What does sound make possible? SPARC explores how creative sound practice, the study of sound plus sound’s role within multisensory experience, can be used to address contemporary challenges, from health to the environment.
We aim to build a global interdisciplinary community of practitioners, researchers and creative thinkers, cultivating an environment that empowers a new generation to develop innovative and impactful ideas about the power of sound in today's world.
Our research
SPARC’s research agenda is addressed to transforming practice and to making positive changes in the world. Our activities fall into two research clusters: Communities, Health and Well-being & Innovative Sound Practices.
Communities, Health and Well-being
We explore ways in which arts-based initiatives in health and community settings can improve people’s wellbeing by reshaping their connection to social and environmental contexts and enhancing their everyday experience. Multisensory participatory research, inclusive of music and sound, is core to a key focus on creative health. Our research is interdisciplinary, addressing a wide variety of contexts and needs. These range from uses of creative and participatory arts to support mental wellbeing and neurodivergent experience, to the design of multisensory environments to support health. Learn more about our Creative Health and Wellbeing research group.
Innovative Sound Practices
We use cutting-edge and experimental methods for shaping sound and exploring what sound can do in the world. These range from investigating the embodied practices of musicians to studying the potential of AI, spatial audio and other technologies and approaches in music composition. We use these innovative sound practices to push the aesthetic and ethical boundaries of music-making and to develop new artistic responses to social, political and environmental issues. Learn more about SPARC research.
SPARC Lab
We are also home to SPARC Lab, a modular performance system based in City St George’s Performance Space. The system enables new forms of practice-led research encompassing spatial audio, embodied motion, and extended/virtual reality. It includes an Ambisonic 24.4-channel loudspeaker dome surrounding the audience; the IKO: a unique, 20-sided, 3-D loudspeaker array; the Eigenmike, a cutting-edge 64-channel microphone array; and a wide range of other world-leading equipment for 3-D sound and movement. Learn more about SPARC Lab facilities and SPARC Lab research.
Symposia and Events
SPARC also hosts regular SPARC Symposia, which bring together academics and artists across diverse disciplines to explore a research theme linked to SPARC’s agenda. SPARC Symposia typically draw a broad audience from inside and outside academia and include talks, artistic performances, and engagement activities held outside City, such as soundwalks or external workshops. We also host regular concerts, talks, academic workshops, and public engagement events throughout the year.