Sláinte
A sonic essay: past, me, walls, marches, murals, present, fire, mishaps, missteps, politics, art, cráic, others and future. Northern Ireland. Most recordings produced between 2009–2015.
Rui Chaves
Researcher · Artist · Educator
Research and artistic work on Brazilian sound art, experimental music, and the politics of listening. Based in Lisbon.
Bio
Rui Chaves is a researcher at INET-md — Instituto de Etnomusicologia, Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança (NOVA FCSH, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa), where he holds an FCT CEEC individual research position. His work examines sound practices as political gestures in the present, with a focus on Brazilian sound art and experimental music.
He holds a PhD in Music (Sonic Arts) from Queen's University Belfast (2013), with the thesis Performing sound in place: field recording, walking and mobile transmission, and completed postdoctoral research at the Núcleo de Pesquisas em Sonologia (NuSom), Universidade de São Paulo (FAPESP, 2015–2018), where he developed Nendú, a possible archive of Brazilian sound art. From 2020 to 2024 he was Visiting Professor at the Universidade Federal da Paraíba.
He is currently Invited Associate Professor at Universidade Lusófona, where he teaches sound composition and sound/music interface, and coordinates Berro, a label for sound art and experimental Brazilian music. He is co-editor of Making It Heard: A History of Brazilian Sound Art (Bloomsbury) and Em Alto e Bom Som: Uma História da Arte Sonora Brasileira (EDUSP).
Revolutions per Minute: Finding Utopia(s) in Brazilian Sound Art
Current funded project (FCT CEEC, ref. 2024.07928.CEECIND, 2026–). RPM investigates Brazilian sound practices as forms of political action in the present — approaching utopia not as a deferred ideal but as something enacted now, in specific material conditions.
Ongoing strands include fieldwork with artists and collectives in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the audiovisual essay Insurreições Sonoras, and a monograph in development on Brazilian sound art.
Previous research includes the postdoctoral project Nendú: a possible archive of Brazilian sound art (NuSom–USP / FAPESP, 2015–2018) and the doctoral project Performing sound in place: field recording, walking and mobile transmission (Queen's University Belfast / FCT, 2009–2013).
Composition5 works
Paraty (The Recordings Are Inside)
A book and album project that works as a manual contextualizing the presentation of field recordings: autobiographical accounts and performative instructions prompt the reader/listener to engage with their everyday surroundings — attempting to transform the reader into a field recordist. Limited edition; binaural recordings. Design by Ana Catarina Mealha Guerreiro.
Untitled
Piece presented at an event dedicated to showcasing works that utilized samples from a sound library developed by researcher Paul Stapleton.
Audiovisual6 works
Estrilho
Examines how the pandemic altered our sonic environments and perceptions. Created with Lilian Nakahodo. Presented at the 2021 *TOPYA Festival (Berlin).
Humour(s)
Series of audio-visual essays made on occasion for a postgraduate course focusing on sound art.
IWSTO — I walk in the sand towards the ocean
The title delineates the core action of the piece: an audiovisual interplay in which visual composition and microphone position emphasise the sonic effect of walking in sand, and a body moving through landscape becomes a reflection on human agency, presence and place-mediation in field recording. Presented at FACA 2014 (Lisbon) and featured on the Sounds of Europe platform.
Chasing ∞
A visual diptych presenting a recordist "capturing" wind with an electric guitar at sunrise and sunset. The looping of this action constructs a reflective metaphor on the field recordist's presence and movement in the "infinite" search for a sound. Made in collaboration with Matilde Meireles; presented at Sonorities 'Beyond Soundscape' (Belfast) at the Ulster Museum.
Radio // Web // Networked Art8 works
MSSãoPaulo — Missiva de São Paulo
Presented at Rádio Castrense as part of the Atalaia Artes Festival 2015.
Belfast Sound Map
Designed by Pedro Rebelo, Rui Chaves, Matilde Meireles and Aoghus McEvoy in collaboration with Max Stein; maintained by the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen's University Belfast. First exhibited at the Metropolitan Arts Centre (MAC) in 2012 within the Sounds of the City project. Made possible with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
nochordsattached
A site-specific piece exploring physical, temporal and poetic strategies between two mobile remote performers and a pianist in a conventional performance space — incorporating network latencies, resonating acoustics and mobile communications so that places poetically blend into each other. With Unlikely Places (Diogo Alvim, Eduardo Patrício, Pedro Rebelo, Rui Chaves). Performed at ICMC 2012, Spanski Borci (Ljubljana).
Paulista
A networked performance connecting an everyday urban place — Avenida Paulista, live-broadcast by a remote performer — to two concert halls, articulating sonic actions, the performer's location, and a live webcam feed into an ambiguous performer presence. Belfast becomes the network renderer for a performance presented in São Paulo. With Felipe Hickmann. Sonic Arts Research Centre (Belfast) / LAMI–USP (São Paulo).
