The documentation of sound art installation has received scant research attention. This ARTICLE investigates the sensory experience of spatial audio recordings of two sound art installations: Écosystème(s) by Estelle Schorpp and Générateur Stochastique by Jean-Pierre Gauthier. Interactive listening sessions WERE CONDUCTED with participants from different fields of expertise: sound artists, sound engineers, new media and sound art curators, and new media and sound art conservators. Listening sessions were followed by semi-structured interviews questioning the selection of significant positions in time and space in the recordings. The analysis revealed a broad range of listening strategies which expand the literature on documentation frameworks. This research shows the potential for methodologically including the sensory experience in the documentation of sound art installations and discusses the use of spatial recording as a tool for the specification of documentation in a multi-expertise context.

This article addresses the question of experiential dimensions of space in sound, in electroacoustic music and sound arts practices in particular. We suggest that these practices are limited by the generalised way that spatial audio techniques are communicated, and we attempt to develop a tentative method that would enable discussion and sharing of spatial aspects in sonic environments. These modes of articulation would permit a translation of the experience of space in sound into other modalities. Reporting from a series of workshops, we outline a three-phase method that moves through the stages of listening, describing, recreating and imagining the sonic spaces. In the final stage, a speculative design approach shows that shared sonic spatial experiences are essentially relational. Topics relating to expectations, biases and language – such as memory and imagination – and the methods of mapping and speculative design are addressed in the discussion. Through the explorations presented in this article it becomes evident that different artistic musical practices still show the same need to develop articulations that enable the integration and communication of spatial relationships. The divide between the development of new technologies for spatial audio and the conceptual frameworks for understanding and communicating spatial sonic knowledge can be bridged, and eventually the development of spatial audio should be fuelled by the dynamics between these two poles.

Today’s field of spatialisation in acousmatic music is very heterogeneous. Composers tend to develop their own technologies and techniques for spatialisation, and often the differences in how multichannel systems are addressed may influence both the musical appreciation and the future reproducibility of a piece. Moreover, the analytical and musicological perspectives of spatialisation are both fragmented and underdeveloped, with a lack of a shared framework for their study. This article focuses on these problems and tries to give a coherent and consistent view of spatialisation practice, from both technological and musicological perspectives. It will also act as a bedrock for the development of the musicological side of spatialisation, an aspect too often overlooked. ‘Spatial reduced listening’ and ‘spatial relativism’ will be introduced as analytical perspectives to shine a light on the composed spatial traits of sound, and not only on its spectromorphological and technological features.

The notion of sound space emerges as a multifaceted exploration within the music, artistic and architectural realms, delving into its evolution from a musical object to a transdisciplinary aesthetic event. Rooted in the interplay of sound and space, the term defies strict definition, reflecting a dynamic amalgamation of interpretations throughout its historical practices and conceptualisations. This article engages with different perspectives on the subject of sound space, bringing together a group of architects, sound engineers, artists and researchers – all of them dedicated to sound – to discuss the sensitive experience of listening to space, within material, and/or dematerialised realities. The methodology was based on a series of interviews, confronting their different points of view, therefore building a compelling retrospective around the subject of study. In this exploration, sound space emerges as a complex entity that transcends traditional boundaries, offering a unique lens through which practitioners redefine architecture, challenge perceptions and engage in a dynamic interplay between sound, space and the listener’s experience. The resulting territory is depicted as a rhizomatic system with diverse temporalities coexisting and influencing the understanding of sound space within phenomenal and material perspectives. It portrays a dynamic and evolving system, celebrating diversity and interaction in a transdisciplinary field.

This article explores biophilic (nature-centred) instrument design and its intersection with architecture and music. While the connection between these disciplines is often discussed figuratively, they are less often combined in practice. The Biophilic Instrument Pavilion (BIP), a site-responsive sound and light installation, serves as a model for such a collaboration using biophilic design as a unifying principle. This multidisciplinary project demonstrates spatialisation in ecological, sonic, visual and social contexts, offering insights into environmental instrument practices and collaborative creative processes.

