Professor Gascia Ouzounian

gascia.ouzounian@music.ox.ac.uk 

Gascia Ouzounian is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor in Music at Lady Margaret Hall. She is a historian and theorist of sound whose research spans sound studies, science and technology studies, and urban studies. Her work examines the histories and politics of sound and listening, with particular interests in spatial sound technologies, experimental music and sound art, sonic urbanism, and the uses of sound and vibration in warfare and mass violence. Alongside historical and theoretical research, she collaborates with artists, architects, and urban designers through exhibitions, workshops, and public programmes.

Ouzounian’s first book, Stereophonica: Sound and Space in Science, Technology, and the Arts (MIT Press, 2021), explores how sound and hearing came to be understood in spatial terms. Moving between the histories of science, technology, music, and art, it traces developments from nineteenth-century experiments in binaural audition and early stereophonic technologies to military listening devices, postwar spatial music, sound installation art, and urban sound mapping. 

Her second book, The Trembling City: The Sonic and Atmospheric Violence of Vibrational Warfare (MIT Press, 2026), investigates the relationships between sound, vibration, urbanism, and mass violence. Drawing on earwitness testimonies, archival sources, and architectural and forensic research, it explores how cities become instruments of warfare and occupation, and how violence is transmitted through bodies, architectures, infrastructures, and atmospheres. Through studies of Gaza, Beirut, cities in eastern Turkey, and the Warsaw Ghetto, Ouzounian develops the concepts of vibrational warfare and atmospheric occupation to account for forms of violence that extend beyond the visibly destructive. The book also asks how critical listening can reveal histories of violence marked by disappearance and denial.

From 2020 to 2026, Ouzounian directed Sonorous Cities: Toward a Sonic Urbanism (SONCITIES), an international research project funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant. The project investigated the role of sound and listening in urban life, developing new approaches to architectural and urban design. Its activities included ethnographic and historical research, experimental design workshops, exhibitions, artistic commissions, and public programmes across Europe and Western Asia. Ouzounian is also editing Sonic Urbanism: A Critical Guide (Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming), a collection bringing critical scholarship into dialogue with experimental spatial practices.

Her long-term collaborations include Recomposing the City, co-founded with architect Sarah Lappin, which brought together sound artists, architects, and urban planners through research, exhibitions, publications, and design projects. With urbanist John Bingham-Hall, she developed Scoring the City, which explores experimental notation as a means of reimagining urban environments.

More recently, she has collaborated with artist and designer Nathalie Harb on Designing Sonic Refuge, and with artist Jan St. Werner and architectural theorist Brett Mommersteeg on research into vibrational architectures. She has developed programmes with partners including the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program, Central Saint Martins (MA Cities), and the cultural venue Ibraaz. These include Concrete Dreams of Sound: Experiments in Sonic Materiality (2024), co-curated with Dahlia Borsche in Berlin; and Quiet Urgency: Disturbing Sonic Ecologies (2024), developed with Diana Ibáñez López and Bingham-Hall in London. In collaboration with Ibraaz, she developed The Trembling City: Sound and Spatial Justice (2026), a series of workshops and public events exploring sound mapping, experimental scoring and recording practices, and the role of sound and listening in struggles over urban space.

At Oxford, Ouzounian teaches and supervises at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in sound studies, sonic urbanism, and experimental music and sound art. She serves on the editorial boards of Sound Studies and the Journal of the Royal Musical Association.

Publications

Books

2026. The Trembling City: The Sonic and Atmospheric Violence of Vibrational Warfare. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 

2021. Stereophonica: Sound and Space in Science, Technology, and the Arts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Edited Books and Journal Issues

In progress. Sonic Urbanism: A Critical Guide. Edited by Gascia Ouzounian. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

2026. Counterlistenings: Sound, Power, Resistance. Special issue of The Scholar & Feminist Online 22 (1), Fall 2026. Co-edited with María Edurne Zuazu.

