4DSOUND has been called an instrument “created by artists, for artists.” How does this principle shape the way you design, refine, and imagine the system today?

At its heart, 4DSOUND is an artistic endeavor. Of course, we’ve built technology that is highly stable, reliable, and powerful, but its purpose has never been technology for its own sake. It is technology in service of artistic expression. This is in our DNA. From the beginning, almost everyone involved in 4DSOUND has been an artist themselves: composers, DJs, performers, acoustic musicians. Even our coders are artistically driven.

That background fundamentally shapes how we work: we don’t approach sound spatialization as an engineering problem to be solved, but as a creative journey where technical challenges emerge naturally. When they do, we solve them not to check a box, but to unlock new artistic potential. The development has always happened “in the middle of the action.” Residencies, workshops, and collaborations with artists are essential. These settings give us focus time, but more importantly, they allow us to listen, observe, and respond. Sometimes an artist asks directly for a new feature; other times we notice a difficulty and realize that something needs to become more intuitive. This cycle of feedback and refinement has been continuous for almost fifteen years.

So while 4DSOUND is engineered to a very high standard, it is also alive. It evolves through imagination: both ours and that of the artists and professionals we work with. And the imagination feels limitless: each new collaboration opens up new possibilities. In that sense, we don’t just build a system; we shape a living instrument that continues to teach us how far it can go.

Your work treats sound as something embodied in space, almost architectural. How does this change the way people perceive or relate to sound?

Perceiving sound is both deeply familiar and surprisingly complex. Psychoacoustics reminds us that hearing is not only about the ear, but also about context, memory, and culture. In music, people often respond most strongly to dynamics: the swell of a crescendo, the release of tension. Spatial sound multiplies these possibilities. With 4DSOUND, sound is not limited to temporal and spectral dynamics coming from two speakers, but can move, expand, reflect, and transform in ways that feel closer to how we hear in everyday life. That realism allows artists to create soundscapes that are very naturalistic — but also surreal, exaggerated, or abstract. A single piece can move seamlessly between these worlds.

When the processing in our 4DSOUND Engine combines with carefully designed multi-speaker setups, the listener experiences full immersion: the moment when you forget the outside world and simply exist inside the sound. For me, that immersion is what makes spatial listening architectural. It changes your relationship to sound from something you “consume” into something you are physically and emotionally inside of.

You have a background in cultural sociology as well as sound how does that perspective inform your approach to technology as a cultural practice?

Sometimes I say that my work is more about the social domain than about sound itself. What gives meaning to 4DSOUND is not just the software or the system, but the community and discipline that form around it. We are extending tradition, standing on the shoulders of giants, but also building something distinct: a discipline of spatial sound as a creative practice. Our versatile and interdisciplinary projects, studios, residencies, workshops, and university programs show this clearly. Artists meet, collaborate, and inspire one another. Students encounter spatial sound for the first time and discover whole new ways of thinking, shaping their perspectives. Audiences come together for collective listening experiences that feel ritualistic.

There is passion on so many levels: enthusiasts can endlessly exchange about sound, music, code, experience, ideas, technology, and more, while acknowledging and exploring a profound interconnection between these domains. This is where my sociological background comes in: I care about how people connect, how shared practices emerge, and how disciplines evolve. 4DSOUND is a medium, but it is also a cultural fabric woven from creators, educators, and listeners. Seeing spatial sound become a discipline in its own right is perhaps the most meaningful outcome of all.

When artists first encounter 4DSOUND, many describe the experience as transformative. What kinds of discoveries or challenges tend to emerge during those initial exchanges?

The first reaction is often pure amazement hearing spatial sound on this scale is something many artists hadn’t even imagined was possible. Then comes the discovery of how different it feels to compose in space rather than stereo. In stereo, all the layers must be blended together into two speakers — a kind of sonic “mix.” With 4DSOUND, sounds can exist independently, move through space, and interact dynamically. It’s less like blending a smoothie and more like choreographing dancers across a stage.

This can also be challenging. Artists quickly realize that simply taking pre-existing material and spatializing it is not enough. To fully use the instrument, you need to think spatially from the very beginning of the creative process. Acoustic musicians often make a different discovery: the role of reverb and space. With 4DSOUND, they can create not just realistic acoustics, turning a small room into a cathedral, but also surreal ones. That shifts their own identity as performers or composers, because the system becomes part of the interaction, part of their instrument. So the transformation is twofold: artists hear possibilities they didn’t know existed, and they are challenged to rethink their entire creative process. Where discoveries and challenges meet, the most exciting things happen.

At SPATIAL Festival, your work underpins nearly every installation. How do you balance being both “invisible infrastructure” and a creative collaborator in your own right?

4DSOUND is at once a technology, a company, and — in my eyes — an artwork in itself. It exists in software, in physical systems, in installations of many scales, and in the very approach we take to sound. Like any instrument, it has a distinct character: versatile, yet recognizable, much like a specific guitar or a particular synthesizer. I see 4DSOUND as a collective artwork built with many hands, but it is designed so that others can make it their own. We want artists to feel full ownership when they use it, not to think of it as “our” system but as their expressive instrument. Balancing infrastructure and artistry can be challenging. As a system designer, I focus on stability, usability, and the relationship between the tool, the people using it, and the spaces it inhabits. As a creative collaborator, I think about content: What story is being told? Is it about rest and peace, chaos, or contrast? How do acoustic and electronic musicians merge in this space?