Sara Pinheiro
Research

field recording
In relation to my practice as a field recordist, there are a few results:
2024/ – the critical ear
- The “critical ear” is a concept crossing ideas of “technical listening” and “ear cleaning”:
- An essay is now published in VORTEX Music Journal;
- A short composition version was presented at Gallery AVU (Prague), as part of Michal Cáb’s exhibition Music Is Obsolete (curated by Miloš Vojtěchovský);
- It was first presented as a workshop (Synth Library Prague, July 2024);
- The concept crosses three literary sources: Critical Listening Skills for Audio Professionals (Everest, 2007), Ear Cleaning: Notes for an Experimental Music Course (Schafer, 1967) and Deep Listening (Oliveros, 2005).
2023/ – deep recording & noise pollution (SHLUK)
- “Deep Recording” is a concept shedding light on ideas of sonic health and noise pollution:
- “Noise pollution and sound beyond sound” (in collaboration with SHLUK)
- as a podcast on Ponava Radio (Jan 2025);
- published at Sonic Studies (Oct, 2024);
- presented at Noise Floor in Lisbon (May, 2024);
- SHLUK performed at ARCHA+ (Prague):
- presented at Beyond Listening: Agency, Art and the Environment (Nov, 2023);
- SHLUK premiered at Barrandov Bazen (Prague):
- In a residency at INTERFERÊNCIAS 2023 (Companhia Olga Roriz, in Lisbon), Artur Pispalhas and I kept developing the idea of deep recording. Here is a playlist of our favourite sounds;
- “Deep Recording” was first presented at the “25th Audio Engineering Meeting” of the Audio Engineering Society (Oct, 2023).
- “Noise pollution and sound beyond sound” (in collaboration with SHLUK)
2020/23 – field recordings: a manifesto
- “Field Recordings: a manifesto” is a practice-based presentation on a political view on sonic data, particularly through the practice of field recordings:
- Presented at SOA LISBOA, 2023;
- Published at Prace Kulturoznawcze, 2022;
- First presented at The Second Life of Recorded Sounds, October 2020.
2016/20 – digital non realities
- This research aims to study and develop a context for a sound practice that is not tied to a sense of “reality” but creates its own context for a non-real experience, an experience of fiction. In collaboration with Jiří Rouš, Matěj Šenkyřík, Petr Zábrodský and Alexandra Cihanska Machová:
- Reflections on sound associations and sonic digital environments, published by Resonance (2022);
- Reflections on sonic digital unreality, published in Digital Creativity (2019);
- Digital Unrealities, Study I, published in the Research Catalogue (2018) and in ARTEACTA (Czech Version).

regardless
REGARDLESS is a research project focusing on pioneers of electronic music and sound art.
- It first happened as an exhibition in GAMU (Prague, 2019), co-curated with Alexandra Cihanská Machová.
- In 2021, it became an online exhibition hosted by ARTEACTA, designed by Lenka Jabůrková.
- The introductory text and the graphics of the exhibition have been kindly published by NAMU, in 2023.
- In 2024, I produced a podcast episode for UFMC about the topic, together with Mary C. (Synth Library, Prague), featuring music by Johanna Magdalena Beyer (New World Records), Diana Policarpo and Tatiana Heuman. Available here.