2017. Sound Art and Environment. Special issue of Evental Aesthetics 6 (1). Guest editor.

2016. Recomposing the City. Special issue of Journal of Sonic Studies 11. Co-edited with Sarah Lappin.

Journal Articles

2025. ‘Audible Cartographies of Power.’ LA+: Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture 21 (SENSE): 94–99.

2024. With Francesca Laura Cavallo, Paul Dorfman, Judy Edworthy, Lisa Lavia, Irene Revell, Aura Satz, and Joel Stern. ‘Preemptive Listening: A Roundtable Discussion about Sirens.’ Sound Studies 10 (2): 313–332.

2023. ‘Counterlistening.’ English Studies in Canada 46 (2–4) (2020): 311–317. Published May 2023. 

2020. With John Bingham-Hall. ‘The Acoustic City.’ ELECTRA 9: 201–207.

2017. ‘Rethinking Acoustic Ecology.’ Evental Aesthetics 6 (1): 4–23.

2016. With Sarah Lappin. ‘New Directions in Urban Sound Art.’ Journal of Sonic Studies 11. Editorial.

2014. With Sarah Lappin. ‘Soundspace: A Manifesto.’ Architecture and Culture 2 (3): 305–316.

2014. With Eric Lyon and R. Benjamin Knapp. ‘Mapping in Computer Chamber Music: A Case Study.’ Computer Music Journal 38 (3): 64–75.

2014. With Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri. ‘Correspondences.’ Current Musicology 95: 33–54.

2013. ‘Recomposing the City: A Survey of Recent Sound Art in Belfast.’ Leonardo Music Journal 23: 47–54.

2011. ‘The Uncertainty of Experience: On George Brecht’s Event Scores.’ Journal of Visual Culture 10 (2): 198–211.

2009. ‘Impure Thinking Practices and Clinical Acts: The Sonorous Becomings of Heidi Fast.’ Organised Sound 14 (1): 75–81.

2008. ‘History, an Exit Strategy: The RetroFuture Fabulations of kara lynch.’ Journal of the Society for American Music 2 (2): 177–201.

2008. ‘Contemporary Radio Art and Spatial Politics: The Critical Radio Utopias of Anna Friz.’ Radio Journal 5 (2–3): 129–142.

2007. ‘Visualizing Acoustic Space: The Story of Poème électronique.’ Circuit 17 (3): 45–56.

2006. ‘Embodied Sound: Aural Architectures and the Body.’ Contemporary Music Review 25 (1–2): 69–79.

Book Chapters

2025. Ouzounian, G. ‘Encounters with the Vibraceptional Plate: Fieldnotes from Wavespace.’ In Vibraception, edited by Jan St. Werner, 100–109. Zagreb and Berlin: Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, and K. Verlag.

2025. ‘Sound as Weather: On Nuno da Luz’s Echologies.’ In Enredos II: Nuno da Luz, 28–60. Centro Botín and Mousse Publishing.

2024. With Jan St. Werner (images). ‘On Vibrational Architectures.’ In The Routledge Companion to the Sound of Space, edited by Emma-Kate Matthews, Jane Burry, and Mark Burry, 238–254. London: Routledge.

2024. ‘Vibrations: Women in Sound Art, 1980–2000.’ In The Cambridge Companion to Women Composers, edited by Susan Wollenberg and Matthew Head, 270–290. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

2023. ‘“Our Voices Reached the Sky”: Sonic Memories of the Armenian Genocide.’ In Soundwalking: Through Time, Space, and Technologies, edited by Jacek Smolicki, 164–180. London: Routledge.

2023. ‘Becoming Air: On Sonic Spatial Metaphysics.’ In Sound – Space – Sense, edited by Diedrich Diederichsen, Arno Raffeiner, and Jan St. Werner, 13–27. Leipzig: Spector Books.

