San Francisco – May 26, 2026

Sound is everywhere, yet we rarely treat it as a subject in its own right. In this first edition of a series of roundtables, we explored 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.

Jason Reinier, speaker at the roundtable coined the term Sonostalgia, which 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?

This event was part of our Creative Industries program. Swissnex in San Francisco has programming around academia, startups, creative industries, and AI & Tech Foresight.