Sound Working Group

Sound Working Group is a residency for musicians, sound artists, and researchers aimed at exploring changes in Ukrainians’ attitudes toward sound during the war.

In the early months of the full-scale invasion, many people — often unconsciously — began working with sound practices. Apps for creating and recording audio suddenly became valuable archives. Some recordings captured the everyday reality of war — air raid sirens, the hum of generators, the interception of missiles by air defense systems — while others documented tranquil soundscapes untouched by war-related noise.

This widespread practice may reflect a new Ukrainian sensitivity to sonic landscapes. This sensitivity likely transcends visible reactions to trauma and instead encompasses new emotional and practical understandings of sound and silence. DCCC invited musicians and sound artists to explore this sensitivity, focusing on field recordings and found sounds, as part of the Sound Working Group residency.

The project brought together sound artists and researchers who worked throughout November 2024 under the guidance of curator and artist Clemens Poole. During the residency, participants discussed how the war has reshaped our sensitivity to sounds and their perception, how to record ambient sounds, and how to integrate field recordings into their creative work.

The residency also included open events where anyone could engage with sound. The project culminated in a final event featuring sound installations, performances, an audio walk, and sound performances.

In their projects, the residency participants explored silence and sonic asceticism, the therapeutic role of music, dreams and urban spaces, lost sounds and the fluidity of memory, ambient noise, and personal auditory experiences.

Residency participants: Oleksandr Suprun, Oleksii Podat, Anastasiia Horbanova, Alina Shtefan, Oleksii Shevchenko, Yurii Bulychov.

Curator: Clemens Poole.

Coordinator: Marko Medvediev.