In May 2025, IPEM hosts 2 immersive sessions in our labs which are open to the public! All events are free, but registration is required. More info and registration links below.
Friday 9/5/2025, 2PM & 6PM: Aminata Soumaré, using movement and dance to generate and manipulate sounds. More info or register
Friday 23/5/2025, 4PM & Saturday 24/5/2025, 2PM: Stan Bundervoet, using movement and guestures to spatialise sound objects in 3D immersive sound. More info or register
Exploring Stereotypes through Sound and Movement
During her internship at IPEM, Aminata Soumaré explored how to bring an audio collage to life through movement. By connecting MoCap technology to Ableton Live, she experimented with ways for physical gestures to directly trigger and manipulate sound in real time. The focus of her research was on using movement to activate samples, transforming the dancer’s body into a live controller of the composition.
The composition is built from archival material examining recurring stereotypes of Black women in media—such as the hypersexualized “Jezebel,” the nurturing “Mammy,” and the angry “Sapphire.” Through this embodied interaction, she challenges these representations and explores how the body can actively intervene in the narrative.
This is an ongoing exploration rather than a finished piece. In this presentation, she will share her research process, demonstrate her current setup, and reflect on the possibilities and limitations of using movement to control sound.
“The Cantalupus project”: movement-controlled audio composition
Experience objects of sound, flying around you. Dialogues between tonal, timbral and rhythmical variations float nearby or move outwards. The composition is directed live by the composer, around the audience that is seated in the center.
The Cantalupus project is a pilot artistic study in immersive composition where spatial movement becomes an essential component of musical structure. It uses finger and hand to chest gestures to control the ‘throwing’ and ‘painting’ of sound objects, molding the expectations of source, target and impact of sound trajectories by the audience.
Underpinning the artistic work is the ear radar model, putting our hearing at the heart of the capacity of perceiving and appraising movement in our surrounding environment. This capacity never sleeps and is naturally related to our primary emotions. Music, dwelling on those dynamics of movement in sound, can induce these emotional reactions (in part). The project tries to bring this one step further with the use of immersive technologies.
The performance makes use of the 80 speaker array at the ASIL lab, in a high precision 7th-order ambisonics configuration.
Supported by Kunstendecreet Vlaanderen & UGent
For the first time in our immersive sessions, we will play both a recent and historically relevant spatial audio piece. We invite all audio enthousiasts to join us on this immersive trip, from the early experiments with spatial audio back in the 1950s to one of the most recent works which showcases & utilises the capabilities of the complete 80-speaker setup in our labs! Each piece will have a short introduction, and after the listening session a short discussion is welcomed.
There are two sessions on the same day (4PM & 7PM), each session will play both pieces. Total listening time is around 45 minutes.
Historical piece TBA
Gone For Eggs is a spatial audio composisition of 23 minutes, written by Philippe Macnab-Seguin (McGill, CA) specifically for large immersive speaker systems as part of his doctoral thesis. Philippe finalised a special mix in our labs, which was extremely well received by the audience back in 2023. By popular request, we add this magnificant piece to our lineup for this immersive session!
Philippe Macnab–Séguin has received the JTTP 2024 Yves Gigon Award for most outrageous electroacoustic work in July 2023; and the term outrageous could not be more fitting for this ear-opening experience.
