Hugo Paquete, PhD – Sonic Media Artist & Researcher

Academic Profile and Research Focus

Hugo Paquete specializes in interactive sound installations, spatial composition, AI music systems, and acousmatic works. His research explores sound, technology, and philosophy through post-digital approaches.

Research Areas

Interactive Sound Installations
AI Music Systems
Multichannel Spatial Composition
Acousmatic and Electroacoustic Music
Granular Synthesis and DSP
Critical Sound Studies
Post-Humanism and Biofeedback Art

Affiliations

Founder of Absonus Lab. Researcher at CIAC, iAlab Sensoria, and BARN. Former resident at ZKM | Hertz-Lab.

ODO (No Body Lives Here)
An interactive AI sound installation by Chris Ziegler. Music & Spatial Sound Design by Hugo Paquete (2020)

<a href="https://paquete.bandcamp.com/album/odo">ODO by Hugo Paquete</a>

ODO is a generative, non-linear sound ecosystem premiered in the Kubus at ZKM Karlsruhe. Situated at the intersection of interactive performance, spatial composition, and post-techno aesthetics, this work transforms the act of listening into navigational agency.

Using mobile devices, audiences actively reroute the composition in real time, collaborating with AI-driven voices, granular synthesis, and planetary field recordings to co-create an ever-shifting auditory topology. The piece draws inspiration from The Little Prince and HAL9000, framing artificial intelligence not as a tool but as an introspective, narrative agent within a sprawling sonic cosmology.

Structurally organized into planetary zones, travel sequences, and rotational movements, ODO rejects linear narrative in favor of emergent meaning, a living system where human and non-human actors (sound, space, code, bodies) continuously renegotiate the experience of place, memory, and interaction.

Music & Spatial Sound Design: Hugo Paquete
Composed at ZKM | Hertz-Lab, 2019-2020

Concept, Direction, Light & Stage Design: Chris Ziegler
Choreographic Dramaturgy: Paula Rosolen
Text: Michael Hewel
Software Development: Tejeswa Gouda, Brandon Mechtley, Suren Jayasuriya et al.
Electronics: Chris Zlaket
Stage Technician: Hans Gass

Supported by: ZKM Karlsruhe (Hertz-Labor), Arizona State University / Synthesis Center, Landesverband Freier Theater Baden-Württemberg, City of Munich, Fonds Darstellende Künste Berlin

Premiered at 28/03/2020, at ZKM Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe and postponed to 25-27 Sept 2020

License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.

Keywords:
Spatial Sound Design, Interactive Composition, AI Music, Post-Techno, Non-Linear Narrative, Post-Humanism, Hugo Paquete, ZKM Karlsruhe, Immersive Acoustics, Responsive Environments.

Cosmos
Music for Dance & Interactive Performance by Chris Ziegler. Music & Spatial Sound Design by Hugo Paquete (2020)

<a href="https://paquete.bandcamp.com/album/cosmos-music-for-interactive-dance">Cosmos: Music for Interactive Dance by Hugo Paquete</a>

Cosmos: Music for Interactive Dance is more than an album; it is an autonomous sonic system, a universe of sound where composition and astrophysics converge. Originally created for a 48-channel immersive performance at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.

Transcending the traditional role of a soundtrack, these spatial compositions function as a "gravitational resonance in the architecture of space-time." The album is a profound synthesis of art and science, translating cosmic phenomena, onstellations, orbital mechanics, and celestial bodies, into a auditory experience.

Aesthetically, the album traverses the realms of drone, speculative noise, and microsound, crafting deeply immersive textures that are both immense and intricately detailed.

Cosmos stands as a testament to the power of interdisciplinary collaboration, merging interactive dance, spatial sound design, and advanced data sonification to explore our place in the universe through sound.

Credits:
Concept & Artistic Direction: Chris Ziegler
Compositions, Sonic Systems & Spatial Sound Design: Hugo Paquete
Dramaturgy: Christine Reeh
Performers: Sayaka Kaiwa, Ted Stoffer
Hardware/Software: Christopher Zlaket, Connor Rawls, Dallas Nichols, Ian Shelanskey, Assegid Kidan

Premiere: 2018 at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe.

Production & Support: Produced at ZKM | Hertz-Lab. Supported by FCT Portugal, Arizona State University, and the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg.

License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.

Keywords:
Spatial Sound Design, Interactive Composition, Dance, Post-Techno, Non-Linear Narrative, Post-Humanism, Hugo Paquete, ZKM Karlsruhe, Immersive Acoustics, Media Art.

Unevesess: Unevenness: A Sonic Artifact on a Cosmic Journey
Music & Spatial Sound Design by Hugo Paquete (2015)

Selected by NASA for its OSIRIS-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu, Hugo Paquete’s Unevenness (2015) transcends conventional sound art to become a profound interplanetary cultural artifact. This transformative work synthesizes granular synthesis, immersive field recordings, and deep philosophical inquiry to explore the hidden vibrations, material irregularities, and intangible constituents that underlie perceived reality. By operating deliberately at the threshold of auditory perception,

Unevenness is more than a composition: it is a metaphysical probe, a dysphonic archive, and a visionary meditation on materiality and resonance. Now traveling through space aboard the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, the piece serves as both a message to the cosmos and an invitation to earthly listeners to attune themselves to the invisible forces, fractures, and frequencies that constitute the fabric of our universe.

