We all communicate through sound and contribute in different ways to constituting and sustaining more-than-human communities in the aural domain. We condition and shape our common life-worlds through the performance of our aural and sonic actions: hearing and listening, as well as producing, processing, and distributing sounds. We outline different forms of otherness and commonalities by mobilizing sonic agencies in encounters that unfold, at least partially, in the aural medium.
As artistic research practitioners, we provide new evidence of these complex, intertwined processes by expanding and deepening our sonic attention and awareness. We thereby disclose new possibilities of understanding different shapes and ways of individual and collective aural being-in-the-world.
Anchored by the generic question “how to live together in sound?” and complemented with the expression of a social, societal, and political orientation “towards sonic democracy,” this symposium offers a framework for in-depth exchanges about practices and method developments, insights and concepts, experiences and expressions that co-constitute our common sonic and aural lives.
Contribution themes:
- Sonic/aural public space and shared spaces: navigating differences and commonalties.
- Togetherness: othernesses in coexistence.
- Aural/sonic research practices and methods: conceptual frameworks, media, contexts, and impacts.
- More-than-human collaborative processes in artistic research.
- The politics of the sonic/aural: sonic commons, sonic democracy, aural sustainability.
- Ethics of listening, recording, reproduction, analysing, interpreting, translating, and sense-making.
- Alternatives to authoritarianism, colonialism, and extractivism through sonic/aural practices.
- Laws and norms pertaining to sonic/aural co-existence
Deadline for contributions: 10 April 2026
Symposium dates: 12-14 October 2026
Submission Formats
We are looking for submissions in one of the following formats:
- Short Lecture: duration 20 min. (suggested 15 min. + 5 min. Q&A)
- Long Presentation: lecture, lecture-recital, performance, and talk, etc., duration 45 min. (suggested 35 min. + 10 min. Q&A)
- Audio Works: exploratory pieces, addressing the symposium topics
(these works will be accessible online during the symposium, please take this into consideration with regard to the work’s duration).
Please submit an abstract (max. 350 words), a short CV (max. 250 words), and if needed, special requirements for the presentation. Audio works should be sent as a download link to a high-quality, PCM audio file, preferably not embedded on a commercial streaming platform.
Submission form: https://link.webropol.com/ep/HowToLiveTogetherSymposium