SONA – Explorations in Sonic VR

Two people stand in a dark room, visible only through strong backlighting. One person wears headphones and holds a microphone, while the other, wearing a cap and a light-colored shirt, gestures. The scene feels intimate and artistically staged.

Since December 2024, the SONA team has been a guest as artists in residence at the Laboratory for Inclusive Culture (L.I.K.) in Cologne. The resident artists are working in an inclusive team on the auditory virtual reality installation SONA – Explorations in Sonic VR. Developed from the perspective of blind people, the project uses spatial audio to make VR experiences possible without visual stimuli. Step by step, the team—comprising both blind and sighted individuals—explores new soundscapes and navigation methods beyond vision.

SONA will premiere at the Sommerblut Cultural Festival 2025 – a co-production with the Blindenverein Köln, Sommerblut, the Laboratory for Inclusive Culture (L.I.K.) by Un-Label, and SONA.

About SONA

SONA is an auditory virtual reality installation – designed from the perspective of blind people. As visitors, we enter a completely dark 10 x 10 metre space with no visual points of reference. We experience virtual reality solely through headphones. A motion capture system tracks our position in the room and the movement of our head. Sensor-equipped shoes detect our steps. We hear our footsteps on virtual surfaces – through snow, in a forest, across sand, and on a reactive sound carpet. We walk through an acoustic labyrinth. Virtual walls reveal themselves through their sonic reflections. Ghost lights call out to us, guiding our way. We learn to see virtual reality with our ears.

The development of this auditory VR format benefits from close collaboration with and the expertise of people with visual impairments. Individuals who contribute their perspectives, ideas, and experiences, test the VR installation, and actively co-develop it. Together, we ask: how can we navigate and interact when we rely solely on spatial audio, without our sense of sight?

In the SONA virtual reality installation, there is potential to develop spatial, audible narrative strategies that offer new aesthetic experiences for both disabled and non-disabled people alike.

https://www.sona-vr.com

Showing

SONA ist ein Virtual Reality Game.

Es findet in absoluter Dunkelheit statt.
Für die Teilnahme bewegst Du Dich mit Kopfhörern, Mikrofon und Bewegungssensoren in einem dunklen Raum.

Es wird keine klassische Audiodeskription angeboten.
Das Spiel ist über Geräusche und gesprochene Sprache erfahrbar. Es ist dadurch auch zugänglich für Menschen mit Sehbehinderung und blinde Menschen. Die im Spiel verwendete Sprache ist Deutsch.

Assistenzhunde sind herzlich Willkommen, können aber nicht in die Installation mitgenommen werden.Während der Installation wird es Personen geben, die auf Deinen Hund aufpassen.

Rollstuhlfahrer*innen und Personen mit Schwerhörigkeit sind ebenfalls herzlich willkommen. Die Installation ist jedoch nicht in vollem Umfang erfahrbar. Es wäre ein Experiment, das wir gemeinsam eingehen.

Am 1. November findet im Un-Label Studio eine besondere Installation statt.
Zwischen 17:30 und 21:30 Uhr können Besucher*innen die Installation einzeln erleben.
Buche dir jetzt deinen persönlichen Zeitslot, um dabei zu sein – den Link zur Anmeldung findest du unten.

Hier geht es zur Anmeldung

Artists

Adriani Botez, a smiling man with dark curly hair sits relaxed on a chair in a rehearsal room with ballet barres. He is wearing a grey-blue T-shirt and ochre-coloured trousers. In the foreground, other people are visible out of focus, suggesting a group activity or a rehearsal.

Adriani Botez

Adriani Botez, born in Romania, has lived in Germany since the age of 16. After studying business administration, he now works as an analyst at DEG within the KfW banking group. As a blind person, Adriani is actively involved in numerous socio-cultural initiatives, seeking to connect with society and contribute to a more inclusive community. He played a key role in shaping the strategy of the Match my Maker project, led HACKademies, and is also involved in the development of the open-source screen reader software NVDA.

At SONA, he serves as an expert and advisor on accessibility formats, works in public relations for visually impaired communities, and is part of the concept development team.