Credits:
Work: Unevenness (2015)
Artist & Composer: Hugo Paquete

Presented by: NASA #WeTheExplorers Campaign (OSIRIS-REx Mission to asteroid Bennu)

Technical Process: Field recordings, granular synthesis, and digital signal processing focused on pitch, amplitude, and texture manipulation.

Mission Context:
Launched aboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft (September 2016) to asteroid Bennu as part of a cultural time capsule. The work embodies themes of material instability, cosmic resonance, and imperceptible vibrational phenomena.

Formats:
Stereo (streaming/download) and multichannel spatial version (available for institutional presentation).

Key Themes:
Sonic materialism, interplanetary art, entropy, non-human agency, metaphysical sound inquiry.

License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.

Keywords: experimental, Sound Art, NASA, Granular Synthesis, Sonic Materialism, Multichannel, Hugo Paquete

(USC)
Unpredictable Systems and Collapse,
Software art & Interactive Performance by Hugo Paquete (2013)

(USC) Unpredictable Systems and Collapse is a meta-media performance software art system by Hugo Paquete, existing at the intersection of acousmatic tradition and computational experimentation. Premiered at the PNEM Sound Art Festival (2013), this work functions as a dysphonic hyper-instrument that transforms the computer interface into a landscape of audiovisual entropy.

The system, custom-built using Autorun Pro, AudioMulch, and Plogue Bidule—exposes the hidden fragility of digital environments. Sound emerges not as composed material but as the audible trace of system states, errors, and glitches, creating immersive experiences where control and collapse coexist.

Presented internationally, including at In-Sonora Madrid and broadcast on Rádio Antena 2. (USC) manifests as live performance, installation, or broadcast, each iteration unique. It represents foundational research into non-human agency, systemic failure as aesthetic strategy, and the sonic unmasking of technological unconsciousness.

Credits:
Work: (USC) Unpredictable Systems and Collapse
Artist & Developer: Hugo Paquete
Premiere: PNEM Sound Art Festival (Netherlands, 2013)
Software Environment: Windows-based custom instrument built with Autorun Pro, AudioMulch, and Plogue Bidule, featuring multi-channel spatialization and real-time video synthesis.

Presentations & Broadcasts:
PNEM Sound Art Festival (Netherlands, 2013)
In-Sonora Festival: La Casa Encendida (Madrid, Spain) (Madrid, Spain, 2016)
International Festival of Creativity, Innovation & Digital Culture (Software Art category), 2013
Arte Eletroacústica / Rádio Antena 2 (Miso Music Portugal broadcast)
Natal dos Experimentais, Passos Manuel (Porto, Portugal, 2015)
Formats: Live performance, immersive installation, and radio broadcast

License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.

Keywords: experimental sound art, glitch aesthetics, non-human agency, meta-media performance, software art

Radial Transference: Spatial Contamination and the Acousmatic Unconscious.
Acousmatic Music
by Hugo Paquete (2013)

Radial Transference is a profound acousmatic work that explores the hidden relationships between place, memory, and perception. By colliding field recordings from two distinct geographic and temporal points, day and night, here and there, Paquete creates a sonic topology where sounds contaminate, transform, and redefine one another.

The work delves into themes of spatial contamination and acousmatic unconsciousness, blurring boundaries between natural soundscapes, media fragments, and synthetic interventions. Through advanced granular synthesis and immersive multichannel spatialization, Paquete constructs an auditory environment that mirrors the hybrid and often dislocated nature of contemporary experience.

Presented at prestigious venues like the MAD Museum (New York) and Sounding Cities (Viseu, Portugal), and broadcast on experimental radio platform RADIUS Chicago, Radial Transference invites listeners to engage with sound as a critical tool for re-hearing the world, a vibrating web of relations that binds spaces, times, and meanings.

This work is part of Paquete’s ongoing Dark Energy Synthesis cycle, which investigates unseen energies, acoustic, social, and metaphysical, that shape our reality.

Credits:
Work: Radial Transference (2012/2023)
Composer & Sound Artist: Hugo Paquete (Da Mata Paquete)
Album: Dark Energy Synthesis (Absonus Lab, 2023)
Production: Absonus Lab : a space for sonic experimentation fostering multidisciplinary advances in art, science, and technology.

Technical Environment:
Field recordings, granular synthesis, digital signal processing, multichannel spatialization.

Premieres & Presentations:
MAD Museum of Arts and Design (New York City, USA)Sounding Cities: Invisible Places (Viseu, Portugal)RADIUS (Experimental Radio Broadcast, Chicago, IL, USA)

Ackno wledgments:
Supported by Absonus Lab

License & Access: multichannel version available for institutional presentation.
All rights reserved. ℗ & © Hugo Paquete.

Keywords: experimental sound art, glitch aesthetics, non-human agency, meta-media performance, software art