Danish sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard explores sound in art with a scientific approach. He focuses on the scientific and aesthetic aspects of resonance, time, sound and hearing. His installations, compositions, and performances deal with acoustic spaces and phenomena that usually remain imperceptible.

Created by Kaffe Matthews, Sonic Bed is an instrument you play by lying and moving around in it. It is the central pin in “music for bodies” research and was awarded a Distinction in Digital Musics at Prix Ars Electronica. It is a sonic and social experiment exploring our perception of sound. Subtle, dynamic, at times beyond hearing, Sonic Bed plays music to feel rather than just listen to.

Music isn’t always about hearing and listening; Klangkapsel, created by Satoshi Morita, is an experience that enables you to feel sound. Transducers pressed against your body deliver an 8-channel soundtrack throughout the capsule. The highly immersive nature of the piece takes you inside the artist’s body.

Hear, Hear—a collaboration between an artist and a scientist—has created this playful exploration of the world of human hearing. Hear, Hear was created by Papermen.

Peter Staley has been a long-term AIDS and gay rights activist, first as a member of ACT UP New York, then as the founding director of TAG, the Treatment Action Group. He served on the board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) for 13 years.

Jim Hudspeth conducts research on hair cells, the sensory receptors of the inner ear. He and his colleagues are especially interested in the active process that sensitizes the ear, sharpens its frequency selectivity, and broadens its dynamic range. They also investigate the replacement of hair cells as a potential therapy for hearing loss.