Announcing the first Special Session for I3DA 2025!!!

This session aims to investigate how acoustic modelling and virtual reality (VR), combined with advanced 3D audio technologies such as binaural audio and ambisonics, are transforming our understanding of the relationship between space, performance, and audience.

By exploring immersive and virtual reconstructions of historical performance spaces, this session aims to:

  • Analyse the acoustic properties of historical spaces and their impact on the perception and interpretation of music, theatre, dance, and opera.
  • Relive past performative events in an immersive way, experiencing the heritage acoustics of theatres, places of worship, and concert halls as they might have been.
  • Integrate the acoustic component into historical narratives, offering new perspectives on the evolution of musical styles, instruments, theatrical and choreographic techniques, and vocal performance practices.
  • Deepen our knowledge of sound space and historical soundscape, understanding how sound interacted with the environment, architecture, and human beings.

This research has implications for a wide range of fields, including architectural acoustics, psychoacoustics, and immersive soundscape design. Moreover, it can shed light on the evolution of musical performance practices, the use of sonic space for body movement, and the use of spoken and sung voice in historical performance spaces (e.g. ancient theatres, odeia, amphitheatres, cathedrals, etc.).

This session welcomes contributions that:

  • Present case studies, experiments, and innovative projects demonstrating the effectiveness of acoustic and virtual technologies for research and the enhancement of tangible and intangible heritage.
  • Explore the use of VR and 3D audio technologies for the analysis, reconstruction, and experience of historical performance spaces.
  • Investigate the development of new forms of immersive performance and audience engagement, and new creative inputs for musicians, dancers, singers, composers, and conductors.

This interdisciplinary approach, combining insights from heritage acoustics, sound studies, musical acoustics, vocal studies, and performance studies, will contribute to a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the history of music, theatre, dance, and opera.

Keywords: Historical Performance Spaces; Heritage Acoustics; Soundscape; Dancescape; Voicescape; Tangible and Intangible Heritage; Musical Acoustics; Architectural Acoustics; Aural Architecture.

Chairpersons: Angela Bellia, National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Heritage Science & Antonella Bevilacqua

Bio:  Angela Bellia is a researcher at the CNR, Institute of Heritage Science. Her work concerns soundscape archaeology, aural architecture, sonic heritage, archaeoacoustics, archaeology of performances, sound studies, and archaeomusicology. After her research in mobility at the Institut für Archäologie in Zürich, at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, she carried out her research at the Institute of Fine Arts at the New York University, devoting her attentions towards the reconstruction of the performative dimension of an ancient Greek polis. Thanks to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Programme – Individual Fellowships, she carried out her research devoting her attentions towards archaeology of sound and archaeoacoustics as new approaches to the study of intangible cultural heritage. She has been the Chair of the Italy Chapter and of the Events & Network Working Group of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA). She also received the “MCAA Outstanding Contributor Award”. At present, she is the Chair of the Archaeomusicology Interest Group of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Principal Investigator of the project AURAL: Exploring the Potential of Immersive Virtual Reality for Experiencing Archaeological Soundscapes. Apart from a number of volumes and contributions in journals and edited volumes, she edited the special issues From Digitalisation and Virtual Reconstruction of Ancient Musical Instruments to Sound Heritage Simulation and Preservation (http://www.archcalc.cnr.it/journal/id.php?id=oai:www.archcalc.cnr.it/journal/A_C_oai_Archive.xml:1143) and Sonic Heritage: Sound and Multisensory Interactions in Immersive Virtual Reality and Cultural Heritage (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/heritage/special_issues/sonic_heritage) (with Eva Pietroni). Among her articles: Towards a Digital Approach to the Listening to Ancient Places: https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage4030139 and Rediscovering the Intangible Heritage of Past Performative Spaces: Interaction between Acoustics, Performance, and Architecture: https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage6010016 (with Antonella Bevilacqua). Angela Bellia is also editor in chief of TELESTES: An International Journal of Archaeomusicology and Archaeology of Sound (http://www.libraweb.net/promoriv.php?chiave=147)

To see her work: https://nationalacademies.academia.edu/AngelaBellia