, and a different way at school?” The answer was, a resounding yes. That no matter what time of life we are in, there is a sense that we have many identities in different spaces. Chameleon: Resemblance offers a celebration of what happens when we break through the skins and look at the joy and rawness of what is within us.
Chameleon I: Undulation
for marimba duo with visualized brainwave data
Music by Maria Finkelmeier
Visuals by Supreetha Krishnan
Performed by Maria Finkelmeier and Greg Jukes
There are systems within us that we don’t feel, see, touch, or recognize moment to moment, but they are the systems that define so much in our lives – how we think, analyze, move, and remember. Chameleon I: Undulation is inspired by these invisible frequencies within us, the repetitive and reliable currents that move us through the world.
Chameleon II: Perpetual
for percussion trio and electronics, with sonified and visualized pulse data
Music by Maria Finkelmeier
Visuals by Supreetha Krishnan
Hardware by Andrew Ringler and Fernando Rodriguez
Performed by Maria Finkeleier, Greg Jukes, and a member of the South Florida Center for Percussive Arts community
Our pulse; a felt, heard, and seen reminder of existence. We track it through apps, where it can signal good health or need for help. It is everlasting and essential. Chameleon II: Perpetual uses the pulses of the performers to create a vast and deep sonic landscape, bringing us into a communal environment using the most human function; the beat of our hearts. The work is generated in real time by the performers, using the pulse to control sounds and animation, featuring the sonograms of Finkelmeier’s two daughters, Lillian and Azalea.
Chameleon III: Incalescence
for percussion duo and electronics, with visualized motion data
Music by Maria Finkelmeier
Visuals by Fernando Rodriguez
Performed by Maria Finkelmeier and Greg Jukes
We make daily choices on how we move through the world. That’s when we leave the ripples - when our physical presence is seen, heard, and remembered. Chameleon III: Incalescence is inspired by the fire, the inspiration, and the connection that we hold onto individually to move through our communities and leave our ripples, to build and embrace our webs of connections.
