[ Current Affairs ]
We're excited to announce the next edition of our annual cross-disciplinary exhibition, in collaboration with students from the New Media Design Master’s Programme at UE-A&D and TimeLab!
We’re looking for sound artists, composers and sonic explorers who want to create immersive worlds where sound moves through space, interacts with data, and reshapes how we listen to our environment.
- Event date: Friday 23 January @ Catalyst
- Submission deadline: Monday 10 November
- Apply here!
/// Theme
Media, Ecology and the Oceanic Sensorium
How does sound reveal our connection to the natural world? Can we listen to the ocean as a thinking body, as memory, vibration and rhythm?
This exhibition dives into hybrid ecologies; between human and nonhuman, digital and organic, real and imagined. Selected sound artists will collaborate with media designers to build immersive installations and VR experiences that merge spatial sound, real-time systems and environmental storytelling.
/// Collaboration & process
This exhibition brings together two creative worlds; sound and new media design.
- Hybrid Media Installations:
- Several large-scale physical installations will take form within Catalyst’s space. These projects will require site-specific sound, including spatial sound setups, soundscape design, sound design, composition, generative audio systems, and interactive sound elements that connect environments built in TouchDesigner and Ableton Live.
- VR Environments:
- Other projects will exist inside VR headsets, ranging from 360° film-based experiences to real-time interactive worlds. These will call for spatialised sound, ambisonic mixes and audiovisual systems responsive to movement, space or data.
A selection of Catalyst applicants will be paired with UE student teams to form collaborative design duos and groups.
Selected participants will be announced on November 15, kicking off the collaboration phase leading up to the final exhibition on January 23, 2026.
/// Apply
- Complete THIS FORM
- Include a short proposal (max 300 words): tell us what draws you to the theme and why
- A brief portfolio or links to your work.
- Deadline: November 10, 2025
Together, we’ll transform Catalyst into a space of sound, media and sensory experimentation, where sound, image and interaction dissolve into one responsive landscape.
If you have any questions, contact hannah@catalyst-berlin.com.