Day of Science 2025
IPEM opened its labs on the Day of Science, 25/11/2025. Everybody was welcome to explore our labs, experience spatial audio, relax in the experience room or participate in a drumming experiment. Event hosted for the Day Of Science 2025 festival.
We want to thank Natasha Barrett for allowing us to play back one of her immersive audio creations; and 404 for the Videodroom 2025 collaboration.
Also thanks to everybody who helped out: Pieter-Jan Maes, David Dubois, Davide Lionetti, Jasper Maes, Bavo Van Kerrebroeck, Kristel Crombé, Reinhard Vanberghen, Bart Moens & Ivan Schepers!
Natasha Barrett: Impossible Moments from Venice 3
Impossible Moments from Venice 3: The Other Side of the Lagoon is an immersive composition made by Natasha Barrett. With one foot in reality, her composition takes the listener to a fictional location beyond the reach, as if in a dream state that nevertheless appears to be totally real.
The watery reality of Venice, sinking into the muddy lagoon and threatened by the rising Adriatic, is counterpointed by curious sounds we rarely hear. These sounds are revealed by advanced signal processing methods that I developed during the Reconfiguring the Landscape artistic research project, aimed at exploring interesting features of the urban noise we are party to.
The work draws on the sound of Venice before the tourists awaken, counterpointed by iron piers rolling on the waves, motorboats resonating across the Lagoon, and a sense decadence sitting uneasily against the reality of the rising tides.
More info: https://www.natashabarrett.net/
Natasha Pirard x ‘Vampir Cuadecuc’
404 asked musicologist and composer Natasha Pirard to create a new soundtrack for the film Cuadecuc, Vampir from Pere Portabella. Over the past few years, Pirard has grown into one of the most exciting names in Belgian experimental music. Her album Dream Cycles (DEEWEE), full of dreamy tape loops, guitar, and synths, effortlessly connects with the work of greats such as William Basinski, Suzanne Ciani, and Félicia Atkinson.
The soundtrack by Pirard was made on the EMS Synthi 100 at IPEM. Part of the soundtrack will be presented as an immersive mix during the Day of Science 2025.
In collaboration with 404.
Stan Bundervoet – The Cantalupus Project
Stan Bundervoet is a composer, soundartist and researcher. Since 2000, he has been engaged in research and artistic-educational work related to music, philosophy, quantumphysics and musicology. As a composer in improvisation and minimal music, he explores digital and modular soundsynthesis platforms for multi-speaker systems.
Cantalupus is an artistic project exploring immersive audio through the lens of human auditory perception as a ‘radar’ system. It uses spatial hearing, movement, and emotional responses as building blocks for new musical experiences. Compositions are conceived as trajectories in an auditory vectorspace, while performances involve live manipulation of sound objects in terms of position, speed, acceleration, and momentum. An excerpt from the performance earlier this year will be played back on the Day of Science 2025.
Project supported by Scolarship Kunstendecreet Vlaamse Overheid, IPEM and XRHIL
Maker Space: Rhythmic Entanglements (SyncMuse)
An ongoing study at IPEM uses 4 drum pads to explore the dynamics between drummers in different patterns and polyrhythms. Would you like to learn more about this research or even take part? Feel free to drop by the IPEM labs!
Participate in an interactive breathing experiment! Synchronisation your breathing pattern to the soundtrack created by Reinhard Vanbergen will transform from it classic stereo to fully immersive (Dolby Atmos) audio.
