This is the first in a series of virtual roundtables bringing together museum practitioners, artists, researchers , and community builders to explore Sonostalgia and the communities that form around listening.

Coined by Jason Reinier, Sonostalgia describes sound longing: The way certain sounds and soundscapes carry comfort, memory, and meaning, and the impulse to preserve and share them. What happens when we put sound first, not as background, but as a primary way of knowing and experiencing?

Sound is everywhere, yet we rarely treat it as a subject in its own right. Together we will explore how communities and institutions such as museums can be designed around listening, sonic memory, and shared soundscapes, and what a sound museum could make possible culturally, socially, and educationally.

As part of the conversations, we will explore practical formats that build attention and a shared language for listening, from participatory archives to performances and immersive installations. We will also consider what it takes to move from a distributed community of sound-oriented people, projects, and places toward a future home. From there, let’s imagine the physical space and lay the foundation for a public museum dedicated to sound and space.

This event is co-hosted by Swissnex in Boston and New York, and Swissnex in San Francisco.