<p class="p1">Sónar+D is the international meeting of art, science, and digital culture hosted by Sónar during the festival, exploring how creativity changes the present and imagines new futures. Since 2013, this anti-disciplinary event has brought together leading artists, technologists, creatives, musicians, designers, thinkers, scientists, and entrepreneurs in Barcelona for a carefully curated programme of talks, masterclasses and groundbreaking performances, with a focus on inspiration and networking.</p><p class="p2">&nbsp;</p><p class="p1">For thousands of professionals and curious individuals from over 100 countries, Sónar+D offers a unique, open and relaxed environment to meet. Across three fruitful days, they come to discover groundbreaking new work and opportunities, learn new skills and showcase initiatives via talks, demos and workshops, performances, live concerts, exhibitions, immersive and interactive experiences and encounters with different communities.</p><p class="p1">&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rndRD5glFho?si=lc2RtXTKWtBp9ttg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>

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Sónar+D

line-up

<p class="p1">After a resoundingly successful first edition in 2023, <strong>+RAIN Film Festival</strong> returns in 2024.&nbsp;</p><p class="p1">An international festival devoted to the use of AI in cinema, it explores how this new technology is intersecting and integrating with current narratives in cinema. It also offers a forum for debate on the aesthetic, ethical and political implications of the use of AI in the creative industries.&nbsp;</p><p class="p2">&nbsp;</p><p class="p1">For the festival’s second year, Sónar+D has deepened its collaboration with the festival, which will take place from the 11th-14th June 2024, spread between the UPF’s Poblenou campus and Sónar+D, split into four different sections: RESEARCH, FEST, LIVE and FAIR.</p><p class="p2">&nbsp;</p><p class="p1">More information and a full programme will follow soon, head to the festival website to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.upf.edu/es/web/rainfilmfest"><span class="s1">find out more</span></a>.</p>

A new kind of cinema

+RAIN Film Festival

<p class="p1"><meta charset="utf-8"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;"><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"><strong>Adelaida</strong></span><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">’s music is pure fantasy. From her production studio ‘“on the moon”, the Catalan artist mixes mystical elements into her delicate compositions. With a background in fine arts and choir, her approach to music is both unorthodox and deeply personal. She explores the expressive limits of the voice, creating songs from innumerable layers of chants: as can be heard on</span><i><span style="font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">&nbsp;</span></i></span><a style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://adelaidamusic.bandcamp.com/album/c-ntaro-2"><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#1155cc;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;"><i><span style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip:none;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration-skip-ink:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;"><u>Cántaro</u></span></i></span></a><span style="background-color:transparent;color:#000000;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;"><span style="font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">, her debut album (which was produced by fellow Sónar 2024 artist LANAV). For her second album, she’s collaborating with local producers MANS O and Pura Cadera. Gloomier and more baroque in tone, it conjures up visions of chimerical landscapes, her voice once again at the centre of her, accompanied by gentle electronic production flourishes. She’ll reach out to the audience for an intimate concert at Sónar 2024.&nbsp;</span></span></p>

<div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Om5mUHnEp0g?si=_O7opm8Ix52LTAJ9" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3108619703/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://adelaidamusic.bandcamp.com/album/c-ntaro-2">Cántaro by Adelaida</a></iframe></div>

Guided by voices

Adelaida

<p class="p1">The <strong>AI &amp; Blockchain Creative Summit</strong> returns to Sónar with a new name and a slight rebrand in 2024. A collaboration between <strong>Sónar+D </strong>and<strong> UPF Ventures</strong> (an enterprise by the UPF, dedicated to collaborations between researchers and industry and the promotion of technology transfer between the University and businesses), the summit will once again bring together emerging talent and companies. Acting as a forum for exchange , it’s where creatives and technologists can present projects for consideration and evaluation, seek advice on their ideas, and gain insight into where industry and researchers see AI and Blockchain technology&nbsp; heading in the coming years. More information and a full programme will be published in the near future.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

Bringing researchers, creatives, technologists, and business together

AI & Blockchain Creative Summit

<p class="p1">ASIANDOPEBOYS is the title given to the artistic practice of Tianzhuo Chen, whose multidisciplinary performances, installations, music videos, photography and artworks, blur the boundaries between exhibition and theatre. Cultural symbols, as diverse as 90’s clip art, skateboard graphics, chairman mao, butoh theater, or tibetan Idols are all fair-game for co-option and recontextualisation, ready-mades to be placed in service of his unique and diverse global version. Intimately connected to club culture, and the international electronic underground, his new 6 hour show Physis features a cast of performers and musicians that includes Ylva Falk, Ndoho Ange, Ican Harem, Kasimyn, Siko Setyanto, OMI, Lavinia Vago, Léa Djyl, Felix-Florian Tödtloff, City, KIM KHAN, ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U and&nbsp; Dis Fig.&nbsp;</p>

Everything, everywhere, all at once. 

