We attended Auraldiversities

Our Assistant Producer Isabel attended the MAAST: Auraldiversities - Immersive Experiences talks last week, led by University of Kent researchers Aki Pasoulas and Brona Martin. The day consisted of a programme of talks, workshops and performances exploring the theme of ‘space’ in terms of composition.

Led by PHD researchers Francisco Lopez, Tim Bond and Louise Rossiter, the day was filled with inspiring talks exploring sonic and electroacoustic composition, social experimental audio, environmental sound matter, spaces for composition and sound diffusion. 

It was inspiring to hear such interesting perspectives in how we can use sound, the definition of 'sound', and what considerations we make in terms of space and composition.

The event was held at The Royal Dockyard Church in Chatham, a beautiful venue which felt like the perfect location to be experimenting with sound and diffusing live within the space,  the architecture had such intricate details and geometry, which all played a part in the overall sound reproduction.  ​

​The highlight of the day was being completely surrounded and immersed in the amazing MAAST speaker system, an intricate set-up which completely surrounds you in a wall of sound coming from all directions.

Image Credit: Aki Pasoulas

This was particularly of interest to Isabel, as she has a background in Audio and composition, so it was great learning for her own creative practice. She participated in a sound diffusion workshop, learning how to drive the MAAST system herself, and how to respond to the space on a live basis. Sound diffusion was something new for Isabel, with her creative focus being more on the music compositional side of audio, with traditional stereo and occasional 5.1 mixing - not a whole 31 channels to play with! As you can imagine, this was really exciting and has opened up Isabel's thinking in how she can use this type of mixing within her own compositions and push the boundaries in projecting sound within a space.​

You can catch up on the series of MAAST events here. 

​Written by Isabel Jaques.