This project was initiated on the invitation of the 2nd International Congress on Ambiances, organized by the Centre for Research on Sound Space and the Urban Environment (CRESSON), in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal.

For this event, Sandra Volny and Simon Bélair, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, acupuncturist and qi gong teacher, developed in interdisciplinary project that adapted from a traditional meditation on the "tangible and intangible". 

In this meditation, the participants gradually became aware of all the tangible elements (breath, walls, floor), and intangible elements (emotions, light, sounds). By alternating their attention between the different elements that make up their environment, the participants were led to perceive that reality is simply made of vibrating particles. This approach is based on David Bohm’ holistic theory.

The purpose of the meditation was to perceive the city’s various sound atmospheres and to guide participants in a journey through their amplified body consciousness. They became aware of the subtlety and tenuousness of what separates the material and the immaterial, and what separates their own body from their environment.

Sounding Spaces is supported by the University Sorbonne Paris 1 laboratoire ACTE, Ambiances Network at the Canadian Center for Architecture, the Darling Foundry.  

Sounding Spaces
Darling Foundry, Montréal, 2012.