Team
Hugo Paquete (INET-md/ UA, artistic coordination)
Gilberto de Lascariz
Sérgio Carolino – tuba (Yamaha International Artist)
Ana Santos – voz lírica (Cantora Lírica)
Bruno Sousa – performer (voz-base para síntese vocal)
Amanda Duda – performer (voz-base para síntese vocal)
Alunos da Licenciatura em Teatro da ESAP
David Stingley
Christopher Zlaket
Ana Erica Fernandes
Ana Rita Santos
Mário Rui – gestão financeira
Miguel Mesquita “Marcapreta”
Hugo Vale
Raquel Barrocas Leiter
Luna Paquete
Period
2026 to 2028
Institutions involved (in collaboration or partnership)
Planetário do Porto – Centro Ciência Viva
Museu Zer0 – Centro de Arte Digital
NOVA LINCS / Festival Periphera
Artech‑International
Absonus Lab / Laboratório de inovação em som, tecnologia e media arte digital
GeoBioTec – Departamento de Geociências (UA)
ICT – Instituto de Ciências da Terra (Universidade de Évora)
INET‑md – Universidade de Aveiro
ESAP – Escola Superior Artística do Porto
ESAM – Escola Secundária Alves Martins
EASR – Escola Artística Soares dos Reis
Câmara Municipal de Estarreja
Funding
Direção-Geral das Artes DGArtes | Ref. 33619
Abstract
Ecos Umbrosos: O Mundo como Interface is an immersive electronic performance conceived for a 4K fulldome and multichannel spatialisation, premiering at Planetário do Porto – Centro Ciência Viva, where the dome becomes a sensory, geological and technological device.
The project takes oil as the “black blood of the Earth”, a hyperobject whose scale exceeds human perception, bringing together geology, technology, mythology, environmental science and artistic creation in a speculative dramaturgy centred on energy, power and finitude.
Developed with consultancy from Gilberto de Lascariz, the dramaturgy is grounded in the figures of Ashmedai and Ahriman, symbolic entities that embody the Faustian ambiguity between progress, collapse and technological alienation. The soundscape combines electroacoustic music, post-techno and industrial aesthetics, with Sérgio Carolino’s tuba serving as a telluric voice, a geological stratum that emerges and vibrates through the electronics. The synthetic voices of Ashmedai and Ahriman are generated by AI from guttural material recorded with students from ESAP, constituting an unprecedented application of generative AI to vocal synthesis. Ana Santos’s lyrical voice is processed as a spectral memory of the human.
Geophones capture telluric vibrations in real time, integrating geophysical listening as a non-human agent. CO₂ sensors modulate generative soundscapes through the Atmospheric Metabolism system, incorporating the audience’s breathing into the composition. The visual dimension features AI-generated 4K fulldome projection and interactive robotic lighting, transforming the dome into a visible geological layer, spacecraft and interface.
The project introduces experimental methodologies, including performative geophones, generative AI applied to voice, environmental sonification and algorithmic immersive video, while bringing together a network of partners that exemplifies the intersection of art, science, technology and geology. The national touring programme includes three strategic venues, including Museu Zer0 (Faro) and Festival Periphera / NOVA LINCS (Almada), among others, strengthening decentralisation and fostering connections between scientific research, artistic practice and technological innovation.
The Teluric Expedition collects underground vibrations and industrial sounds in Sines, Aljustrel and Peniche, feeding into the composition and the development of AI systems, and strengthening the connection between territory, geology, ecology and sound creation.
The project includes school workshops, podcasts, online broadcasts and a transmedia seminar, promoting technological literacy, accessibility and community engagement. Ecos Umbrosos establishes a shared space of listening between humans, machines and the planet, activating an operative ecology that questions energy, power and finitude.
Keywords
Electronic performance; Sound art; Fulldome; Generative AI; Geophones; Hyperobjects; Digital ecologies; Environmental sonification; Post-digital aesthetics; Digital media art; Technology and dramaturgy.