We’re revealing the main programme for Sónar+D 2025 - an event like no other - today. This year’s programme focuses on the minds and ideas that are shaping the present and the future, covering everything from digital sustainability and non-binary futurism to terraforming, space exploration, neurohacking and emerging trends in internet culture.

We’ve organised Sónar+D 2025 around three main themes, announced back in January. Under AI + Creativity, we’re highlighting innovative tools and unconventional approaches to AI in the creative sphere, while also looking at the ethical and political battles taking place within latent space. In Futuring the creative industries, we explore new perspectives on curation and creation, asking what they’ll look like in five years time. And for Worlds to come, we turn our gaze to the future of the future, looking at how humanity’s ability to imagine new worlds can help find solutions to current problems.

This year’s programme features over a hundred activities - we’ll announce full details of our interactive exhibition space Project Area and a brand-new Communities programme in the coming weeks - designed to inspire, educate and help you connect with other attendees. Whether you work in the creative industries, come from the tech world, specialise in marketing and trendwatching, or just want to explore, we’re certain that there’s plenty for you.

Remember, any ticket for Sónar by Day will give you access to the majority of the activities - including all of the performances - but if you want to get the full Sónar+D experience, including exclusive morning sessions on Thursday and Friday, you’ll need to buy a Sónar by Day Pass or SonarPass+D.

AI + Creativity

+RAIN Film Festival (INT) | AI Performance Playground (INT) | AudioStellar present ‘Territorios sonoros emergentes’ (AR) | Introducing AI & Music (INT) | ‘Automating Bodies: Power, Music and AI’ with Joanne Armitage (UK) | ‘Artistic trends in Music AI’ with Jordi Pons (Stability AI) (ES) | Maria Arnal presents ‘Ama’ (ES) | ‘A musical understanding of AI as resonance’ with Marije Baalman (NL) | R-010 & Venerandi present ‘Phenomena’ (ES) | ‘Design your dream music AI tool’ with Rebecca Fiebrink (UK) | Ville Haimala presents ‘Hyporeal’ (FI/DE) | ‘Lemongrass & Bass: A Thai Recipe for AI Music’ with ญาบอยฮานอย yaboihanoi (TH)

Futuring the creative industries

‘Aquelarre Futurista’ with Berta Segura & Francesca Tur (ES) | Chris Watson & Izabella Dłużyk present ‘Białowieża’ (UK/(PL) | Cracks in the foundation: Curation in 2025 (INT) | ‘Hacking the world’ with Berta Segura & Francesca Tur (ES) | Heith, James K and Günseli Yalcinkaya present ‘The Talk’ live AV (EU) | How to future the creative industries (INT) | ‘MAT(H)RASH’: un nuevo manifesto del arte, de Julieta Wibel y Mike Fernandez con Samantha Hudson y YESSi PERSE (ES) | Music Tech Europe Academy: Startups Pitch Session (EU/ES) | Music Tech Dialogues: Creative Economy Data + DEMODAY (EU/ES) | Saint Abdullah, Eomac & Rebecca Salvadori present ‘A Forbidden Distance’ (INT) | Salome Asega ‘Architect or Gardener’ (US)

Worlds to come

Albert.DATA ‘SYNAPTICON’ (ES) | Animistic Beliefs & Jeisson Drenth present ‘Thức Tỉnh’ AV (NL) | Dania + Mau Morgó present ‘replica — relic’ (IQ-AU/ES) | ‘WE CAN’T PRETEND ANYMORE’ with Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley (UK) | Forensis & Bill Kouligas present ‘The Drum and The Bird’ (INT) | ‘Eat my Multiverse’ with Libby Heaney, presented by SEIDOR (UK) | Alice Sparkly Kat & Manuka Honey ‘Listen, the stars are talking’ (US/UK) | Safety Trance presents ‘DESTRUCCIÓN’ (VE) | ‘Questions of Automation’ with Tega Brain (AU) | Vica Pacheco presents ‘ITA’ AV (MX) | ‘Cosmic Metabolism’ with Xin Liu (CN) | YESSi PERSE & laSADCUM present ‘CYBERMEDIEVAL’ (ES)

We want Sónar+D to be the ‘conference’ where you don’t sit down, which is why you’ll find interactive forums and panels next to radical multidisciplinary performances and audiovisual lectures. 

Some highlights from today’s announcement include the first-ever artist to work with quantum computing, Libby Heaney (presented by SEIDOR); ‘eccentric engineer’ and digital environmental activist Tega Brain; accessible technology champion and Wekinator inventor Rebecca Fiebrink; extraterrestrial artist/engineer Xin Liu; music AI genius ญาบอยฮานอย yaboihanoi; neurohacker Albert.DATA; interactive artist Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley, and revolutionary astrologers  Alice Sparkly Kat & Manuka Honey.

Sónar+D is also where you’ll meet people you won’t find together anywhere else. That’s why across the programme, you’ll see representatives from renowned cultural institutions including the New Museum, Serpentine Gallery, Tabakalera, and the Onassis Foundation; academic and research organisations such as Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, University of Arts London, La Salle-URL’s IASLab; and innovative companies like Stability AI.
 

They join a series of performances that include the premiere of ‘Ama’, Catalan vocalist Maria Arnal’s latest AI-augmented project; Forensis & Bill Kouligas’ examination of the legacies of German colonialism in Namibia; ‘The Drum and The Bird’ (co-commissioned by Berlin Atonal, Sónar, Rewire, and Terraforma) ; plus YESSi PERSE & laSADCUM’s ‘CYBERMEDIEVAL’, which sees the visual artist duo team up with a contemporary dance company and choir to satirise big tech and technofeudalism.

A number of the activities fall under the aegis of two European initiatives. The TIMES collaborative project, formed of Sónar and 9 leading European festivals, contributes three unique multidisciplinary shows that have been co-created by the project over the past two years: Chris Watson & Izabella Dłużyk present 'Białowieża' and Saint Abdullah, Eomac & Rebecca Salvadori present 'A Forbidden Distance'; plus Heith, James K and Günseli Yalcinkaya present 'The Talk' live AV. 

For the second year running, AI & Music powered by S+T+ARTS returns with a pan-disciplinary programme including an introductory forum that brings together participants from across the programme, organised in collaboration with the  Ministerio de Cultura de España - Towards Mondiacult 2025. There are also individual lectures by artists and researchers including Marije Baalman and Joanne Armitage, plus a series of brand-new shows, with the afore-mentioned Maria Arnal joined by Amnesia Scanner’s Ville Haimala, experimental musician and coder patten, and local producer-vocalist duo R-010 & Venerandi.

+RAIN Film Festival, the festival dedicated to AI and cinema co-produced by Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Sónar also returns this year. The third edition features a four-day programme split between the UPF Poblenou campus, the CCCB and Sónar+D, highlighting the creative processes that directors are using when working with AI in cinema. This year at Sónar+D you’ll be also be able to watch a special screening of the winning films from the festival, which have been selected from over 250 international submissions received via the Open Call.

For more information on the activities announced today, head to the Sónar+D microsite.

And don’t forget to get a SonarPass+D or Sónar by Day Pass - which includes access to the entire Sónar+D 2025 programme, including exclusive morning sessions - at our tickets page here.

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