In autumn 2023, the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Music and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute presented Shifting Center, an exhibition that explored sound through geological formations, architecture, and cultural artefacts. Using spatialisation techniques such as higher-order ambisonics and wave field synthesis, the works created immersive and disorienting auditory experiences. Curators Vic Brooks and Nida Ghouse framed ‘shifting centre’ as a metaphor for dislocation, evoking feminist and political theories of marginalised peripheries and centralised power. While the exhibition was conceptually and technically ambitious, we argue that the aurality of EMPAC itself – marked by abstraction, isolation and immersion – ultimately muted its decolonial potential. By tracing a lineage of spatial audio from the 1958 Philips Pavilion, we examine how architectural acoustics shape the possibilities of what can be heard in EMPAC, limiting the aural and more-than-aural reception of works presented there.

This article examines the creation of an Urban Archive as an English Garden, a work that uses GPU-accelerated low-resolution wavefield synthesis (WFS) to combine field recordings, live performance and generative audio in real time. Owing to computational overhead, WFS is often pre-rendered, leading to a less dynamic and more static scope for the embodied and intersubjective nature of human sensory understanding, a tendency that can also be found in traditional soundscape composition. We argue that engagement with real-time WFS offers a new approach to soundscape composition, wherein musical-system design may have multiple agencies, or that of virtual environment, co-creator, archive and hybrid instrument. Through a post-phenomenological lens, an analysis of the work’s creation through different domains reveals how these technologies afford novel practices to engage with our sonic environments. Additionally, the article unpacks how this same process, grounded in site-responsive design offers new approaches to composition, performance and artistic collaboration across these practices.

This article surveys spatial music and sonic art influenced by the traditional Japanese concept of ma – translated as space, interval, or pause – against the cultural backdrop of Shintoism and Zen Buddhism. Works by Jōji Yuasa, Midori Takada, Michael Fowler, Akiko Hatakeyama, Kaija Saariaho and Jim Franklin created in conscious engagement with ma are analysed with respect to diverse manifestations of ma in Japanese arts and social sciences, including theatre, poetry, painting, rock garden, shakuhachi and psychotherapy. Jean-Baptiste Barrière provided the Max patch for Saariaho’s Only the Sound Remains (2015) for this survey. I propose a framework of six interlinking dimensions of ma – temporal, physical, musical, semantic, therapeutic and spiritual – for discussing creative approaches to ma, alongside their resonance with Hisamatsu Shin’ichi’s seven interconnected characteristics of Zen art: Asymmetry, Simplicity, Austere Sublimity/Lofty Dryness, Naturalness, Subtle Profundity/Deep Reserve, Freedom from Attachment and Tranquility. The aim is first to examine how each composer uses different techniques, technologies and systems to engage with specific dimensions of ma. Second, to illuminate possible futures of exploring these dimensions in spatial music and sonic art through three methods: Inspiration, Transmediation and Expansion.

While the relationship between space and openness has been explored in electroacoustic music since the 1960s, and contemporary composers have shown increasing interest in contingency, recent advancements in ambisonics, sound diffusion, and VR have granted composers greater control over the spatial image presented to the listener. This article revisits the discussion of space and openness through the lens of the author’s artistic practice and compositional experience, framed by new materialism, object-oriented philosophy and relational space theory. Through case studies from the author’s work, it examines spatialisation strategies that emphasise openness and the agency of sound materials. These strategies include sound source localisation, networks of family resemblances and parametric spatialisation, aiming to create an open sound experience that maintains identity while allowing agency for the sound material, the listener and the composer. In light of current global crises, partly driven by total control and exploitation, this article advocates for rethinking compositional practices to foster open sound experiences that reflect dynamic interactions between composer, material and listener.

