Opening the Fifth Ear: Spatial Audio at Breakthrough

Anthea Caddy, Jan St. Werner (Mouse on Mars), and Nino Pedone (Shapednoise) in conversation with Jarl Schulp

00:00

Free entry

As spatial sound technologies are becoming more widely available, hands-on experimentation and experience become crucial for artists, music professionals, and audiences alike to be able to attune to the growing possibilities of this epistemic shift in music. While concepts and technologies in the field of immersive and spatial sound are now ready for broad practical application after decades of development, embracing spatial audio demands not only a technical understanding but also a recalibration of listening itself. 

In parallel to proprietary systems, DIY spatial practices experiment with non-standard, low-cost and open-source technologies to provide more open, and more accessible ways to link spaces, bodies and sounds. Yet venue operators, event organisers, as well as many artists and the public still widely lack exposure to these new spatial possibilities, not least due to these technologies mostly being bound to large institutions due how expensive they can be.

The panel aims to examine the emerging possibilities and limits of spatial sound with a critical eye on artistic agency, accessibility, structural exclusion, and the societal implications of evolving listening practices in and beyond concert spaces and dancefloors. How might spatial sound practices change music ecosystems or the club experience? What kind of new compositional and performance strategies might artists work towards? What new relationalities could arise? And how can we avoid closed systems, and work towards making spatial audio more accessible?

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Presented with Resident Advisor.