MATERIAL OPERAH
Mentored by Laura Freixas Conde +
Maël Hénaff
Final Project, ELISAVA, 2026
New Materials, Interaction Design
What if materials could be heard?
We usually ask what a material looks like: its colour, texture, or surface. This project shifts that habit. Instead of seeing matter, we listen to it.
Sound is not separate from matter; it is vibrating matter. Material OperAH explores sound as an extension of matter itself.
Starting from measurable properties such as density, rigidity, and porosity, the project translates material data into acoustic identities, giving each material a voice that can be heard as much as it can be seen.
More Details About the Project
We are surrounded by matter.
We depend on it, shape it, consume it, live through it.
But what happens when vision is removed from our relationship with matter?
Material OperAH emerges from this question.
The Project
In Material OperAH Instead of seeing matter, we listen to it. We live in a deeply visual culture where sight is privileged over the other senses. This shapes how we understand the world, but it also creates distance. Listening becomes a way to challenge that hierarchy.
Sound is not separate from matter; it is vibrating matter. Material OperAH explores sound as an extension of matter itself, something already present, just unnoticed. In this way, sound becomes a powerful medium, allowing us to experience materials not as static objects but as dynamic presences.
This project emerges from a sense of disconnection from the material world. Through sound, it attempts to rebuild a more intimate relationship with it, creating a new sensory channel where matter and sound coincide. Starting from measurable properties such as density, rigidity, and porosity, the project translates material data into acoustic identities, giving each material a voice that can be heard as much as it can be seen.
Collaborators
[Creative Technologist]
Sun Shine Aroch
Last Updated 24.10.31