What not to miss at Barbican’s Feel the Sound exhibition this summer

Taking place across the Barbican Centre until 31 August, Feel the Sound challenges us to listen not just with our ears, but with our whole bodies.

Co-produced by MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives, multi-sensory exhibition Feel the Sound explores how sound shapes emotions, memories, and physical sensations through 11 interactive installations located across the Barbican – from the public foyers to the Centre’s Lakeside to the underground car park.

“Feel the Sound is an invitation to explore the expanded world of sound – how we feel it, see it, and the possibilities it provides for us to understand ourselves and the world differently. Ultimately, we are sonic beings. This is an exciting opportunity to open up new spaces across the Barbican and think about where we encounter sound both in our bodies and throughout the Centre,” said Luke Kemp, Head of Creative Programme, Barbican Immersive.

Four new specially commissioned installations will feature at Feel the Sound. Observatory Station, by sound artist Miyu Hosoi along with global sound project Cities and Memory, mixes field recordings from around the world with sounds from the Barbican, asking visitors to imagine the daily life of a stranger. UN/BOUND, by TRANS VOICES, ILĀ & MONOM, with contribution from Patty Ayukawa, invites audiences to journey through a holographic choral experience. Your Inner Symphony, by Kinda Studios and Nexus Studios, reveals the internal vibrations of the human body, showing the connection between music and emotion. And Joyride, by Temporary Pleasure, is the first installation to venture into the underground car park of the Barbican, channelling the Y2K era of boy racers and rave with modified car sound systems and DIY music. 

Other commissioned works have been adapted by the artists for Feel the Sound, including Reflections of Being by Max Cooper, Resonant Frequencies by Evan Ifekoya, Resonance Continuum by Murthovic and Thiruda of transmedia collective, and Forever Frequencies by Domestic Data Streamers. 

The exhibition also includes two experiential spaces, titled Embodied Listening Playground and Sonic Machines Playground. Co-created by Nicole L’Huillier with Sarah Mackenzie and the team from MUTEK, they ask visitors to listen with their whole body, questioning the ways in which sound shapes our environment, self-perception and connections. They feature works from Dame Evelyn Glennie, Holly Herndon, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Daito Manabe.

And finally, on the Lakeside Terrace, Feel The Sound welcomes Raymond Antrobus’ Heightened Lyric – an outdoor installation featuring seven kites serving as a tribute to sounds that have gone unheard, commissioned to acknowledge the gap often found between the hearing and non-hearing world. Each kite carries an extract of poetry about (missing) sound, along with the British Sign Language interpretation of the words.

Feel the Sound is part of the Barbican’s summer 2025 season Frequencies: the sounds that shape us. Featuring film screenings, events, shows, workshops and talks, it explores how sound moves more than just the body, delving into the ways it inspires humans to create change.

Alongside Feel the Sound, the programme includes the world premiere of a new version of the award-winning In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats – a VR experience created by immersive artist Darren Emerson. On a journey through the acid house movement, the installation takes audiences back to 1989 to experience the rave scene that revolutionised music. The experience is available until 3 August. 

Following its premiere run, Feel the Sound will be taken on an international tour, including Tokyo’s MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives.

“MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives, which is scheduled to open in 2026, has been involved in the planning of Feel the Sound as a co- producer from the very beginning, as its first international curatorial project. As the world is inundated with visual information, we believe that re-examining sound and music as the most unified forms of expression with the human body, and reconnecting music and “us” will provide an opportunity to imagine the future narratives of humanity. Everyone who visits the exhibition will experience a new world full of rich sounds and musical power,” said Maholo Uchida, Director / Curator of MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives.

For more information and tickets, visit the Barbican website.