A Building Made of Sound: Sonic Transductions, Reflections, Ingestions

With: Mariana Carvalho, Samuel Perea-Díaz, and Gascia Ouzounian

A three-hour sonic experiment exploring strategies for engaging architectural materials through sound and listening. The event takes place on the premises of the GlogauAIR site: an architectural landmark designed by Ludwig Hoffman in 1894; the building was purchased by Chema Alvargonzález, who envisioned an artist residency space for international artists, a purpose that persists to this day. As part of the event, Samuel Perea-Díaz, a current GlogauAIR artist-in-residence, will explore sonic transductions through architectural materials, and the relocation of various sounds embedded in architectural materials within the building itself; Mariana Carvalho will explore the embodied listening of architectural sounds, through inner cartographies, with include her practice of ‘eating’ and ingesting sounds including the voices of architectures and people participating in the event.

Photo: Esra Sakalli and Ella McWilliams

Mariana Carvalho (São Paulo/Berlin) is a performer, sound artist, improviser and musician, working with body, voices, listening, relation, inner sounds and prepared piano. She is part of Sonora - músicas e feminismos and GEXLAT. She is currently doing her masters at Sound Studies and Sonic Arts, UdK Berlin and is a tutor at the Soundscape Project at TU Berlin. She has a piano bachelor 's degree at the University of São Paulo, where she was part of NuSom – Research Center on Sonology of USP and Orquestra Errante. 

Samuel Perea-Díaz (b. 1988, Spain) lives and works in Berlin. His multidisciplinary practice spans across art, architecture, and curating. Samuel received a MA in Sound Studies and Sound Art from the Berlin University of the Arts and he holds a degree in Architecture. Since 2013, he has worked with different architectural, artist, and design studios in Berlin and London, focusing mainly on museum scenography and exhibition design. Perea-Diaz’s artwork blends and moves between sonic activism, aural architecture, and virtual sonic landscapes, creating installations and sound-focused objects which engage with sonification, relocation of sound, field recording, and virtual reality. He has conducted different academic and artistic research projects at the intersection of queer and sonic spatial practices. Since 2019, he has taught at the Humboldt University of Berlin, where he investigates cities and urban environments through practice-based artistic research on sound and listening.