ASIANDOPEBOYS present 'PHYSIS'

<p class="p1">Not many scientists get a longform <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/09/11/can-we-talk-to-whales"><span class="s1">New Yorker article</span></a> dedicated to their work. Not many scientists are trying to understand how we might talk to whales either. <strong>David Gruber</strong>’s&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p class="p1">Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) certainly has an eye-catching objective: learn how to understand what sperm whales are saying to each other. It’s brought the marine biologist - plenty of attention from both inside and outside of the scientific community. Using Artificial Intelligence, Gruber is attempting to decipher the calls these huge marine mammals use to communicate with one another. At Sónar+D, he’ll shine a light on a life spent (mostly) at sea, focused on conservation, protecting biodiversity and safeguarding ecosystems.&nbsp;</p>

The man who wants to talk to whales 

David Gruber 

<p class="p1">Long gone is the young pianist whose debut LP ‘<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://kellymoran.bandcamp.com/album/bloodroot"><span class="s1">Bloodroot</span></a>’ captivated audiences, critics, and even the likes of Oneohtrix Point Never (she’d later appear as part of his live band) in 2017. In 2024, <strong>Kelly Moran</strong> is much more than that. With her second album, ‘<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://kellymoran.bandcamp.com/album/ultraviolet"><span class="s1">Ultraviolet</span></a>’ on Warp, she opened up her prepared piano (where various objects are placed on or between the strings, altering the sound) to welcome influences from jazz, dream pop, neo-classical, and even black metal. A frequent collaborator - credits include FKA twigs, Yves Tumor, and The Avalanches - she comes to Sónar 2024 to present her third full-length album, and her second for Warp. Moran’s superhuman technique is at the core of this new set of experimental compositions, helping further expand the creative and sonic boundaries of her instrument. Expect a hypnotic and emotional concert where classical and electronic music converge.</p>

<div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3704305105/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://kellymoran.bandcamp.com/album/ultraviolet">Ultraviolet by kelly moran</a></iframe></div><div class="raw-html-embed"></div>

Expanding the creative boundaries of the piano

Kelly Moran

<p class="p1">Originally from Galicia, but now based in Valencia, where she teaches at the Berklee College of Music, <strong>Marte Verde</strong> is a&nbsp; visual artist, creative technologist and educator. Her work explores the unpredictable relationship between the organic and the electronic, and how this can be visualised. Noise, randomness and repetition are all key elements of her practice, as is real-time digital manipulation of analog signals. Inspired by DIY and maker philosophy, she’s an avid collaborator, having worked with artists ranging from composer José Venditti, Galician producers BFlecha and Yugen Kala, and German electronic musicians Antony Rother and Christoph de Babalon. For Sónar+D 2024, she’ll draw on her teaching experience to explain how she’s finding innovative ways to use AI technology.</p>

An analogue girl in a digital world 

Marta Verde 

<p class="p1">The music <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://anaroxanne.bandcamp.com/album/because-of-a-flower-2"><span class="s1"><strong>Ana Roxanne</strong></span></a> and Brian Piñeyro (<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://djpythonnyc.bandcamp.com/album/natural-wonder-beauty-concept"><span class="s1"><strong>DJ Python</strong></span></a>) make as <strong>Natural Wonder Beauty Concept</strong> is less a collaboration and more an extension of a friendship. The tentative, fragile and intimate nature of their <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://naturalwonderbeautyconcept.bandcamp.com/album/natural-wonder-beauty-concept"><span class="s1">self-titled debut album</span></a> echoes how the pair first met in the winter of 2020. Ana had just moved to New York, and they got to know each other in the shadow of the pandemic and rolling lockdowns. During shared car rides, they’d talk and listen to slow, melancholy music - Telegram-era Björk, HTRK, Portishead - to decompress. When they moved to the studio, that familiarity carried over, along with a release from the expectations of their solo work - Piñeyro even contributed vocals for the first time in his career. Live, their mix of trip-hop, abstract electronica and breathy vocals feels just as warm as those first shared car journeys: come experience it at Sónar 2024. &nbsp;</p>

<div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y8z7VWciZjA?si=jcRbOsnPoGAOc7VI" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3053336016/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://djpythonnyc.bandcamp.com/album/natural-wonder-beauty-concept">Natural Wonder Beauty Concept by Natural Wonder Beauty Concept</a></iframe> </div>

Fragile, warm and intimate downtempo  

Natural Wonder Beauty Concept

<p class="p1">A&nbsp; transdisciplinary artist and researcher from Santiago, Chile, <strong>Nicole L’Huillier</strong> explores sound and vibrations as a way to explore agency, identity, collectivity and imagination. Playfulness and DIY are recurring themes in her work, which includes installations, sonic and vibrational sculptures, custom-made listening and sounding devices, performances, experimental compositions, poetry and writing.&nbsp; She holds a Ph.D. in Media Arts &amp; Sciences from MIT, and has been exhibited at venues including the Venice Architecture Biennale, Kunsthalle Baden Baden, and the Museo de Arte. For Sónar+D 2024, she’ll deliver a Masterclass that explores how she’s integrating AI in unique ways into her practice.</p>

