SONA – EXPLORATIONS IN SONIC VR
A VR installation that makes seeing through hearing an experience
SONA is an auditory virtual reality installation that radically shifts our perception: We enter a darkened room of ten by ten meters, in which no visual signal offers orientation. Instead, motion capture systems and sensory shoes record every movement and translate it into sound. Steps crunch in the snow, rustle through the forest, or glide over sand; walls can be felt via acoustic reflections, and will-o’-the-wisps lure with voices. This creates an acoustic labyrinth in which we learn to see with our ears. The development of SONA is based on close collaboration with blind and visually impaired people, who have contributed, tested, and helped shape their perspectives, ideas, and experiences. Thus, the work not only represents an aesthetic innovation, but also an inclusive practice that asks: How do we navigate and interact when only spatial audio is available to us? SONA opens up a new form of immersive storytelling that is equally fascinating for people with and without visual impairments and redefines the possibilities of VR.
Starts every half hour, for one person.
Adriani Botez, born in Romania, has lived in Germany since he was 16. After studying business administration, he works as an analyst at DEG in the KfW Banking Group. As a blind person, Adriani is involved in many socio-cultural initiatives to seek contact with society and contribute to inclusive coexistence. Among other things, he shaped the strategy of the Match my Maker project, conducted HACKademies, and is also involved in the further development of the open-source screen reader software NVDA. At SONA, he acts as an expert and consultant for accessibility formats, in public relations for the visually impaired communities, and is part of the concept team.
Josephine Stamer works with technical, sonic, and choreographic elements in various formats and collective constellations. She studied Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen. She is currently completing her master’s degree in Sound and Reality at the Institute for Music and Media in Düsseldorf, focusing on epistemic media, where she researches performative sonic means. Together with the choir ΓΛΩΣΣΑ (Glossa), she performs with the instrument voice, develops choreographic and technical scores, and received the Karl Sczuka Research Grant as a co-composer in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut. In the band EZB with Thomas Meckel, she sings and plays various instruments in the genre of experimental, pop, children’s music, and krauthouse. As js bach, she uses her collection of mobile phone recordings for sound diary compositions in the programming language PureData.
Thomas Meckel works as a media artist, cultural manager, and musician in Cologne. He organizes cybernetic jam sessions and develops cinematic games for collective improvisations. His performance “Solaris” was staged at the Museum Ludwig (Cologne), the Universidad Nacional (Bogotá), and the Ringlokschuppen (Mülheim/Ruhr). Together with Tobias Thomas, he curates the concert series “Round” at the Cologne Philharmonie. Thomas Meckel studied Media Arts at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, Cultural Studies in Lüneburg, and Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen.
Jakob Lorenz works as a composer and sound designer on theater performances, radio plays, and VR projects. Until 2018, he studied electronic composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln with Professor Michael Beil and Brigitta Muntendorf. His engagements and collaborations have taken him to FFT Düsseldorf, Tanzhaus NRW, Theater Münster, Theater Dortmund, Theater Rampe Stuttgart, LOFFT Theater Leipzig, and Favoriten Festival Dortmund, among others. In 2022, Jakob resided with the artist collective Team LEN! for five months at the Academy for Theater and Digitality, at Theater Dortmund. The resulting interactive Virtual Reality work was shown/heard in the Kooperationslabor of the Dortmunder U in 2023, among other places.
Moritz Wesp works as a composer, musician, and media artist. Central to his work is the development of his own electronic instruments, such as his Virtual Trombone, and the creation of interactive settings for collaborative improvisation. He is co-leader of the ensemble NOW MY LIFE IS SWEET LIKE CINNAMON and a member of ensembles such as Matthias Muche’s Bonecrusher and Mariá Portugal Erosao. Moritz studied trombone and composition at the Lucerne University of Music and at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, where he completed his master’s degree in 2018.
Fee Bonny studied audiovisual media at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and worked as an editor for the “Sendung mit der Maus” at WDR. She has a Master of Arts in Game Development and Research and works in the Research Department of the Cologne Game Lab. Together with her colleagues from the Kulturforum in Witten, she supervises the “no end to the road” fellowship. She has taken over the production management for Sona since August.