Sensing Together: Co-Creative Strategies for Multisensory Musical Composition with Sensory Impairment Communities

This research project aims to develop strategies for multisensory, non-visual musical composition as an inclusive and co-creative practice, while at the same time exploring the integration of sensory technologies to make such 
composition possible and effective. For the feasibility of the project in a one-year timeframe, the senses of hearing and sight are the main focus points, with attention to the diversity of profiles within these communities. This is done
acknowledging that the resulting frameworks are designed with extensibility to other sensory and cognitive impairments in 
mind.
The project addresses a clear gap in the field. While multisensory art is growing, practical methods for composing non-visual work are rarely documented in a way that other artists can use.  

To follow these research lines through an artistic research framework, this research project proposes an engagement 
with sensory impairment communities in the form of a series of artistic and experimental workshops. These workshops 
have the goal of cataloguing, documenting, and discovering multisensory co-creative compositional strategies, drawing 
material from existing scholarship such as Natalia Esling's work on adaptive sense-making. The methodology and strategies of these workshops are based on the ongoing PhD research of the researcher Cornelia Zambila, who possesses a large network of sensory impairment communities including De Markgrave, Sensory Studio Barcelona, and Teatrul Senzorial Labirint.

The researcher Isjtar Vandebroeck will, coupled with the aforementioned activities, research artistic strategies in the 
implementation of technology in this context.