SARC 20th Anniversary and Re-launch

During 2024 we celebrated SARC’s 20th anniversary through a series of events and a re-launch as a Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Sound and Music. 20 years after the SARC building was opened by composer Karlheinz Stockhausen we celebrated the richness of work by students and staff that have led to an international reputation when it comes to research in sound and music. With over 120 PhD thesis, over 40 academic staff, over one hundred masters students, visiting researchers and artists, SARC has produced an enormous amount of work across the most diverse areas of research in sound and music. As part of our anniversary, we’ve taken stock and reflected back on trends and how these have developed throughout the years. A new SARC archive acts as a central repository of research outputs and documentation, accessible by all researchers.

Our main celebration took place during Sonorities Festival Belfast , 8-13 April 2024. Since the opening of SARC, Sonorities has been run by SARC staff and taking advantage of the unique facilities including the Sonic Lab and a world class technical and administration team. Over the years the festival has brought some of the most exciting and groundbreaking acts to Belfast in areas such as experimental music, contemporary music, improvisation, electroacoustic and sound art. It has also been a forum for establishing and fostering research networks and collaboration.

On the 11th April, we celebrated SARC’s history and connections through events including talks by PhD alumni (2:30pm-4:30pm), a concert in the Sonic Lab featuring works by PhD alumni (5pm-6:30pm) and a screening of Brian Cullen’s Thrice Removed that premiered at SARC’s International Computer Music Conference in 2008. At 7pm, the immersive five-screen experimental documentary “SARC x 20” by SARC Director Pedro Rebelo and Frank Delaney was premiered, delving into the 20 year archive to tease out the ‘SARCness’ in a multi dimensional journey montage with some surprises on the way…

2024 was also the year of our re-structuring as a Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Sound and Music, a significant expansion of the range of our research interests involving over seventy researchers across six schools at Queen’s. Read more about the new configuration in the About page. 

Two major funded projects also marked the year in making a substantial contribution to our equipment and building facilities, led by Professor Rebelo. A £1.2m grant from the Higher Education Research Capital fund (Department for the Economy) and £1.5m funding for refurbishment (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences). 

SARC x 20

Created by Pedro Rebelo and Frank Delaney 

Duration: 30 Minutes

The SARC x 20 experience is composed of sounds and images from archive of creative work by SARC researchers and PhD alumni between 2004 and 2024 and makes use of the Sonic Lab’s unique immersive capabilities. The result is a five screen experimental documentary with spatial audio which expands narrative and chronologies across space. An interplay between the layout of the Sonic Lab itself and over 300 archived collections, the work creatively interrogates the archive using interventionist approaches to media representation and at times using processes akin to those used by the archived works themselves. Often questioning conventional audio-visual relationship, SARC x 20 brings out histories, performance, trends, sounds and images which are re-mediated in this unique format which allows for the expression of audio-visual gesture in an immersive context. Come prepared to turn your head and open your ears! 

SARC x 20 was created by Rebelo and Delaney to celebrate twenty years since the inauguration of the SARC building by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Reflecting research projects, public engagement activities, participatory projects, performance, composition, design and scholarship, this is a deep dive into the weird and wonderful ‘SARCness’ that seems to envelope those passing through as students as staff. The authors are grateful for the participation of HIVE Choir and the work is dedicated to the SARC community. 

Screenings:

Sonorities Festival Belfast, Sonic Lab April 2024

Docs Ireland, Sonic Lab June 2024

Dokumentale - International Documentary and Media Festival Berlin, Living Berlin, October 2024

SARC Symposium, Sonic Lab, 2024