Bardo is an artistic research project I initiated in 2018, inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thödröl), a Buddhist text written in the 8th century and subtitled “The great liberation through hearing in the intermediate states.” The Tibetan term Bardo, which means “interval,” refers to transitional states of consciousness — between death and rebirth, but also, more broadly, meditation, dream, trance. I became fascinated by the idea that these suspended moments could serve as spaces of creative emergence and inner awakening.
Concept
This project was a personal and conceptual journey at the intersection of immersive sound, architecture, and psychoacoustics. I set out to study how specific environments — especially those used for ritual or contemplative practices — affect perception and induce altered states. My goal was to understand, and possibly recreate through sound design, the qualities that make a space feel like a threshold.
Research
A key phase of Bardo took place during a residency at the Spatial Sound Institute (4DSOUND) in Budapest. There, I experimented with multi-channel convolution reverb, using real-world impulse responses to simulate the acoustic signatures of sacred spaces. I also developed a suite of custom spatial tools for performance design and began collecting 3D sound impressions from architectural sites with strong spiritual or symbolic resonance.
Output
The project was interrupted in early 2020, shortly after a final residency, due to the onset of the pandemic. Although a final performative form was never realized, Bardo remains for me a deep artistic milestone — a reflection on transformation, introspection, and the acoustic conditions that might open up moments of clarity.
This page gathers various elements from that journey — tools, concepts, recordings, and texts — as a trace of that process and its still-unfolding potential.
Watch some video low-res clips taken in the main room in Budapest :
Bardo on Spatial Sound Institute
More about my work here