Healing Soundscapes
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What does it sound like in places that deal with illness and recovery? What do rooms in hospitals and doctors' surgeries need in terms of acoustic and atmospheric design? How can sounds promote well-being? With these questions in mind, we invite you to explore the world of Healing Soundscapes.
Healing Soundscapes are health-promoting sound environments that are created under the influence of artistically and spatially designed Musical Soundscape Interventions (MSI). The Healing Soundscapes project develops and researches spatial sound interventions for sensitive hospital areas. The aim is to design the sound environment (the "soundscape") in such a way that the well-being of patients and staff in the rooms is improved.
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program on November 18th
Marie Koldkjær Højlund - Multisensory artwork and soundscapes in the hospital - an attuning approach in healthcare design
Engaging with sound design, music composition, and sound art in hospital settings necessitates an ecological and enactive methodology, which involves examining the interactions between actors and their environments as attuning and exploratory agents. Drawing from my Ph.D. research on sound in Danish hospitals and my recent work on sensory delivery rooms, I have developed an attuning approach as a methodological framework. This framework accommodates both the multisensory atmosphere and the active engagement of enactive users through practice-based experiments.
This research contributes to the expanding field at the intersection of well-being and biomedical treatments in healthcare design. In my presentation, I will discuss the design of the new delivery rooms at Danish regional hospitals in Hjørring and Gødstrup, highlighting the multisensory artwork and soundscapes created for these spaces. The sensory delivery rooms aim to reintroduce art into healthcare environments, supporting caregivers, laboring mothers, and birth companions during this existential and life-changing event. These examples underscore the importance of considering the interplay between cultural and social aspects, and the environment in healing architecture.
From a broader perspective, a somaesthetic approach to healthcare design opens up a range of ethical considerations and ideas valuable for creating healing healthcare atmospheres. The prevailing clinical paradigm is widely accepted as a "normal" and "neutral" interior space, with a predominant focus on functionality, security, and efficiency. However, from a somaesthetic perspective, no space is neutral. Traditional healthcare aesthetics have created environments that are inhumane for individuals experiencing their most private, extreme, and significant moments, such as childbirth. One could argue that the strong lack of sensitivity to the sensing body and its context reflects a lack of care. Artistic expressions must be developed to support healthcare personnel's acts of care, address patients' profound emotional needs, and utilize state-of-the-art research as a foundation for their work.
Marie Koldkjær Højlund, Associate Professor of Sound Studies, audio design and musicology Aarhus University, Denmark
Marie Koldkjær Højlund is an associate professor of sounds studies, audio design and musicology at Aarhus University as well as a composer, musician and preforming sound artist. For years she has been researching what everyday sound environments mean for our way of life. She is interested in listening and sonic citizenship in a variety of contexts from a practice-based and artistic approach.
Committed to crafting sound technologies for alternative listening experiences, she co-founded The Overheard with Morten Riis, presenting large-scale sound sculptures across Denmark. As a composer, her sonic expressions have reverberated in diverse realms-from bands and albums to compositions for TV, theater, and computer games. Recently she was honored with the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsens award as a composer. During 2023 and 2024 she is a guest researcher at the Pufendorf Institute of Advanced Studies at Lunds University in the theme "Sound of Democracy".
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The ligeti center in Hamburg-Harburg is a place of transdisciplinary collaboration where future topics are shaped and developed at the intersection of art, science and innovation. With the Open Lecture Series, we invite international experts to shed light on the topics of our various laboratories from different perspectives and discuss them with the audience.
Our lectures not only serve to exchange knowledge on a professional level, but also to share exciting findings with the world. We therefore invite all interested people to attend!
Lectures and discussions are scheduled to last 1-1.5 hours. After the presentations, there will be the opportunity to stay for a drink and continue the conversation.
All dates at a glance:
04.09., 6 pm - Andrew Rossetti
Environmental Music Therapy (EMT): Modulating Soundscapes in the Hospital Environment
16.10., 6 pm - Antti Ikonen
Friendly Sounds in Children's Hospital
18.11., 6 pm - Marie Koldkjær Højlund
Multisensory artwork and soundscapes in the hospital - an attuning approach in healthcare design
19.02., 6 p.m. - Peter Androsch
Air, air, air
19.03., 6 p.m. - Tanja Vollmer
The Healing Seven: How sensory perception in hospital influences recovery