Jakob Lorenz sits cross-legged on a chair in a rehearsal room with black curtains. He is wearing a light denim vest over a white shirt and holds a script in his hand while reading intently. His elbow rests on his knee, and his head is thoughtfully supported by his hand.

Jakob Lorenz

Jakob Lorenz works as a composer and sound designer for theatre performances, radio plays, and VR projects. Until 2018, he studied Electronic Composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln under Professor Michael Beil and Brigitta Muntendorf. His engagements and collaborations have taken him to venues such as FFT Düsseldorf, Tanzhaus NRW, Theater Münster, Theater Dortmund, Theater Rampe Stuttgart, LOFFT Theater Leipzig, and the Favoriten Festival in Dortmund.

In 2022, Jakob was in residence for five months at the Academy for Theatre and Digitality at Theater Dortmund with the artist collective Team LEN!. The resulting interactive virtual reality work was presented in 2023 at the collaboration lab of Dortmunder U, among other venues.

Thomas Meckel sits barefoot in a cross-legged position on a chair in a rehearsal room. He is wearing a grey tracksuit and has a sleep mask resting on his forehead. Speaking with expressive gestures, he actively engages in the conversation. Other participants are visible in the background.

Thomas Meckel

Thomas Meckel works as a media artist, cultural manager, and musician in Cologne. He organises cybernetic jam sessions and creates cinematic games for collective improvisations. His performance Solaris has been presented at the Museum Ludwig (Cologne), Universidad Nacional (Bogotá), and Ringlokschuppen (Mülheim/Ruhr). Together with Tobias Thomas, he curates the concert series Round at the Kölner Philharmonie.Thomas Meckel studied Media Arts at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, Cultural Studies in Lüneburg, and Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen.

Josephine Stamer stands in a simple room with a large window, through which a landscape of fields and hills is visible. She wears light green dungarees over a dark T-shirt and holds a microphone with a windscreen in her right hand. Her hair is tied up in a loose bun. The room has a minimalist feel, featuring a radiator beneath the window and a terracotta-tiled floor.

Josephine Stamer

Josephine Stamer explores technical, sonic, and choreographic elements across various formats and collective constellations. She studied Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Sound and Reality at the Institute for Music and Media in Düsseldorf, specialising in Epistemic Media, where she researches performative sonic methods.

As part of the choir ΓΛΩΣΣΑ (Glossa), she performs using the voice as an instrument, develops choreographic and technical scores, and was awarded the Karl Sczuka Research Grant in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut as a co-composer. In the band EZB with Thomas Meckel, she sings and plays various instruments, blending experimental, pop, children’s music, and Krauthouse genres. Under the alias js bach, she uses her collection of mobile phone recordings to create sound-diary compositions in the programming language PureData.

Moritz Wesp stands on a dimly lit stage, playing a Theremin. He wears a pink sweater and beige trousers, with a headset microphone attached to his face. On his left hand, he wears a white glove equipped with LED lights and a blue liquid pouch. His focused posture and the innovative instrumentation suggest an experimental musical performance.

Moritz Wesp

Moritz Wesp works as a composer, musician, and media artist. A key focus of his work is the development of his own electronic instruments, such as his Virtual Trombone, as well as creating interactive settings for collaborative improvisation. He is the co-leader of the ensemble NOW MY LIFE IS SWEET LIKE CINNAMON and a member of groups such as Matthias Muche’s Bonecrusher and Mariá Portugal Erosao. Moritz studied trombone and composition at the Lucerne School of Music and the University of Music and Dance Cologne, where he completed his master’s degree in 2018.

About the residence programme by Un-Label

Un-Label’s artist residencies provide artists with disabilities with the opportunity to realise their own creative projects while receiving targeted support. The Labor für inklusive Kultur (L.I.K.) in Cologne-Neuehrenfeld serves as a central space where artists with disabilities can connect, collaborate, and work in an inclusive environment. In addition to financial, personnel, and logistical support, the residencies focus on interdisciplinary and intersectional collaboration. Un-Label also partners with cultural networks to establish accessibility and long-term support for artists with disabilities within the arts sector.

Logo of L.I.K. Three coloured circles are overlapping each other. Next to it is written: Labor für inklusive Kultur (Laboratory for inclusive culture)