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SONA – Seeing Sound is a performative audio VR installation, designed by our co-creation team. Equipped with motion capture, headphones, a microphone, and sensory shoes, you embark on an adventure of interactive 3D sound. You hear your footsteps on virtual surfaces, interact live with your blind guide, and are drawn into the thrilling story of an occupied shopping mall.
SONA explores virtual reality from the perspective of blind and visually impaired people. Since 2023, we have been developing sound-based audio VR games and performances in complete darkness.
Behind SONA stands a co-creation team comprising more than 30 blind and visually impaired game designers from North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as an artistic and technical team responsible for programming, sound design, and the implementation of inclusive co-creation workshops.
The SONA team
Thomas Meckel – Artistic Director Thomas is the founder and artistic director of SONA. He develops the concepts, creates the game design, and brings the interdisciplinary team together. As a media artist, he builds instruments for transmedia improvisation and organizes cybernetic jam sessions. His cinema performance “Solaris” has been presented at venues including the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Ringlokschuppen in Mülheim, and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Together with Tobias Thomas, he curates the “Round” concert series at the Kölner Philharmonie. He studied Media Arts at the KHM in Cologne, Cultural Studies in Lüneburg, Applied Theater Studies in Giessen, and lived in Bogotá as a DAAD fellow.
Adriani Botez — Community & Accessibility Lead Adriani is a co-founder of SONA and an expert in echolocation and acoustic navigation. Blind from birth and born in Romania, he has lived in Germany since the age of 16. He develops the conceptual framework for SONA projects, facilitates workshops, represents SONA internationally in talks and panels, and helps build the co-creation network. In addition to his work as an analyst at the German Investment Corporation (DEG), he is involved in inclusive initiatives in Cologne, serves on the board of the Cologne Cultural Network, and is a co-developer of the open-source screen reader software NVDA.
Moritz Wesp — Game Design & Development Moritz is the lead developer of SONA: He builds the game mechanics in Unity and programs the technical foundation of the audio-VR environments. He found his way from music to game design through the development of his own electronic instruments and interactive music games. As a trombonist, he performs internationally in ensembles such as Bonecrusher (Matthias Muche) and Erosao (Mariá Portugal). He studied at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the Cologne University of Music and Dance.
Josephine Stamer — Workshop Leader & Dramaturgy Josephine leads the inclusive worldbuilding workshops at SONA and is building the co-creation team together with Adriani. She develops methods for using role-playing and worldbuilding games to collectively invent game content. She studied Applied Theater Studies in Giessen and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in “Sound and Reality” at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences. Her artistic work emerges at the intersection of sound, performance, and choreography.
Marcus Zilz — Sound Design Marcus creates the acoustic worlds of SONA Games. He leads the recording studio workshops where blind and visually impaired co-creators record the voices and sounds of the game world. He adds his background in animation film sound design in a productive way: there, too, soundscapes are created from scratch without on-set audio. After studying at the KHM in Cologne, he founded the animation studio hi&moinsen as well as the labels baumusik and mount wobble.
Christian Tronhjem — Technical Consultant Christian advises SONA on game audio matters and provides support for complex programming tasks. He is a programmer, composer, and sound designer from Aarhus, Denmark, specializing in games and the performing arts. Since 2020, he has been Lead Audio Programmer at Ubisoft Düsseldorf, where he has worked on titles such as Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR and the Far Cry series. He earned his Master’s degree in Electronic Music Composition and Sound Design in 2017 from the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus.
Dennis Scheiba — App Development & AI Dennis is a music computer scientist and software developer and is responsible at SONA for integrating AI into game development as well as complex specialized tasks in app development. As a core developer of the music software SuperCollider and a research assistant at the Robert Schumann University of Music, Düsseldorf in the field of “Artificial Intelligence and Music Practice,” he brings expertise at the intersection of computer music, sound, and software. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Sound and Reality (RSH Düsseldorf).
Angelika von Ammon — Accounting Angelika is responsible for administration, finance, and grant-funded projects. She has been supporting cultural projects in the independent arts scene for over 15 years and has extensive experience in project management for grant programs. She studied Media, Sports, and Event Management (BA, Mittweida University of Applied Sciences) as well as Cultural Analysis and Cultural Mediation (MA, TU Dortmund) and has been lecturing at the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences in the Department of Cultural Economics and Cultural Policy since 2023. She lives and works in Dortmund.
Luka Klein — Communication & Outreach Luka supports SONA in project organization, outreach, and communication with the co-creation team. As an art historian with a special interest in sound art and listening culture, she has primarily worked in associations for art and new music. In addition, she conducts her own sound research and explores questions of conscious listening. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in cultural management and lives in Cologne.
Fee Bonny — Creative Production Fee supports SONA as a creative producer. She is a project manager, game designer, and editor, and works as a research coordinator at the Cologne Game Lab (CGL). She studied at the KHM Cologne and earned her master’s degree in Game Development and Research at the CGL. Previously, she was involved in the VR experience “Zukunftsmuseum” at the Deutsches Museum in Nuremberg and worked as an editor for the TV show “Die Sendung mit der Maus” (WDR). She lives in Cologne.
Jakob Lorenz — Dramaturgy & Concept Jakob is a composer and sound designer for theater, radio plays, and VR, and is a co-founder of SONA, which he helped shape conceptually and dramaturgically from the very beginning. He is currently taking a break from SONA to train as an occupational therapist. However, he remains involved with SONA as a dramaturg, stand-in, and cook. He studied electronic composition at the Cologne University of Music and Dance and has worked at venues including the FFT Düsseldorf, Tanzhaus NRW, and Theater Dortmund.
The Co-creation team
The Co-Creation Team is a growing group of over 30 blind and visually impaired game designers from Cologne and North Rhine-Westphalia who have been creating the stories, characters, and sounds for the SONA games since 2023. They record the characters’ voices in a sound studio and tour festivals as SONA performers.
The following individuals have been particularly actively involved: Renée Reinhardt, Manuel Beck, Sabine Kuxdorf, Arne Siebert, Eren Ortas, Fabio Licata, Kerstin Pöpper and Livia Hecker (all Cologne), Raphael Netolitzky (Kerpen), Vanessa Noppenberger (Leverkusen), Britta Biersch (Erftstadt), Ralf Maslak (Hürth), , Phil Hill (Marburg), Sebastian Hill (Overath), Eva Dayma (Essen), Pascal Thevapalasuntheran (Bochum), Dariusz Wagner (Hagen), Norman von der Weydt und Okan Çarpi (both Duisburg), Lucas Rosenberg (Krefeld), Camilla Moitroux-Fusshoeller (Erkelenz), Ali Yildirim (Aachen) and Claudia Elia (Hannover).