This is the third in a series of virtual roundtables bringing together artists, researchers, museum practitioners, and community builders to explore how sound shapes the way people listen together. The series has moved from listening as a social practice, to the design of immersive listening environments, and now to the question of permanence.

The first session asked why listening matters; the second asked how environments can support it. This session asks what it would mean to give these ideas an architectural and institutional home. The conversation turns to architecture as a way of holding sound. We consider what a sound museum could be as a public and architectural proposition, and how built space shapes resonance, perception, collectivity, and memory. This is where the series moves from temporary events and experiments toward the possibility of a lasting structure.

As part of the session, David Shaff will introduce Audium and Barbara Nerness will perform in a livestream from this legendary institution whose architecture is built around sound, bringing resonant space into the conversation as a live experience. The Sound Museum project aims to create a permanent space for immersive group listening, where people gather to experience sound together.

Online sessions like this one introduce the questions and practices that such a space could host onsite, and bring the conversation to a global audience. This event is co-hosted by Swissnex in Boston and New York, and Swissnex in San Francisco.

The roundtable is moderated by Joseph Becker, with contributions by Barbara Nerness, Bevin Savage Yamazaki, and Sarah Kenderdine. David Shaff is hosting and Jason Reinier is the onsite coordinator / listener.

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