Geometries in Sound

Currently, our engagement with music and the sonic environment is marked by contrasting trends.UNESCO's 2020 Resolution highlights the role of music in cognition, learning, and skills development, while the World Health Organization warns of the proliferation of harmful listening practices. The musical landscape is saturated with streams that encourage passive uniformity, reduced attention, rejection of complexity, and limited active participation. At the same time, there is growing interest in immersive and multisensory experiences. In order to navigate this sonic complexity, it is essential that we become proactive individuals within our sound ecosystem: capable of selecting, questioning, and engaging critically with what we hear, building meaningful interactions with sound across a variety of contexts.

The project “GEOMETRIES IN SOUND” is founded on the belief that certain genres of contemporary music and sound art can engage us in unique ways, and that studying this engagement can lead to strategies enabling individuals to interact with complex sonic-musical constructions, both in musical and broader contexts. The project focuses on the functional isomorphism between the sonic patterns of this music and the mental representations they evoke, including their potential to stimulate various behavioural responses. The research involves listening surveys in both laboratory and musical settings, in order to explore two central aspects of today’s musical experience: the combination of sound with visual stimuli, and the movement of the sound source in physical space. Once specific relationships between sonic patterns and behavioural responses are identified, these will be implemented in musical works and listening activities, playing a central role in the generation of new knowledge in artistic (guidelines for artists and consultancy), scientific (transdisciplinary research), and educational contexts (classroom exercises). The originality of this project lies in the connection between the study of musical experience and research in cognitive science, within the domain of contemporary music and sound art. With the ultimate goal of equipping individuals (and collectives) with a richer set of skills for decoding the complexity of today’s musical world, the project ultimately aims to contribute to the educational and cultural development of society more broadly.