This article explores the intersection of electroacoustic music in multichannel immersive audio environments and trauma-informed therapy practices through gestural mediation in artistic works. Drawing on Jean-François Augoyard’s definition of anamnesis, the article examines how spatial audio can evoke memories and mirror the psychological landscapes associated with trauma. The research is centred around the composition Crumble, which uses spatial sound to articulate fragmented mental states of individuals processing traumatic experiences. Through an analysis of the spatial placement of sound, gestural technologies and embodied interaction, the article demonstrates how these elements converge to create immersive environments that facilitate an understanding of trauma and memory. The findings highlight the role of embodied cognition in music performance, showing how Crumble’s integration of body, space and sound fosters audience connection through immersive spatialisation and gestural mediation. By integrating these practices, this study offers new insights into the therapeutic potential of immersive electroacoustic music as a medium for expressing complex emotional states. Combining embodied sound, gestural control and spatial audio promotes the exploration of space and memory, encourages personal agency and supports reintegration of body and mind, aligning with trauma-informed practices. It suggests avenues for future exploration in the intersection of music, psychology and immersive technologies.

OTTOsonics is an open hardware platform developed by a team of engineers and composers, designed to prioritise affordability and flexibility, addressing the needs of a broader community interested in spatial audio. At its core, the platform features a custom-designed, high-quality 4-inch speaker with a 3D-printed cabinet, and an affordable multichannel power amplifier. It also offers a comprehensive set of mounting accessories and a knowledge base for producing and presenting spatial audio using open-source software. Over the past three years, OTTOsonics has been adopted by multiple cultural initiatives, universities, and audio enthusiasts, enabling the production of new spatial audio works across genres such as electroacoustic, experimental, and pop music. This article outlines the key decisions made throughout the project and presents the technical and artistic outcomes after three years of operation. We discuss the key features of an open platform for spatial audio and how our designs address these needs, as well as future directions for further projects and initiatives.

The increasing number of applications for spatial audio technologies has led to a growing interest in the subject from academic institutions and a more capillary diffusion of techniques and practices to non-institutional contexts, especially independent sound artists. However, the lack of a methodology for learning these technologies motivated our team to develop the Open Ambisonics Toolkit (OAT). Our goal is to promote the diffusion of spatial audio technologies by combining three pedagogical components: a DIY approach to hardware, a selection of open-source software, and a step-by-step introduction to Ambisonics theory through practical applications. The present article focuses on the development of a flexible toolkit and is based in our own practical experience as sound artists and teachers. We describe the process of designing hardware and selecting software components, and report results from objective measurements and listening tests conducted to evaluate different loudspeakers and spatial configurations. To conclude, we discuss future perspectives on the development of tutorials for learning spatial audio with OAT, which we are continually testing in workshop settings with students and independent sound artists.

New musical instruments of the electronic and digital eras have explored spatialisation through multidimensional speaker arrays. Many facets of 2D and 3D sound localisation have been investigated, often in tandem with immersive fixed-media compositions: spatial trajectory and panning; physics-based effects such as artificial acoustics, reverberation and Doppler shifts; and spatially derived synthesis methods. Within the realm of augmented spatial string instruments, the EV distinguishes itself through a unique realisation of the possibilities afforded by these technologies. Initially conceived as a tool for convolving the timbres of synthesised and acoustic string signals, the EV’s exploration of spatial sound has led to new experiments with timbre. Over time, additional sound-generation modules have been integrated, resulting in an increasingly versatile palette for immersive composition. Looking forward, the EV presents compelling opportunities for sonic innovation.

The French poet Henri Chopin (1922–2008) was one of a generation of experimental young artists around 1955 who recognised new possibilities for innovation in the realm of expanded sonic assemblage that is at once viscerally embodied and highly mediated. The catalyst: the newfound availability and affordability of the portable reel-to-reel tape recorder. This article examines the relation between Chopin’s recorded ‘audiopoems’, which were built up over time by means of distortion, layering and looping, and the artist’s unusual approach to performing live with these recorded compositions. Through strategies of aural assemblage, including physically tampering with the tape, randomly cutting and splicing the reels, and accentuating feedback, Chopin circulated the voice in new ways, both intimate and collective. This article considers how he experimented with live performance as mediation par excellence, harmoniously juxtaposing live improvisation with the preceding mediation of sound recording technology, to create a ‘double extension’ that generated feedback as well as improvisatory spaces of encounter. This article examines several projects – both realised and speculative – as well as archival accounts of performances in the 1960s and 1970s to reflect on Chopin’s unwavering commitment to the very human scale, individual and collective, of mediated expression.