Live performance session featuring sound artists Sylvain Souklaye and Florence To

The Sound Environment Centre is pleased to host a live performance session featuring sound artists Sylvain Souklaye (US) and Florence To (UK).

Presented as part of SOUND+PURPOSE: Inaugural Conference of the SOUND+ Network for Transdisciplinary Research in Sound (20–21 November, Lund University), Souklaye and To will – through their distinct yet complementary works “Intimacy” and “TYRYX” – explore the potential of sonic performance and listening for social transformation, ecological inquiry, and collective presence. 

The performance session is free and open to the public. No advance registration is required, but seating may be limited.

Please note that the main conference programme is reserved for invited contributors only.

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Intimacy: Sound as a Catalyst for Collective Vulnerability and Spatial Transformation

Sylvain Souklaye

The purpose of this work is to address a fundamental question: How can we use sound to foster genuine connection and collective presence in spaces traditionally defined by anonymity and disconnection? In an era marked by rising social fragmentation, climate anxiety, and digital mediation, I propose that deep listening and sonic improvisation provide pathways to more attuned and responsive ways of being together.

This live demonstration will engage participants in a micro-version of Public Intimacy, using the conference space itself as both subject and stage. Participants will experience how improvised sound-making, binaural recording, and architectural acoustics can create moments of collective intimacy that transcend individual boundaries. The demonstration will reveal how sound functions not merely as an artistic medium but as a social technology—a means of cultivating empathy, spatial awareness, and collaborative presence.

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Florence To 

TYRYX is a research-based sonic performance that examines the relationships between language, voice, and ecological memory through transdisciplinary methods of composition. 

The sonic investigation is a 25-minute live performance structured as a series of compositional inquiries. Each segment reflects on a distinct sonic relation, such as the interaction between environmental resonance and phonetic articulation, or the overlay of migratory identity with acoustic presence. The work incorporates research from psychoacoustics, phonology, and acoustic ecology, and engages with the cultural erasure of minority languages such as Cantonese. The project positions listening as a critical research method and invites reflection on how sound can be used to investigate displacement, perception, and memory. TYRYX proposes new modes of understanding through sonic experience and contributes to ongoing dialogues in transdisciplinary sound research by treating performance as a site of inquiry.

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Sylvain Souklaye is a French Caribbean Brooklyn-based live artist, sonic maker, and author whose transdisciplinary practice explores sound as infrastructure for social transformation. Beginning with DIY social justice activism in Lyon—merging Canut revolt heritage with his Neg marron origins from Martinique—Souklaye's work embodies resistance, freedom, and collective healing. His artistic evolution from street action to durational radio at France's RCT station shaped his signature approach to live sonic experiences that activate interiority and collective intimacy.

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Florence To is an artist and researcher working at the intersection of spatial sound, visual composition, and ecological research. Born in Scotland and of Hong Kong heritage, To originally trained in textiles and tailoring before expanding their practice into digital media and sound installation. Their work examines how sensory environments influence cognitive and emotional perception, using a range of techniques including psychoacoustics, phonetics, and spatial composition. To’s practice is transdisciplinary, drawing from fields such as acoustic ecology, architecture, phenomenology, and language studies. Central to their work is an interest in how sound can function as both medium and method in research. This approach considers sound not only as artistic material, but also as a means of investigating relationships between bodies, environments, and cultural memory.

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