Frames for Conversations with the Unknown: Sound Installations as Stages by Aquiles Hadjis

automata Glitch Improvisation Improvisation, generativity and co-creative interaction Improvised Generative Music installation sonore instrument design japan noise

So called "Sound Art" has progressively taken over Art events and venues while not being widely featured at music venues. But can it transcend its prevalent approach of offering mere "ambient music" or confirmation-based interactions pattern with consonant rewards? Is it possible for it to become a true system for object based musical composition & improvisation? Within my practice I try to answer those questions.

➡️ This talk is part of IRCAM Forum Workshops Hors-les-Murs Tokyo 2026

What is the use for a sound installation beyond the hallowed spaces of blue chip galleries and the highest venues of ultra-curated art events and spaces? Are they a true medium of musical and social inquiry, or has the category of sound art
somehow become an incipient gray zone where non-musicians have found a new tool for self-indulgent subversion?

In the context of my own work, I have tried to both enjoy and contest all of the possibilities and distortions listed above. I design site specific structures which use sound and fragile interfaces in epigenetic setups that are open ended and invite both visitors and formally arranged performers to engage with the work in undirected ways.

The results are often musical and almost always frames for new knowledge to emerge. 

"Experimental" can often be a preemptive statement to excuse a work from being judged by its audience. But in my perspective of the category, what it really means is that the work tests an idea, and it presents it in a fragile, open-ended way in which it can be further developed because of what it can gain from exposure. As such, I have often tried to make object-based compositions that have an internal logic guided by their interface, but taking care not to give concrete explanations to participants, allowing them to test the limits of the system and discover their own way of getting sonic outcomes out of them. In that way, I can benefit from their unprompted interaction and find new possibilities that I often can't foresee in the context of my preaparations or even playing with the work before displaying it.

The process often includes two types of demographics: those who consider themselves to be performers, and are often invited to participate in a formal social setting, and those who simply choose to spend time with the work as "simple visitors", even though many may actually have serious intentions beyond a quick confirmation of the installation's capabilities. 

In this conference, I will comment on brief examples of different pieces and their outcomes.