Research Catalogue

This artistic research project reflects on the hidden dimensions of nonhuman sounding and how to remain present to them without seeking to capture or define them. It asks: How can artistic and ecological approaches to sound support ways of being-with nonhuman sounding that remain present to its hidden dimensions within the mesh and entangled relations? Working from the premise that certain nonhuman soundings are either inaudible (e.g., infrasound, ultrasound) or ineffable (sensed through relational, embodied presence but resistant to articulation) for humans, this research draws on the typology proposed by Farina, Elridge, and Li (2021), which distinguishes latent and sensed soundscapes. Rather than aiming to access or translate these phenomena, the project adopts a methodology grounded in situated presence, sonic relationality, and perceptual partiality. This approach combines embodied listening practices, field recording (using hydrophones and geophones), spectrographic analysis, and reflective artistic methods, including video-art, photography, instrument-sculpture building, creative writing, and composition. These practices are framed as composting: a slow, durational process through which sonic encounters are digested, broken down, and recombined over time, continually shifting, decaying, and generating new knowledge and thinking, rather than being fully captured (Haraway 2016). The research is situated within and contributes to what König (2024) describes as a polyphonic transformation in artistic practice: a shift away from centralized spectacle and global expansion toward small-scale, locally rooted artistic actions that cultivate resonant, relational exchange. Following Haraway’s (2016) call to “stay with the trouble,” this project does not seek resolution or revelation, but cultivates attentiveness to what remains unknowable and to the entangled conditions from which nonhuman sounding emerges.

What questions emerge when children and adults engage in artistic research together, exploring sound, identity, and creativity as co-researchers? In this AR pilot project, a fourth-grade class at a Viennese elementary school, Campus Landstraße, together with three adult researchers, collaboratively shape an open-ended inquiry into the sonic. This exploratory phase should lay the groundwork for a larger artistic research project. It focuses on how children and adults collaboratively shape the direction of inquiry: What questions related to sound matter to us? How do we, together, engage with sound as material, metaphor, and method? And how do the modes of questioning transform our understanding of what artistic research can become? Guided by principles of Participatory Action Research and entangled sound-making, this pilot creates an open, flexible space, the Sonic Beings Laboratory, where research practices are not delivered or taught, but discovered in collaboration. It is a space where children and adults co-develop questions, sub-projects, and methods through relational and creative engagement. As adult researchers and artists, we were not external observers but co-learners—creating alongside the children, responding to their sonic ideas, and reflecting on our own evolving practices. Our field notes, sketches, and interventions were not supplementary; they were integral to the research process, allowing us to trace how the project challenged our assumptions and shifted our ways of listening and making. This pilot is not about finding answers. It is about staying with the questions that emerge through our shared inquiry, attending to how our research practice unfolds, and how all participants are changed through the process.