Voicing Sound is a research community whose work engages with socio-politics, architecture, history and communication of and through sound and listening.
Image above: No Such Thing As Empty Space, Matt Lewis in collaboration with Sense.
At a glance
- Through a range of activities, the group researches the potential of sound to challenge current, dominant approaches commonly associated with sound studies, music, art, design, architecture, communication, history and media studies.
- Our work explores alternative modes of communication and histories, offering international academic and creative communities new models and platforms for the reception and production of sound.
- We experiment with sound as a vibrational force to engage with pressing social and political issues.
Key details
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The challenge
Sound is everywhere, from our oceans to our homes, from computation to concert halls, from access tools to transport. Despite the significant growth in research and academic publications relating to sound and listening, researching through sound still offers incredible potential in re-imaging, re-configuring and resisting. In times where coloniality persists and systemic injustices are maintained, we want to promote and discover ways in which sound might build communities and offer alternative modes of operation and conviviality.
Our approach
Across the RCA, sound research plays a vital role in sonically inclusive research within our art, design, architecture and humanities activities. Sonic research is integral, for instance, within our research on voice in communication and design practices, anti-colonial pedagogies, inclusivity within architecture or archival research in the humanities and thinking through materiality. Approaches already employed by the group include community and anti-racist listening sessions, live events across continents via web, scores for sonic justice, a sonic mapping of the campus, cassette releases and listening symposia.
Future projects planned include a public listening symposium in autumn 2027, Polisonics listening lectures on sound and social justice, collaboration with local communities on sound and the politics of space, a radio project with Radio Alhara, Radio Failte and Monteradio, Murmur Collective Intelligence Ensemble collaboration with the RCM and a set of performances with partner venue Iklectik.
Outputs
Members of the group are currently working with some of the world’s leading academic and cultural institutions as well as independent organisations on sound-focused projects. These currently include IRCAM, Arebyte, Iklectik, SomaRumor, Monteaudio Festival, Mutant Radio, NTS, La Becque, British Library, Turner Contemporary, the Lapworth Museum of Geology, and V&A. Some of the institutions the group have worked with include Wellcome, Tate, ICA, Arnolfini, TACO!, the Science Museum and Oxford University.
