• RESIDENCY FIELD REPORT
March 14, 2026
Spring 2026 Residencies Inaugurated at Chez Paradis
The Executive Bureau of SON SON is proud to announce the arrival of our first cohort of 2026 visiting creators. Selected from forty-two civic applications evaluated by our Technical and Pedagogical Council, three innovative practitioners have commenced their research fellowships in Lésignac-Durand.
The cohort includes electroacoustic composer Miriam Delacroix, who is investigating the resonance properties of ancient Charentaise granite architecture; percussionist and educator Thomas Berg, developing physical vibration modules for hearing-impaired pupils; and sound recordist Sarah Lin, who is compiling seasonal nocturnal bioacoustics along the Charente river basin.
Residency onboarding: Visiting artists collaborating with volunteer audio engineers during their initial orientation session at Chez Paradis.
In keeping with our public utility mandate, each fellow has integrated public educational components into their residency schedule. Local citizens are invited to observe studio sessions and attend free workshops scheduled throughout April and May.
• CIVIC PARTNERSHIP DISPATCH
February 28, 2026
Departmental Educational Agreement Renewed for 2026–2027
Following an audit of our pedagogical outcomes in rural schools, the Conseil Départemental de la Charente has formally renewed its educational partnership convention with SON SON. This milestone ensures sustained public funding to deliver zero-cost acoustic workshops to over thirty primary and secondary classrooms across the Charente-Limousine district.
The evaluated curriculum, titled "The Living Ear," combines physical science experiments with collaborative music creation. Students build simple contact microphones, map the sonic signatures of their school environments, and learn how to reduce acoustic pollution in communal spaces.
Classroom impact: Rural school students demonstrating their environmental sound collages to parents and educators in Confolens.
"This institutional renewal affirms that decentralized cultural initiatives produce measurable civic benefits," stated Kaie Hilaushi, President of SON SON. "We remain deeply grateful to our public partners for championing cultural equity for rural children."
• ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHIVING
January 19, 2026
Release of the 2025 Charente Bioacoustic Sound Archive
Our scientific and technical teams have finalized the public cataloging of the 2025 environmental audio baseline. Over ninety-five hours of calibrated recordings, gathered across twelve rural cantons by volunteer field recordists, are now permanently preserved in our digital repository and accessible under Creative Commons licenses.
The archive documents critical acoustic indicators, including the territorial calls of endangered avian species, nocturnal amphibian breeding choruses, and the subtle resonance of subterranean water aquifers. This dataset is already being consulted by regional environmental researchers studying the impacts of seasonal drought on aquatic ecosystems.
Field documentation: Calibrated audio sensors capturing environmental acoustic data along rural riparian corridors in Charente.
Educators, researchers, and sound artists worldwide can freely browse and download these recordings via our Educational Tools & Library portal (ressources.php).
