Opens: 22 May until 31 August 2025
Location: London, UK
Experience Sector: Audio, Experiential Learning
The Barbican’s new show, Feel The Sound delves into our relationship with sound and where we encounter it in our body, creating a listening experience that goes beyond the audio. Co-created with MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives, in Tokyo, the show features 11 installations dotted around the galley space, from the lakeside terrace to the car park. Exploring how sound shapes the way we think and our perception of the world, during the show, which features workshops, broadcasts, a club night from Rebel Radio and DJ sets from Rampage Sound System, you can dance to beats from car sound-systems; join an ever expanding digital quantum choir; listen to your inner symphony; and feel music without sound.
Miyu Hosoi’s Observatory Station gathers and distributes sounds from throughout the Barbican site, while Joyride by Temporary Pleasure turns The Barbican’s car park into a club space where car sound systems are reinvented as instruments for music, memory, and connection. Forever Frequencies explores the potential of sound to recall memory via generative AI and music boxes, while Kinda Studios’ And Your Inner Symphony records visitors’ emotional reactions to unveil the ways music influences our inner rhythms, and Evan Ifekoya’s installation Resonant Frequencies explores music’s therapeutic effects.
Feel the Sound will also take you deep into the heart of Acid House with virtual reality rave: In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats. The euphoric hour-long experience devised by artist Darren Emerson takes ravers back to the heyday of the UK’s Acid House scene via cutting-edge VR tech with 3D modelling, archive materials, 360° video and animation. A VR headset, headphones, and a haptic vest transport you to a hedonistic warehouse party in 1989. After its London premiere, Feel the Sound will tour internationally, landing in Tokyo in 2026.
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