Invite; April 1, 8, 15 events with MIT Spatial Sound Lab - free and open to the public

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Ian Condry

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Mar 30, 2026, 7:31:56 AMMar 30

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Dear friends and colleagues of Boston Tech Poetics,

I’m writing about upcoming events in April at the MIT Spatial Sound Lab. We hope to see you. To unsubscribe, just let me know.

Here's a quick overview of upcoming events,

and then more details on talk and soundwalk below.

April 1 Wed 6pm (5:30pm doors, snacks)

DANIEL KISH, Talk and discussion on human echolocation

MIT, Room W20-429, MIT Student Center, 84 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139

Daniel Kish “Human Echolocation and the Whole Body Sensorium: Reflections from the blind on what it means to see"

followed by moderated discussion with Kyle Keane and Ian Condry.

April 8 Wed 1:30 - 3pm (meet at 1:15pm)

JACEK SMOLICKI, Hybrid soundwalk with at MIT

MIT, Room 2-132, 1:30pm start, please arrive between 1:15-1:25pm, Building 2 is at 182 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 20139, and room 132 is a classroom on the ground floor. http://whereis.mit.edu/?go=2

RSVP requested Ian Condry (con...@mit.edu), bring wired headphones if possible, some will be available

April 8 Wed. 7-11pm

Experimental Club Night at Cloud & Spirits with quadraphonic DJs and light experiments

Cloud & Spirits (bar, 21+), 795 Main St., Cambridge, MA 02139

7-11pm with special guests Bobalee and brownsugarbabe (LJ Franklin),

plus residents Nelly, Justin, and Ian; light experiments by Seth R. & Hannah Z.

April 15, 6pm (5:30pm doors, snacks)

JANNOUK VAN DYCK, Open decks with Ambrio spatial DJ Mixer, demo and workshop Ambrio Sound at the Lab

MIT, Room W20-429, MIT Student Center, 4th floor, 84 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139

Please RSVP (con...@mit.edu) if you’d like to experiment with the spatial DJ mixer from https://ambriosound.com which enables panning, spread and more in surround sound; bring laptop w/ stems (up to 4 x stereo) or bring USB stick for XDJ; vinyl may be an option too.

Open call is coming in early April for Spatial Mixtape submissions. We will be seeking submissions for 4-channel and 8-channel surround mixes for consideration to be included in our Spatial Mixtape events later in the year. Further details to come via email from me.

Save the date: Dissolve Music @ MIT, October 8-9, 2026 (Thu/Fri) at MIT, Building W97, black box theater at 345 Vassar St., Cambridge, MA 02139. Our annual two-day spatial music festival and conference returns this fall.

All events are free and open to the public.

Questions, comments: con...@mit.edu

On behalf of co-organizers, Nelly Kate and Justin Looper, we hope to see you in the coming weeks!

MORE DETAILS on the talk and soundwalk:

Talk and discussion

April 1 Wed 6pm start (5:30pm doors, snacks) talk and discussion

"Human Echolocation and Whole Body Sensorium: Reflections from the blind on what it means to see”

Daniel Kish, M.A., M.A., COMS

MIT, Room W20-429, MIT Student Center, 84 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139

Talk followed by moderated discussion with Profs. Kyle Keane (U Bristol) and Ian Condry (MIT).

Abstract

Daniel Kish offers a perception-based paradigm and framework for understanding the achievement and practice of self-determined freedom for blind people. The reach for freedom is foremost behind development and adaptation, especially in the formative years, driving every developmental stage throughout the lifespan toward self-determination, leading toward equitable and respected community inclusion, belonging, and achievement. While this process is largely supported and motivated by visual input for sighted people, Daniel presents a nonvisual perceptual basis for understanding how this process may be preserved and adapted for constructive development in blind people. We will understand what is meant by self-determination, the basic perceptual mechanisms around this process, and the pertinent environmental domains that effect this practice.

Bio:

Blind since infancy, Daniel Kish holds Masters degrees in Developmental Psychology and Special Education. He is the first totally blind Orientation and Mobility Specialist, teaching blind people how to get around. He is President of World Access for the Blind, which develops and mobilizes innovative approaches to help foster self-determination for blind people. In over 40 countries, he has taught over 3,000 blind students, and conducted professional development for tens of thousands of blindness service providers. Daniel has appeared in over 175 public outlets globally. He has authored over a dozen scholarly articles on brain plasticity and behavioral adaptations to blindness, and published the first textbook on human echolocation and self-determination. He is pursuing his PhD in neuro-anthropology at Macquarie University, undertaking the first anthropological study of blind people.

RSVP and more info: con...@mit.edu

Kyle Keane is Senior Lecturer in Accessible Technology at U Bristol (UK) and Researcher in MIT Spatial Sound Lab, which was founded by Ian Condry (Professor, CMSW, MIT) in 2019 as a community studio for immersive audio, hosting talks, listening sessions and workshops.

Hybrid soundwalk

April 8 Wed 1:30 - 3pm (meet at 1:15pm)

Hybrid soundwalk with Jacek SmolIcki at MIT

MIT, Room 2-132, 1:30pm start, please arrive between 1:15-1:25pm, Building 2 is at 182 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 20139, and room 132 is a classroom on the ground floor. Contact if lost or late: Ian Condry Tel. 508-314-2567.

Inaudible Cities: A Hybrid Soundwalk Between Here and Now, There and Then

Inaudible Cities connects the most immediate with temporally and geographically distant soundscapes. Equipped with special audio receivers, participants will follow an itinerary that is partly defined yet largely open to spontaneous encounters. As everyday urban details—water fountains, switchboards, ventilation shafts, sewers, and cobblestones—are processed in real time, they transform into sonic manifestations of the classical elements: earth, water, air, and fire.

Using a customized set of microphones—including geophones, contact microphones, hydrophones, and electromagnetic detectors—Smolicki will gradually capture these familiar sounds from the vicinity of MIT Campus, weave them together, and use them as portals to soundscapes of fragile environments documented during his fieldwork on the Pacific West Coast, in the Arctic Circle, at Canaveral National Seashore, and beyond. Participants will be equipped with receivers and headphones through which this slowly evolving soundscape composition will be streamed.

The different strategies of working with field recording, transmission, and processing of both immediate and pre-recorded soundscapes will be discussed before or after the walk.

There will be 25 spots available.

RSVP requested Ian Condry (con...@mit.edu) Contact if lost or late on the day: Ian tel. 508-314-2567

Please bring wired, over-ear headphones (some will be provided).

Jacek Smolicki, PhD, is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, designer and educator. His work explores the critical, existential and technological dimensions of listening, recording and archiving in human and more-than-human contexts. Manifesting as soundwalks, soundscape compositions, experimental archives, and installations, his work has been presented internationally, including at Ars Electronica, Sonorities, and In-Sonora. He has, among other subjects, engaged in artistic work and written about the Canadian Pacific Coast soundscapes, tallest wooden radio mast in Europe, sounds of trees, alternative archives, ethics of field recording, and media archaeology of artificial voices. His edited book Soundwalking: Through Time, Space and Technologies was published by Routledge in 2023. Between 2020 and 2023, he was a Swedish Research Council postdoc grantee, and in 2022–23, he was a Fulbright visiting scholar at Harvard. In 2019, he co-founded and ever since co-directed the Walking Festival of Sound. He is currently a 2026 Loeb and Art Lab Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Design.