The MELA Foundation is the New York organisation that presents and sustains the work of the composer La Monte Young and the light artist Marian Zazeela; the acronym stands for Music Eternal Light Art. Its best-known project is the Dream House, a continuous sound and light environment that opened in the autumn of 1993 on the third floor of 275 Church Street in Tribeca.
Inside, a periodic composite sound built from sine waves, generated on a custom-made interval synthesiser, plays without pause, while Zazeela’s light works, including Magenta Day, Magenta Night, colour the rooms. The installation continues a history that began with the six-year Dream House commissioned by the Dia Art Foundation on Harrison Street from 1979 to 1985. Volunteer monitors open and close the space, and the foundation also presents the Just Alap Raga Ensemble. Zazeela died in March 2024; Jung Hee Choi, the couple’s senior disciple, now directs the foundation.