acousmatic foley
“Acousmatic Foley” is a practice-based research on sound dramaturgy that bridges Musique Concrète and Foley Art. It proposes a perspective on creating, performing and listening to sound which emerges from both traditions.
On the one hand, the main principle of acousmatic music is to disengage sound from its visual source. On the other hand, foley is the covering of an action with sounds that are visually justifiable, although they may not naturally belong there. Nevertheless, what links an acousmatic composer to a foley artist is that the latter makes use of objects for their layout, for a sonic construction that matches visually what we expect to hear, rather than the concrete visual matter. The argument is that every foley artist is an acousmatic composer.
To this end, the project is based on the concepts of sound-motif, sound-prop and sound-actors, in order to propose a dramaturgic practice specific to sound terms.
theory
- Vanessa Theme Ament, the author of Foley Grail, has kindly invited me to her podcast Whole-y Foley;
- “Foley gesture: Towards a theory of acousmatic foley” was presented at Nova Contemporary Music Meeting (NCMM), April 2023 and published in New Sound International Journal of Music 61, I/2023;
- “Acousmatic Foley: son-en-scène” was presented at XXVII International Film and Media Studies Conference (November 2020) and published in The International Journal of Film and Media Arts. Vol. 7 No.2, 2023;
- The sound of saute ma ville is published in Iluminace (December, 2019);
- Acousmatic Foley: Staging Sound Fiction is published in Organised Sound, Cambridge Journal (December, 2016);
- Acousmatic Foley, Sound-Actors was presented at Klingt Gut! (Hamburg – May, 2016);
- Acousmatic Foley, Soundmotifs was presented in “Sound/Image – colloquium” (London – Nov, 2015);
- Staging Sound Fiction was presented at Sonorities (Belfast – April, 2015);
- An essay on “soundmotifs” is published on interact magazine (FCSH – March, 2015);
practice
- ASYNCH premiered in PAF, Dec 2024;
- Acousmatic Echoes of Ruchový archiv, curated by Jonáš Kucharský NFA Prague for Archival Assembly #3 (Berlin);
- SLAM premiered at Ponrepo, Prague in Nov 2023. It was also screened at the Eletroacoustic Music Festival, Bangor – Wales, UK in Feb 2024 and at the at the Portuguese Cinemateca in Lisbon (June, 2024);
- Chantal Akerman’s first short movie, ‘Saute Ma Ville’ (1968), my residency project at “q-02 gallery” (Brussels – December, 2016) has been performed in PAF (2018) and Ponrepo (2019);
- “something to hold onto” is a live performance that looks into the idea of sound-acting. It was premiered in Barcelona and Lisbon (April, 2016). Performed at Performance Crossings in Prague (May, 2017);
- “Live Foley” was staged at Radio Serpentine (London – Nov, 2015);
- A study on “sound objects” was commissioned by RadioCustica (Prague – September, 2015);
list of publications
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- Pinheiro, S. (2024). The Critical Ear, Revista Vórtex, 12, 1–17: https://periodicos.unespar.edu.br/vortex/article/view/9522
- SHLUK (2024). Noise Pollution and Sound Beyond “Sound”, Journal of Sonic Studies, 26: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/3024868/3024869;
- Pinheiro, S. (2023). Zvukové prostředí vs. zvuková fikce — zvukové krajiny jižanské gotiky (Sonic environments vs. Sonic fiction – Elements of the Gothic Southern Soundscape) in Jižanská gotika v současných televizních seriálech (Southern Gothic in Contemporary Television Series) – ed. Veronika Klusaková), NAMU 2023;
- Pinheiro, S. (2023). Foley gesture: Towards a theory of acousmatic foley. New Sound, 61/1, 60–83: https://scindeks.ceon.rs/Article.aspx?artid=0354-818X2361060P;
- Pinheiro, S. (2023). Making of Commotion. Journal for Artistic Research, 31: https://doi.org/10.22501/jar.723227;
- Pinheiro, S. (2022). Misconceptions of Sound Design: Interviews with Jana Částková and Sandra Klouzová. Arteacta 5(8), 79-92: https://doi.org/10.62804/aa.2022.014;
- Pinheiro, S. (2022). Acousmatic foley: Son-en-Scène. International Journal of Film and Media Arts, 7(2), 125–148: https://doi.org/10.24140/ijfma.v7.n2.07;
- Pinheiro, S. (2022). Field recordings: A Manifesto. Prace Kulturoznawcze, 26(1), 129–146: https://doi.org/10.19195/0860-6668.26.1.8;
- Pinheiro, S., & Rouš, J. (2022). Reflections on sound associations and sonic digital environments. Resonance, 3(3), 255–267: https://doi.org/10.1525/res.2022.3.3.255;
- Pinheiro. S. (2021). Revisiting the Canon of Sound Theory. Iluminace 33/1;
- Pinheiro, S. (2021). Making Sound for Sound: An Interview with Marie-Jeanne Wyckmans”. Arteacta 4(6), 125-137: https://doi.org/10.62804/aa.2021.017;
- Pinheiro, S. et al. (2021). REGARDLESS. ArteActa: https://doi.org/http://arteacta.cz/artkey/ara-202102-0010.php;
- Pinheiro, S. (2021). The Audiovisual Musique Concrète: Towards the Integrated Soundtrack”, Iluminace 33/4;
- Pinheiro, S. (2021). Sound has always been immersive: An Interview with Michel Chion”. Arteacta 4(5), 111-122;
- Pinheiro, S. (2019). The Sound of Saute ma ville. Iluminace, 31(4), 47–60: https://doi.org/10.58193/ilu.1643;
- Pinheiro, S. et al. (2019). Reflections on sonic digital unreality. Digital Creativity, 30(3), 196–205: https://doi.org/10.1080/14626268.2019.1653929;
- Pinheiro, S. et al. (2019) Digital Unrealities, Study I (Czech Version). ArteActa, 1(2);
- Pinheiro, S. et al. (2019). Digital Unrealities, Study I. Research Catalogue: https://doi.org/10.22501/rc.416743;
- Pinheiro, S. (2016). Acousmatic Foley: Staging sound-fiction. Organised Sound, 21(3), 242–248: https://doi.org/10.1017/s1355771816000212;
- Pinheiro, S. (2015). Foley acusmático: Motivos sonoros. Interact. https://revistainteract.pt/22/foley-acusmatico/