Sound, vibration, art and AI 

Nicole L’Huiller

<p class="p1">A prolific composer and producer, as well as a journalist, educator and DJ, <strong>Peter Kirn </strong>is quite possibly the music industry’s leading technologist. Through their long-running website <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cdm.link/"><span class="s1">create digital music (cdm.link)</span></a>, they’ve helped democratise music-making technology for thousands of people, creating a fully-fledged online community in the process. In addition to their writing, they’re an accomplished improviser and musician, with releases that span club and experimental sonics; and also a facilitator of workshops and interactive performance labs. A frequent face at Sónar+D, in 2024 Peter<strong> </strong>will lead a Hacklab dedicated to AI and music, in which a small group of participants will work together to create a performance using AI tools. There’ll be an open call for participants - who’ll be selected by Peter - published in the near future.</p>

<div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QhsL8sN0B2k?si=qB1s5ookzfMYFap9" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> </div><div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=498288246/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=456183787/transparent=true/" seamless=""><a href="https://darkcarousel.bandcamp.com/album/dc022-peter-kirn-pandemonium-architecture">DC022 Peter Kirn - Pandemonium Architecture by Dark Carousel</a></iframe> </div>

Music’s leading technologist

Peter Kirn

<p class="p1"><strong>Project Area </strong>is the beating heart of Sónar+D, a forum, exhibition area and testing ground open to all attendees at Sónar by Day, where creative technology and innovative art meet eye-opening research, AI-generated visuals, and experimental video games. In 2024, exhibits will be grouped under seven overlapping categories and themes:</p><p class="p2">&nbsp;</p><ul class="ul1"><li class="li3"><strong>Music &amp; Sound</strong><br>&nbsp;</li></ul><p class="p1">Research, design and technology focused on music or sound.&nbsp;</p><p class="p2">&nbsp;</p><ul class="ul1"><li class="li3"><strong>AI and Music&nbsp;</strong><br>&nbsp;</li></ul><p class="p1">Research, design and technology that combines Artificial Intelligence or machine-learning with musical production.&nbsp;</p><p class="p2">&nbsp;</p><ul class="ul1"><li class="li3"><strong>Avatars, Digital Beings, and the Metaverse&nbsp;</strong><br>&nbsp;</li></ul><p class="p1">Work that explores human-machine symbiosis and the art of creating digital selves.</p><p class="p2">&nbsp;</p><ul class="ul1"><li class="li3"><strong>Experimental and artistic gaming</strong><br>&nbsp;</li></ul><p class="p1">Video games that push boundaries and explore new creative narratives.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p class="p2">&nbsp;</p><ul class="ul1"><li class="li3"><strong>Realities+D - Alternative Realities&nbsp;</strong><br>&nbsp;</li></ul><p class="p1">Augmented Realities (AR), Virtual Realities (VR), and Extended Realities (XR).&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p class="p2">&nbsp;</p><ul class="ul1"><li class="li3"><strong>AI and Film&nbsp;</strong><br>&nbsp;</li></ul><p class="p1">Research, design and technology that combines Artificial Intelligence or machine-learning with cinema and film production.</p><p class="p2">&nbsp;</p><ul class="ul1"><li class="li3"><strong>Blockchain experiments&nbsp;</strong><br>&nbsp;</li></ul><p class="p1">Novel and innovative projects and ideas that make use of blockchain technology.</p><p class="p2">&nbsp;</p><p class="p1">We’re accepting proposals to exhibit projects, ideas, prototypes and products at Project Area next June. Submit your proposal via the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://sonar.es/en/news/open-call-exhibe-tu-proyecto-en-sonard-2024-convocatoria-abierta-hasta-el-22-de-diciembre"><span class="s2"><strong>Sónar+D 2024 Open Call</strong></span></a> before Friday 22nd December 2023.</p>

Where Sónar+D comes to life 

Project Area

<p class="p1">Serial virtual reality pranksters and digital studio<strong> Team Rolfes</strong> are bringing their most ambitious project to date to Sónar. ‘321Rule’ is the Rolfes’ brothers - whose list of clients include Lady Gaga, Holly Herndon, Danny L Harle, Metallica, and Arca - “VR-puppeted, motion capture avatar-ed, real-time club-theatre performance”. Right. Essentially, it’s virtual reality augmented opera, starring an artist - in this case viral rapper <strong>Lil Mariko </strong>-<strong> </strong>in the leading role, while Team Rolfes directs the digital mayhem from the stage. Expect slapstick humour, manic visuals, genre parodies and plenty of high-bpm musical interludes. This one needs to be seen to be believed.&nbsp;</p>

A manic virtual reality augmented opera

Team Rolfes present ‘321Rule’ live AV starring Lil Mariko

<p class="p1">Berlin-based Argentine artist <strong>Tomás Saraceno</strong> is known for thinking big while paying attention to the smallest details. An architect by training, he’s created large-scale installations and exhibited at museums around the world from The Serpentine Gallery to Palais de Tokyo and MoMA, and many will recognise his work with spider webs (via his Arachnophilia collective) and aerosolar sculptures (via his open source Aerocene initiative). His practice blurs the lines between scientific and artistic investigation, engages in dialogue with the natural world, and seeks to challenge dominant hierarchies of thought and knowledge. At Sónar+D 2024, he’ll deliver an audiovisual conference explaining his work and holistic ecological philosophy.</p>