The creative heart of Sónar by Day 2024, Sónar+D presents more than 70 activities and more than 100 projects during the 3 days of the festival. With such a diversity of proposals, ideas, experiments, and installations to discover, we’ve divided the programme into 7 categories, each of them providing a different path through the festival’s multiple stages, spaces and formats.
Remember that the activities that take place between 10am and 3pm can only be accessed with a SonarPass+D or a Sónar by Day Pass. If you want to get + out of Sónar by Day, there’s still time to get your ticket!
AI & Music powered by S+T+ARTS
The creative application of Generative AI is one of the most important - and least explored - uses of this revolutionary technology. Encompassing pop music, sound art, audiovisual performance and more, this programme brings together the artists and thinkers who are highlighting the role of Generative AI in music creation and pointing to its future.
Hear from the pioneers of AI software and instrument design in the forum ‘We Are The Music Makers’, and discover the tools that are shaping the future of music such as Rave (presented by Ircam), Combobulator, Stable Audio or AudioStellar in the Project Area.
This programme also showcases the artists using Gen AI in the studio and on stage: Sevdaliza, Lee Gamble presenting ‘Models’ with Candela Capitán, Nicole L’Hullier, Rob Clouth and more.
Creative AI, Science & Society
A deep dive into interactions between science, technology and society, often using AI to uncover the world around us. From debates on the ethics surrounding the mass adoption of AI to discussions on the social impact of technological advances, from the sound of the seabed to speculative cryptozoology, literature in the age of AI and more.
Stage+D hosts AV lectures by Tim Maughan and Joanne McNeil, two writers who will take a critical look, halfway between reality and fiction, at the impact of AI - one of history’s newest technologies, on literature - one of its oldest. AI will also transport us to the deepest layer of the ocean -the mesopelagic- through the AV lecture ‘Diving into Liquid Strata’, by oceanographer Joan Llort and the artists Entangled Others and Daphne Xanthopoulou, and the accompanying exhibition at SonarMies.
In Project Area, you can find out what an AI ‘really’ thinks of you from mots with AI & Me: The Confessional and AI Ego and how Andy Gracie is amazed by the complexities of binary systems and their interactions (presented by Catalan .NewArt { foundation;}).
The Future of the Creative Industries
Fashion, film, dance and choreography, and new ways of experiencing art: innovation isn’t limited to the world of music. In this programme, we’ll discover the secrets of immersivity with the engineer who designed the lighting for the spectacular The Sphere in Las Vegas, and the studio responsible for (among many others) Madonna’s latest tour. Learn how to put magic into a lecture with the tech curator of TED Talks, and dive into the most innovative waters of dance and choreography with Kianí del Valle, Gabber Eleganza and Tianzhao Chen, in the forum ‘Dance Dance Revolution’.
Film, Visuals & Design
A space to discover the latest trends and technologies in the creation of stunning audiovisual content. From innovative visual effects, sound art, vibrational sculptures, and digital manipulation of analogue signals, to cutting-edge visual storytelling techniques.
Highlights include the programme associated with the +RAIN Film Festival, organised together with the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, or the conversation with Smith and Lyall, who have spent a whole career devising the visual identity of The Chemical Brothers. A stroll through the Project Area leads you to discover the innovative projects of Arts Korea Lab, the VR selection of Realities+D (presented by FABBULA in partnership with Octobre Numérique - Faire Monde), and of course the ‘Tardes de Prompting’ (on Thursday and Friday) presented by Krea.
Digital Identities
Who are we in the digital world and how do we interact with it? This is the question addressed by a programme that touches XR, fashion, Web3, performance and beyond.
Shows by Team Rolfes, and Myriam Bleau & Nien Tzu Weng speak to the nature of identity, while the 6-hour ritual by ASIANDOPEBOYS constructs a new imaginary from the detritus of the internet. Over at Project Area, Harriet Davey and Laura AI by LOWKEYMOVES are both essential viewing. And what defines our identity more than fashion? We will delve into the present and future digital fashion in a talk presented by Vogue Business with Leanne Young from the Institute of Digital Fashion and creative director Isabelita Virtual.
Sound Design & Music-tech
A separate space within the Project Area that showcases the new music production tools and surround sound design techniques that are transforming the way we create and experience music.
Who would have thought that in the age of AI, modular synthesizers are more popular than ever? Renowned manufacturers such as Befaco or Endorphin.es will present their modules; Moth Quantum, their innovative tools for making music with quantum computing; Nina Protocol, a more equitable take on streaming; and Love Hultén, his unique handmade synthesizers (presented by designboom).
Gaming and Beyond
Press start to look at the future of interactive entertainment and how it is evolving to embrace new frontiers, with video games reimagined as an excuse to tell stories and as a technology to create experiences that transcend the screen.
Rhett Tsai’s work, presented by Casa Asia, invites us to reflect on today’s conflicts of war. Team Rolfes propose a “heavily patented and dangerously untested” virtual preview device. And Fantasia Malware’s Gabriel Helfenstein reflects on the Kafkaesque nature of bureaucracy. From there, train your prompting skills with Sebastian Schmieg’s arcade Prompt Battle Training Station, and take the (short) leap into web3 with Sarah Friend’s gamified workshop on DAOs, presented by TIMES.
Sónar+D takes place in the Sónar by Day venue from 10:00 to 21:00 on 13th and 14th June, and from 15:00 to 21:00 on Saturday 15th. Get + out of Sónar by Day here.