Asian Sound Cultures 3: Art meets Science, Performance meets Technology

1-3 September 2026

Tohoku University, Center for Integrated Japanese Studies (CIJS), Sendai, Japan & Online

Submission deadline for abstracts: 13 February 2026

The Asian Sound Cultures Project is delighted to announce its third international conference, following the inaugural event at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (2018), the Sheffield conference (2024) and the successful publication of Asian Sound Cultures: Voice, Noise, Sound, Technology (Routledge, 2023). This time, we meet in Sendai, hosted by Tohoku University's Center for Integrated Japanese Studies (CIJS), to explore new horizons at the intersections of art, science, performance, and technology.

Sound studies in Asia continue to flourish across disciplines, from musicology, film/media, and cultural studies to linguistics, science and technology studies, anthropology, and performance. At the same time, new dialogues are emerging with fields such as engineering, neuroscience, sound design, digital humanities, and environmental science. Whilst reaffirming the centrality of humanities perspectives in sound studies, this conference aims to bring these conversations together, asking how artistic practices and scientific approaches can inform, challenge, and inspire one another. To this end, the conference will also include performances, exhibitions, and conversations with sound practitioners and artists.

We invite proposals for papers, panels, workshops, and performances that engage with Asian sound culture, including (but not limited to) the following themes:

• Sonic Technologies: From early recording media to AI, VR/AR, and immersive sound environments

• Performance and Embodiment: How performance practices engage with technological mediation and human experience

• Art-Science Collaborations: Interdisciplinary projects bridging humanities, social sciences, and STEM

• Acoustic Environments: Sound ecologies, urban soundscapes, noise control, and environmental listening

• Sound, Health, and Wellbeing: Therapeutic uses of sound

• Histories of Sonic Innovation: Technology transfer, scientific infrastructures, and local adaptations in Asia

• Textual and Cultural Soundings: Literature, film, theatre, and media as sources for studying sound cultures

• Sonic Identities: Sound in relation to language, gender and sexuality, class, race, nation, and diaspora

• Experimental and Creative Practices: Sound art, installations, interactive performance, and digital platforms

• Pedagogy and Practice: Teaching sound across arts, humanities, sciences, and interdisciplinary spaces

Emerging Dialogues

ASC3 will provide dedicated spaces for emerging dialogues, designed to foster exchange across disciplines and career stages. Sessions will highlight new approaches and works-in-progress, offering constructive feedback and building connections with peers and senior scholars alike.

Submission guidelines

Please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words (for individual papers) or 500 words (for panels, workshops, or performances), along with your name, affiliation (if applicable), and contact information, using this Google Form by 13 February 2026. Sessions will be 90 minutes. Papers should be no longer than 20 minutes; panels should not have more than 5 participants (incl. chair). 

  

Subject to available funding, we also aim to offer a limited number of small bursaries to support travel and accommodation for early-career participants.

We will notify everyone whose proposals are accepted for presentation by the end of February 2026. 

We look forward to welcoming you in Sendai for ASC3 and to continuing the vibrant interdisciplinary conversations that define Asian Sound Cultures.

Iris Haukamp, Martyn David Smith, Christin Hoene
asiansoundcultures[@]gmail.com