Dozens of artists, technologists, scientists, visionaries, and radical thinkers from the fields of audiovisual arts, music, engineering, quantum computing, and interface design will present the new ways humans and AI are interacting, and explore the transformative potential of the technology.
Among this year’s invited figures are Libby Heaney (UK) presented by SEIDOR, Tega Brain (AU), Rebecca Fiebrink (UK), Xin Liu (CN), yaboihanoi (TH), Albert.DATA (ES), Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley (UK), Forensis & Bill Kouligas (INT), YESSI PERSE & laSADCUM (ES), and the premiere of ‘Ama’, the new project by Maria Arnal (ES).
Sónar+D 2025 will be held on June 12, 13, and 14 at the Palau de Congressos de Fira Montjuïc, within Sónar by Day, offering attendees access to dozens of talks, debates, and performances from 10:00 AM, as well as more than 50 concerts and DJ sets
From digital sustainability and non-binary futurism to terraforming, space exploration, neurohacking and emerging trends in internet culture, this year’s Sónar+D programme explores the ideas that are shaping the present and the future.
For more details on the main programme announcement, head to sonar.es/en/programme/sonar-d
“IA + Creativity”
+RAIN Film Festival (INT) | AI Performance Playground (INT) | AudioStellar presents ‘Territorios sonoros emergentes’ (AR) | Introducing AI & Music (INT) | Joanne Armitage ‘Automating Bodies: Power, Music and AI’ (UK) | Jordi Pons ‚Artistic trends in Music AI‘ (ES) | Maria Arnal presents ‚Ama‘ (ES) | Marije Baalman (NL) | R-010 & Venerandi presents ‚Phenomena‘ (ES) | Rebecca Fiebrink ‘Design your dream music AI tool’ (UK) | Ville Haimala presents ‚Hyporeal‘ (FI/DE) | yaboihanoi ‚Lemongrass & Bass: A Thai Recipe for AI Music‘ (TH)
“Futuring the Creative Industries”
‘Aquelarre Futurista’ with Berta Segura & Francesca Tur (ES) | Chris Watson & Izabella Dłużyk presenta ‚Białowieża‘ (UK/(PL) | ‘Hacking the world‘ with Berta Segura & Francesca Tur (ES) | Heith, James K and Günseli Yalcinkaya present ‚The Talk‘ live AV (EU) | How to future the creative industries (INT) | ‘Lux Mundi’ (ES) | ‘MAT(H)RASH: un nuevo manifesto del arte’ de Julieta Wibel y Mike Fernández con Samantha Hudson y YESSi PERSE (ES) | Music Tech Europe Academy: Startups Pitch Session (EU/ES) | Music Tech Dialogues: Creative Economy Data + DEMODAY (EU/ES) | Saint Abdullah, Eomac and Rebecca Salvadori present ‚A Forbidden Distance‘ (INT) | Salome Asega ‘Architect or Gardener’ (US)
“Worlds To Come”Albert.DATA ‚SYNAPTICON‘ (ES) | Animistic Beliefs and Jeisson Drenth present ‚Thức Tỉnh‘ AV (NL) | Dania + Mau Morgó present ‚replica — relic‘ (IQ-AU/ES) | Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley ‘WE CAN’T PRETEND ANYMORE’ (UK) | Forensis and Bill Kouligas present ‚The Drum and The Bird‘ (INT) | Libby Heaney ‘Eat my Multiverse’ (UK) Presented by SEIDOR | Alice Sparkly Kat and Manuka Honey ‘Listen, the stars are talking’ (US/UK) | Safety Trance presents ‚DESTRUCCIÓN‘ (VE) | Tega Brain ‘Questions of Automation’ (AU) | Vica Pacheco presents ‚ITA‘ AV (MX) | Xin Liu ‚Cosmic Metabolism‘ (CN) | YESSi PERSE & laSADCUM present ‚CYBERMEDIEVAL‘ (ES)
After nearly a decade leading the discussion on artificial intelligence in the arts, Sónar+D continues to explore the connections between AI and Creativity, as always, from a profoundly humanist perspective.
With the help of top specialists in Human/Computer Interaction, this content block takes a practical approach to innovative tools, unconventional approaches, and alternative applications of AI in the fields of music, audiovisual arts, interface design, and performing arts.
The following activities are primarily aimed at creators from any artistic field, as well as all professionals directly or indirectly connected to the creative industries.
Highlights in the programme include:
Rebecca Fiebrink and Accessibility in Musical AI: Professor of Creative Computing at University of the Arts London, a pioneer in AI and music, and the creator of the innovative AI platform Wekinator (2008). Professor Fiebrink will present ‘Design Your Dream Music AI Tool’, a talk guiding attendees in designing personalized AI tools for music creation, highlighting how machine learning can empower artists without prior technical knowledge.
AI Performance Playground: A hacklab where 12 participants from fields including engineering, design, music, and audiovisual creation—selected from over 100 applicants worldwide—will work for three days with AI tools before presenting the results. The project is led by researchers Peter Kirn and Anna Xambó (Queen Mary University of London), with the support of IASlab at La Salle-URL.
This thematic axis of Sónar+D 2025 is specially designed for professionals in the creative industries sector, offering a space for learning, inspiration, and reflection on the changes that will define its future.
