sónar+D 2025 unveils programs on uses of AI in music and arts

sónar+D 2025’s themes spotlight AI uses in music and arts

Sónar+D 2025 reveals the full list of exhibitors, including programs on alternative uses of AI in music and arts. The event takes place between June 12th and 14th at the Palau de Congressos de Fira Montjuïc in Barcelona, Spain, as part of the Sónar festival and Sónar by Day. Sónar+D 2025 features over 100 activities aimed at creators, industry professionals, and visitors. These programs focus mainly on three themes. AI + Creativity explores the impact of artificial intelligence on artistic and music production; Futuring the Creative Industries examines industry changes and opportunities; and Worlds to Come looks into the relationship between technology, culture, and society.

Sónar+D 2025 also includes interactive forums, panel discussions, master classes, performative conferences, workshops, multidisciplinary performances, and an exhibition space showcasing projects. It extends beyond AI in music and arts as it covers topics such as digital sustainability, non-binary futurism, terraformation, space exploration, neurohacking, and internet culture trends, including critiques of techno-feudalism. Since it coincides with the Sónar festival, visitors also have access to over 50 concerts and DJ sets across different stages and spaces.

all images courtesy of Sónar

Audiovisual projects across sónar+D 2025 events

Sónar+D 2025 continues the theme of alternative uses of AI in music and the arts. Under the subject of ‘Introducing AI & Music’, experts from Stability AI, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and University of the Arts London discuss the latest AI applications in sounds. In other events, projects spotlight AI in music through audiovisual arts, interface design, and performing arts. Then, there’s the +RAIN Film Festival, which showcases AI-generated films, with creators sharing insights into their production processes. The event also hosts SUMMIT, an open forum on AI and creativity, as well as SCREENING, which is a session featuring AI films.

SINAPSIS, a closed-door session, serves as a platform for new AI-driven audiovisual projects. Other highlights during the Sónar+D 2025 and the use of AI in music and arts include a session with Rebecca Fiebrink on designing AI tools for music creation. There’s also a masterclass by Thai artist yaboihanoi on integrating AI with traditional music and a presentation of AudioStellar, a data visualization-based AI music software. Sónar+D 2025 hosts AI-driven live performances by Maria Arnal, patten, Ville Haimala, and R-010 & Venerandi. Then, the AI Performance Playground brings together 12 participants from various disciplines. For three days in the hacklab, they experiment with AI tools. They’re led by researchers from Queen Mary University of London and La Salle-URL’s IASlab.

Sónar+D 2025 reveals programs on alternative uses of AI in music and arts

AI in music and stage design to explore origins of computing

Under the ‘Futuring the Creative Industries’ theme, Sónar+D 2025 provides programs, forums, debates, presentations, and case studies on cultural management, curation, advertising, experience design, and trend research. Some of the key sessions include ‘How to Future the Creative Industries,’ featuring experts from the New Museum, Onassis Foundation, and Serpentine Gallery. There’s also a discussion on the transformation of cultural curation with curators from Le Guess Who?, MACBA, and Sónar. Workshops such as ‘Hacking the World’ examine how technology and digital culture are reshaping audience interactions and creative work.

Sónar+D 2025 showcases a digital reinterpretation of Sant Climent de Taüll’s apse in ‘Lux Mundi.’ It’s an artwork created by digital artists and musicians. TIMES, a European network of festivals, presents two co-creations: ‘Białowieża’ by Chris Watson & Izabella Dłużyk and ‘A Forbidden Distance’ by Saint Abdullah, Eomac & Rebecca Salvadori. A TIMES project, ‘The Talk,’ blends music, research, and stage design to explore the origins of computing. MusicTech Europe returns with a program co-organized by Barcelona Music Tech Hub, concluding with the presentation of startups from the Music Tech Europe Academy and a session on data use in the creative economy.

the event takes place between June 12th and 14th at the Palau de Congressos de Fira Montjuïc in Barcelona

‘Worlds to Come’ is another theme at Sónar+D 2025. Here, AI in music and the arts emerges with quantum computing, space exploration, and digital sustainability. Artistic narratives are present through talks, performances, and audiovisuals. Highlights include Libby Heaney’s ‘Eat My Multiverse,’ which applies quantum computing to art from a non-binary perspective. Then, Xin Liu’s ‘Cosmic Metabolism’ explores extraterrestrial environments.

Albert.DATA demonstrates real-time neurohacking in SYNAPTICON. Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley’s session ‘WE CAN’T PRETEND ANYMORE’ engages audiences in Black trans history with digital storytelling. Tega Brain’s ‘Questions of Automation’ addresses environmental and technological sustainability. Alice Sparkly Kat and Manuka Honey’s ‘Listen, the Stars Are Talking’ reinterprets astrology’s role in pop culture.

presently, Sónar+D 2025 features over 100 activities

Sónar+D 2025 also features audiovisual narratives and performances. They’re in line with the alternative uses of AI in music and arts. ‘The Drum and the Bird’ by Forensis and Bill Kouligas examines German colonialism in Namibia through generative soundscapes and 3D cartographies. Then, Julieta Wibel and Mike Fernández analyze the aesthetics of contemporary digital pop in ‘Math Thrash.’ There’s also the dance company laSADCUM and YESSi PERSE, who critique big tech’s influence in ‘CYBERMEDIEVAL.’

Other performances include ‘replica — relic’ by Dania and Mau Morgó. It incorporates 3D-scanned Mesopotamian instruments. ‘Thức Tỉnh’ by Animistic Beliefs and Jeisson Drenth explores cultural identity through music and visuals. Additional acts include Safety Trance’s fusion of reggaeton and industrial in ‘DESTRUCCIÓN,’ Vica Pacheco’s electroacoustic ‘ITA,’ and an audiovisual performance by Alice Sparkly Kat in collaboration with Akuyte.

Sónar+D 2025 also includes interactive forums, panel discussions, master classes and more

Sónar+D 2025 holds its largest interactive exhibition to date with the Project Area. It showcases over 60 projects in technology, design, and radical thought, as well as designs hinting at the uses of AI in music and the arts. Most projects were selected from 500 submissions to Sónar’s Open Call. Additionally, the festival launches the New Communities program. Sónar+D 2025 expects to announce the details of this participatory initiative soon. So far, the team says it dedicates part of its schedule to creative, scientific, marketing, and technology communities.

Alongside Sónar+D 2025 and its programs on AI in music and the arts, Sónar Week takes place from June 10th to 15th in Barcelona, Spain. It transforms the city into a hub for music, innovation, and creativity, in collaboration with cultural and musical institutions. The event begins with the third edition of +RAIN Film Festival, an AI-generated film festival co-organized with Universitat Pompeu Fabra. On June 12th, Sónar’s 32nd edition officially opens with a concert at the Palau de la Música Catalana. It presents works by Steve Reich and award-winning composer Raquel García-Tomás. The team reveals additional programming soon. It includes this year’s SonarMies cycle at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion and new partnerships with Foto Colectània and the Fundació Miró.

the event extends beyond AI in music as it covers topics such as digital sustainability and non-binary futurism