2021. ‘The Sonic Undercommons: Sound Art in Radical Black Arts Traditions.’ In The Oxford Handbook of Sound Art, edited by Jane Grant, John Matthias, and David Prior, 503–520. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2016. With R. Benjamin Knapp, Eric Lyon, and R. Luke DuBois. ‘To Be Inside Someone Else’s Dream: On Music for Sleeping & Waking Minds.’ In A NIME Reader, edited by Alexander R. Jensenius and Michael Lyons, 405–417. Cham: Springer.

2014. ‘Acoustic Mapping.’ In The Acoustic City, edited by Matthew Gandy and BJ Nilsen, 165–174. Berlin: Jovis.

2013. ‘Sound Installation Art: From Spatial Poetics to Politics, Aesthetics to Ethics.’ In Music, Sound and Space: Transformations of Public and Private Experience, edited by Georgina Born, 73–89. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

2011. ‘The Luminous Ear: An Introduction to the Sounding Visions of Paul DeMarinis.’ In Paul DeMarinis: Buried in Noise, edited by Ingrid Beirer, Sabine Himmelsbach, and Carsten Seiffarth, 9–21. Heidelberg: Kehrer Verlag.

Essays, Exhibition Catalogues, and Other Publications

2024. ‘Soundscapes of the Metropolis of Death: A Map for Future Listening.’ In Sometimes You Just Have to Give It Your Attention, 19–47. Berlin: SAVVY Contemporary. Album and accompanying booklet.

2024. ‘An Ethics of Future Listening to Cities.’ Exhibition catalogue. Gwangju: Asia Culture Center.

2023. ‘Uncertain Realms: On Naldjorlak.’ Liner notes for Naldjorlak, by Éliane Radigue and Charles Curtis. Saltern Records. Produced by Tashi Wada.

2018. With Sarah Lappin and Richard O’Grady. The Sound-Considered City: A Guide for Decision-Makers. Belfast: Recomposing the City. Illustrated guide and advice note for urban planners.

2018. ‘Notes from the Underground: On Resonant Spaces at Dartmouth College.’ In Resonant Spaces. Exhibition catalogue. Dartmouth College.

Published Interviews and Conversations

2025. With Brett Mommersteeg and Jan St. Werner. ‘Restless States: A Conversation.’ In Vibraception, edited by Jan St. Werner, 148–158. Zagreb and Berlin: Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, and K. Verlag.

2024. With Kuralai Abdukhalikova. ‘Counterlistening the City: Gascia Ouzounian in Conversation with Kuralai Abdukhalikova.’ In PANSORI: A Soundscape of the 21st Century, exhibition catalogue of the 15th Gwangju Biennale, 416–425.

2023. With Mhamad Safa. ‘Aftersound: A Conversation with Mhamad Safa.’ Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture 4 (4): 381–390.

2023. With Hardi Kurda. ‘Urgent Listening: A Conversation with Hardi Kurda.’ Openwork Journal.

2022. With Matilde Meireles. ‘Lockdown Sonics: A Conversation.’ In Crafting a Sonic Urbanism: Listening to Non-Human Life, edited by George Kafka with &Beyond, 22–27. London: Theatrum Mundi.

2020. With Eric de Visscher. ‘Resonant Bodies: A Discussion about Listening in Museums.’ In Sonic Urbanism: The Political Voice, edited by George Kafka with &Beyond, 39–45. London: Theatrum Mundi.

2020. ‘Hearing Power: A Conversation with Haig Aivazian.’ Flash Art, ‘Listening In’ series, edited by Benjamin Piekut.

2016. With Sarah Lappin. ‘Sonic Places: In Conversation with Peter Cusack.’ Journal of Sonic Studies 11.

Research Platforms and Digital Publications

2020–ongoing. SONCITIES: Sonorous Cities—Towards a Sonic Urbanism. Principal Investigator. European Research Council-funded research project, University of Oxford. https://www.soncities.org/

2020–ongoing. Scoring the City. Online exhibition and research platform. Conceived and co-directed with John Bingham-Hall. https://scoring.city/