When sound isn’t just about listening, but an invisible engine that shapes our movement and our conscious mind.
Andrea Cera’s project, Moving Soundscapes, springs from a set of core questions that have challenged him throughout his career in music, dance, and design: How do the sounds around us affect our bodies and perception? Why do some urban noises intrude into our mental space more strongly than others? And what can we learn about sound by observing the way we move?
Cera, a composer and sound designer with a classical background and specialized training at IRCAM in Paris, presents a mini-documentary that serves as a synthesis of scientific research, artistic experimentation, and technological development. The work is the result of an integrated approach, spanning from composing scores for dance and theatre (such as the recent collaboration with Stefano Ricci) to industrial sound design (including the iconic AVAS sounds for Renault, also in collaboration with Jean-Michel Jarre).
Moving Soundscapes compiles the outcomes of several interconnected activities:
→ Motion Capture Visualizations from a pilot experiment that investigates the relationship between “intrusive” urban soundscapes and human movement qualities.
→ Footage from an open-day at Infomus-CasaPaganini (University of Genoa), featuring an installation where visitors’ movements generated soundscapes of varying sonic intrusiveness.
→ Examples from an Android app, designed to apply real-time sound design techniques capable of mitigating the sonic intrusiveness of annoying environments (like road traffic) directly through smartphone headphones.
→ Visual memories from pedagogical workshops and educational initiatives, demonstrating the applicability of his studies in care settings, such as the DanzArTe rehabilitation protocol for the elderly.
The installation offers us a privileged vantage point: the body itself. By bringing science and creativity into dialogue, Cera invites us to recognize the most primitive mechanisms that allow a sound to emerge, “invading the theatre of our conscious mind,” beyond simple physical reaction.
BIO
Andrea Cera trained in music at the Conservatory of Padua and IRCAM-Centre Pompidou in Paris. His career is split between composing soundtracks (over 40 works for contemporary dance and theatre) and applied research in sound design for industry and academia. His collaborations include institutions such as IRCAM, Renault, and KTH, with a growing interest in applying sound in healthcare and rehabilitative contexts.
This project is part of RESILENCE: Future Soundscapes & Affect Mining in Urban Ecosystems, the exhibition showcasing the outcomes of fifteen international art residencies supported by S+T+ARTS (the European Commission’s initiative for science, technology, and the arts). Through the artistic exploration of sound, RESILENCE redefines urban spaces, using the acoustic dimension to analyze the complex affective and ecological relations of future cities and promote collective awareness of what lies beyond mere noise. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with BASE, as part of the FAROUT Festival 2025 edition.