The Sounds Like a Book platform is launching the open call for applications to participate in the seventh edition of the residency programme titled Sounds Like a Book: Memory, taking place between 7th and 28th September 2025, in Șona village, Romania. Originally conceived to support artistic research and multimedia experimentation, the upcoming edition takes a turn toward a collective ethos. 

Sounds Like a Book: Memory moves away from individual, independent artworks to focus on a collective project, consisting of an audio walk and a newspaper. Interwoven with the project, a semi-structured programme, centered on dialogue, practical and theoretical impulses by invited artists and graphic designers, will run throughout the residency.

Transitory and longer-term guests will contribute to the semi-structured programme consisting of listening and movement exercises, walks, and informal talks: Andreea Vlăduț, sound artist; Cyrll Lim, composer and artist; Lukas Jakob Löcker, multimedia composer, researcher and lecturer; and Graphomat, interdisciplinary design studio. Additionally, Diana Iabrașu, coordinator of the photographic archive in Șona, will introduce the archive and talk about her work in building and mediating it. Mihaela Frățilă, a local of Șona and a vital part of the community of the Blue House, will lead storytelling-based walks, activating both the personal and collective memory. Furthermore, the residency will include meetings between the residents and the locals to discuss the transformation of the village, as well as the broader impact of the program of the residencies organised at the Blue House on the life of the village.

Finally, all contributions will enrich the reflection on the context in which the residency has been organized for several editions, taking the broader theme of memory as a starting point. Both sensory and conceptual investigations will be carried out, exploring material and immaterial, individual and collective, human and non-human sediments of the distant or very recent past – a past which, as Diana Iubrașu told us, loses its visibility even in the diligent work of the researcher

Graphomat is an interdisciplinary design studio based in Bucharest, created by Andreea Popescu, Mihai Popescu and Andra Pavel. They specialize in visual identities, editorial design and screen printing. They also dip our fingers into curating and exhibition design. 

Diana Iabrașu won the Grand Prize at the Simfest Festival in 2016 with the documentary Enescu Experience. She filmed backstage documentaries with violinist Alexandru Tomescu (over five years), with the Romanian Chamber Orchestra alongside conductor Cristian Măcelaru, and worked on documenting theatre projects directed by Silviu Purcărete. Currently, Diana is searching for stories about color and vernacular architecture within her project Albastru (albastru.ro), and she coordinates the restoration school site in Șona, as well as the Șona Village Archive.

Mihaela-Maria Frățilă graduated from the Faculty of History and Philosophy, majoring in Philosophy, at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. In 2015, she completed a master’s degree in Philosophy, Culture, and Communication. She returned to Șona in 2016 and, since 2019, has been the secretary of the village association ‘Șona Noastră’, where she has volunteered since its beginnings in 2013. Since 2022, she has been a cultural guide for the Ștefan Câlția Foundation, offering tours of the Lazar Blacksmith’s museum-workshop, the blue house 234, the wooden house on the hill and its apple orchard, the theater ruin, the two churches, the Guruiețe mounds, the Olt River bridge and other iconic blue houses in the village.

Cyrill Lim is a multimedia artist and composer based in Zug (CH) and Vienna (AT). His projects are located at the intersection between music and theatre, art and research, media installation and social environment. Reflections on his position as an artist within our society led him to a practice that focuses on process, ephemeral and non-product-based outcomes.

Lukas Jabok Löcker is currently working as a project manager within cultural and art mediation and teaching at the department of “Media Design”, Kunstuniversität Linz, while continuing his artistic research „Spatial Delivery“ – tackling sound system culture and musique concrète & acousmatique.

Andreea Vlăduț is a Romanian multimedia artist based in Austria. She graduated from the Time-based Media department at Kunstuniversität Linz, specializing in electronic music, audio-video installations, and performance art. Currently, she explores the transformative potential of sound and ritualistic practices in altering perceptions and challenging dominant and normative narrative frameworks.

The Sounds Like a Book: Memory residency calls for applications from persons of any age, gender, ethnicity, nationality or other personal characteristics with interdisciplinary, artistic, or non-artistic backgrounds, who consider themselves emerging (whether at the beginning of their career, entering a new phase in their activity, or following a significant transition).

Previous knowledge of working with sound or design experience is not required. What is expected, though, is that the upcoming residents are interested in collaboratively working and developing a collective project, resulting in an audio walk and a newspaper.

The presence for the whole duration of the residency is mandatory.

Due to the limited number of applications and the format, we accept only individual applications.

The residency is held in English. Therefore, we require that the participants feel comfortable speaking English. 

The residents will get ongoing practical and conceptual support from the invited artists and designers in every phase of their work process. The sound equipment, together with the print equipment, is provided by the residency. 

The residents will receive a sum of 5170 RON NET (local artists) and 5640 RON NET (international artists) for the fee, which also includes travel expenses. The residency covers three meals per day and shared accommodation. 

The audio walk and the newspaper created during the residency will remain permanently available and accessible in Șona, and will also be presented in Bucharest, Romania, in the autumn, as part of a participatory mediation event based on the concept of sampling, led by multimedia artist and researcher Lukas Jakob Löcker (an event similar to Sample as That, Linz, Austria).

The newspaper will be printed in an edition of 250 copies after the residency ends. Each participant will receive 20 copies, while the remaining newspapers will stay in Șona and be offered free of charge to locals, visitors, and friends.

Because we aim for interdisciplinarity, we tried to find a form of application that is open to everyone interested in the residency. We have intentionally kept it simple, without requiring a portfolio or lengthy motivation letters. However, we appreciate it if you read through the call carefully and apply only if the format speaks to you and if you are available during the given time frame.

Please check out the application form, and for any inquiries, do not hesitate to write us at: contact@soundslikeabook.com

3 international artists and 3 local artists will be chosen after carefully checking the applications. We are interested in finding out:

Why would you like to be part of the residency?

• a connection to or particular interest, whether in the working method or topic;
• a connection or particular interest in working with sound and self-publishing as mediums of artistic expression;
• a connection or particular interest in the rural context.

We do not accept texts generated by AI. Please respect the requested maximum number of characters.

How do the books sound?
We encourage experimentation rather than finalized, polished works.
It is entirely up to you how you choose to answer this question; as such, your response can take the form of a proposal, draft, score, or sketch.

We do not accept answers generated by AI.
Please respect the limitations regarding time, characters, and number of pages.

Note:
In autumn, following the residency, we will present the collective project during an event organized by Lukas Jakob Löcker in Bucharest. As part of this event, we would be delighted to include your proposal alongside the others in a dedicated communal format. Please select in the application form if you agree or not.

Vlad Brăteanu, born in Bacău, in the former Socialist Republic of Romania (RSR) in 1986, currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Navigating the boundaries between public and private spaces, and finding signifiers for (in)visibility are translated into works that raise questions on precarity, fragility and stability in neoliberal societies. Research into the concept of plasticity and the effects of language is central in his artistic practice.

Gabriela Gordillo is a visual and sound artist based in Vienna, Austria. She creates participatory and social interfaces, through an interdisciplinary approach. In her work, sound and listening represent attention to the invisible and material for the sketch of temporal structures. Her work has been presented at international exhibitions, among them Transitio_MX (Mx), London Design Week (Uk), Tadaex (Ir) and Ars Electronica (At). Active in the artist-run space bb15 (Linz) and velak association of electroacoustic music (Vienna). Previously working with verein maiz (autonomous association from and for migrant women*) and Die Fabrikanten, among others.

Andreea Vlăduț‘s biography can be found above in the WHO WILL YOU BE WORKING WITH section.