The contents of this block address the needs and challenges of those working in programming, curation, cultural management, as well as in communication, advertising, experience design, trend research, and related fields. Through presentations, debates, and case studies, this space provides key insights to innovate, adapt, and connect with future opportunities, offering tools, knowledge, and innovation models for the sector.
The program of forums, debates, presentations, and shows presents different case studies that reflect the new models of creation, production, and exhibition emerging in digital arts.
In particular, the festival addresses institutional missions of bringing new ideas and trends closer to society in an environment saturated with media and content across channels.
Transformation and the Future of Cultural Curation: Sónar+D presents a unique meeting of curators and artistic directors from festivals, creative spaces, and museums. The event addresses the new challenges in curating cultural events and their necessary connection with trends emerging both in physical spaces and online. Participants include Bethany Andrzejak from Le Guess Who? (an international alternative music festival in Utrecht), Maguette Dieng from FOC/Jokkoo Collective (an artistic collective exploring electronic music from an Afrodiasporic perspective), Ikram Bouloum from Sónar, and María Berríos from MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona).
MusicTech Europe returns once again to Sónar+D with a special program of activities, organized in collaboration with Barcelona Music Tech Hub. The closing ceremony of the Music Tech Europe Academy will feature the presentation of selected startups from the academy’s program. Additionally, there will be a special session of MusicTech Dialogues focused on the use of data in the creative economy.
Sónar+D has always looked towards the future of the future. This year’s program covers everything from quantum computing and non-binary futurism to terraformation and interstellar travel.
A series of activities in diverse formats (radical talks, interactive shows, performative conferences, and even rituals) that imagine new worlds and invite Sónar’s audience to discover them before anyone else
These are the audiovisual conferences, presentations, rituals, and radical performances imagining worlds to come at Sónar+D this year:
Interactive Digital Narratives: Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley will present an interactive session between video game and performance, titled ‘WE CAN’T PRETEND ANYMORE’, immersing the audience in her unique digital universe, where she navigates the history of Black trans people. A living narrative that only takes shape in dialogue with the audience.
Groundbreaking Performances: Innovative Proposals Connecting Music, Visual Art, Dance, and Performance. Musician Dania and visual artist Mau Morgó will use instruments created with 3D scans of Mesopotamian artifacts from the British Museum to question our commitment to decolonization in the world premiere of their radical live collaboration ‘replica — relic’. The rave duo Animistic Beliefs and Jeisson Drenth explore mixed cultural identity in ‘Thức Tỉnh’, combining traditional sounds with contemporary perspectives. Luis Garbán (Cardopusher) debuts his audiovisual project Safety Trance with ‘DESTRUCCIÓN’, a show that fuses reggaeton, industrial, and breakcore. Vica Pacheco merges electroacoustic composition with her own 3D animations in ‘ITA’. Finally, Alice Sparkly Kat collaborates with local collective Akuyte on an audiovisual performance specially created for Sónar.
Project Area: Very soon, Sónar will reveal the art and technology projects selected this year for Project Area, the largest interactive exhibition of Sónar+D to date, located at the heart of Sónar by Day. With more than 60 projects, most of them selected from 500 submissions to Sónar’s Open Call, this space will showcase exceptional innovations in technology, design, and radical thought, establishing itself as an international reference in creativity and innovation.
New Communities programme: Sónar+D will invite active participation, offering several hours of its programme to leading communities in creativity, science, marketing, and technology. This new initiative will bring together diverse creative and technological communities that are driving change in their respective fields, with a participatory program to be announced in the coming weeks.
And Many More Activities: Sónar Week will extend from Tuesday, June 10, to Sunday, June 15, transforming Barcelona into the world capital of music, innovation, and creativity, in collaboration with top-tier cultural and musical institutions in the city. The activities will kick off on Tuesday with the 3rd edition of +RAIN Film Festival, the AI-generated film festival co-organized by Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and Sónar. Additionally, this 32nd edition of Sónar will be inaugurated with a special concert on Thursday, June 12, at the Palau de la Música Catalana, featuring a repertoire of works by Steve Reich and the award-winning composer Raquel García-Tomás. Soon, the artistic proposal for this year’s SonarMies cycle at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion will also be announced, along with new collaborations with Foto Colectània and the Fundació Miró.
More information and tickets for Sónar 2025 available at sonar.es.
To access all activities and spaces of Sónar+D 2025—including exclusive morning sessions on Thursday and Friday, as well as Lounge+D—it is necessary to acquire a SonarPass+D or a Sónar by Day Pass.
Sónar 2025 is an initiative by Advanced Music, in collaboration with the Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya and the Ajuntament de Barcelona, with support from the Ministerio de Cultura, the Ajuntament de L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, the S+T+ARTS initiative of the European Commission, and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AC/E).
The collaborating entities of Sónar 2025 include TIMES (The Independent Movement for Electronic Scenes), Boiler Room, Printworks, Ableton, New Art Foundation, Tabakalera, Fundación Foto Colectania, Fundació Miró, The Social Hub, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, La Salle-URL, Arts Korea Lab, Palau de la Música Catalana, and the Fundación Mies van der Rohe.
Sónar 2025 counts with Estrella Damm as a main sponsor and is supported by LACOSTE, Nissan, SEIDOR, Von Dutch Loves, Johnnie Walker, José Cuervo, OCB, Coca-Cola, ME by Meliá, AlphaTheta, and Repsol. Tickets available at DICE. Sónar 2025 also counts with the collaboration of Deleito.
X