Liveshout
A mobile streaming app for single or simultaneous multi-user broadcast, built on Icecast streaming technology and designed for locative media, sound and transmission art practitioners as well as amateur broadcasters. With Pedro Rebelo, Nial Kelly and Chris McClellan.
wewalktogether (WWTO)
A live and simultaneous walk by three performers in three different cities, coordinated through timed exploratory instructions prompting sonic and textual engagement with space — each remote broadcast diffused separately over a multichannel system, using liveshout, a custom mobile broadcast application. Presented during the 2010 Sonorities Festival at Platform Arts (Belfast). Performers: Nadine Kroher (Graz), Xiaong Xin (Hamburg) and Caroline Pugh (Belfast).
Left+Right
Walking, choreography and improvisation construct a stereo metaphor inspired by the technical limitations of liveshout and smartphone technology: two performers simultaneously broadcasting audio from overlapping journeys across Belfast, shaped by real-time decisions transmitted through a mobile, multi-vocal ecological network. With Paul Stapleton. Presented in radiofutura, Future Places digital arts festival (2010).
Show 178 — Lisboa
Presented at the RADIA FM initiative: a network of European radio stations dedicated to promoting experimental radio works.
Performance // Public Art11 works
Voicing(s)
Mixed-media work created with Lilian Nakahodo. Presented at the Dystopie Sound Art Festival (Berlin), with the support of the Goethe-Institut.
Passeio Sonoro da Ernestina
Sound walk / performance with Luz Camara, presented at Pedras'19 (Lisbon), with the support of Câmara Municipal de Lisboa.
Do Paço ao Olho
Performance with Lílian Nakahodo, presented in Curitiba (Brazil).
Lar, doce Lar / Direito ao Tédio
Performance/installation with Luz Camara, Ana Estevens and Carlos Lima, presented at Festival Atalaia Artes Performativas (Ourique), with the support of DGArtes.
Escuta, anda e escreve / Música 11
Performance presented at Estúdio Fita-Crepe (São Paulo).
Keep an ear to the ground
Performance with Diogo Alvim and Eduardo Patrício, presented at Invisible Places — Sound, Urbanism and Sense of Place (Viseu).
Come Across
A process-based piece for the experiential documentation (field recording, photography, video and text) of an area, and the presentation of that action in performance. Individual explorations are framed by a group-recording dynamic in which encounters between performers are determined by branching points and chance operations — the flip of a coin. With Unlikely Places (Diogo Alvim, Eduardo Patrício, Rui Chaves). Presented at Global Composition 2012 (Darmstadt), the Lisbon Triennial of Architecture (2013) and Sonorities 2013 (Belfast).
intoaforeignplace
A site-specific, one-to-one performance built around a fascination with the sonic and visual characteristics of a South Belfast area leading to a BMX track. An advance invitation and questionnaire — asking what makes "a person" strange to someone — turns each performance into a unique event, alluding to the connection between being "strange" with someone and being "foreign" in a place. Presented October 2011 – November 2012.
WalkWithMe
A guided tour/soundwalk for a stretch of the Lagan footpath in Belfast, made for audience members carrying an MP3 player and headphones. The piece explores the ambiguity and uncanniness of binaural recording between audience and site, with the guide's movement — culminating in entering the river — signaling a ritual that accompanies the appearance of a voice tracing desire and love. Presented to various groups, June–September 2010.
Ao fim, ao cabo e ao resto
Performance with Luz Camara, presented at Festival Pedras d'Água 2008.
Blackheart
Presented at the Black Heart mountain reserve near Belfast. Each performer carried a cassette player (with built-in speaker) with one part of a 12-track performance audio-tour.
Metro
Baixa-Chiado subway station, Lisbon. Presented at Festival Pedras d'Água 2007. Rui Chaves and Mara Alves.
Print3 works
Trovador
Short story published in Periódico Periódico (ed. Daniela Avelar), pp. 35–42. Rio de Janeiro.
32 instruções para escutar (n)a pandemia
An event-score book featuring works by 32 Brazilian artists. Curated by Rui Chaves and Fernando Iazzetta.
Five Places
A sound installation — five postcards with text and image spread across five tables — resulting from a community project with two intergenerational groups (Dee Street Community Centre, East Belfast; Tar Isteach, North Belfast). Volunteer participants were taken to their "favourite place" for individual field-recording sessions, sharing and discussing the experience and memory of recording. Commissioned by the MAC (Belfast) for Sounds of the City (2012); also shown at Espaço Ecco, Brasília (2013). With Aonghus McEvoy, Matilde Meireles and Pedro Rebelo.
Curatorial1 work
O tempo entre uma ação e outra
A field-recording compilation created out of the necessity to present the work of Brazilian artists dealing, through diverse approaches, with recording and being in the "field". Concept and curation by Rui Chaves and Paulo Dantas.
Edited books
Chaves, R., & Iazzetta, F. (Eds.). (2024). Em alto e bom som: Uma história da arte sonora brasileira. EDUSP.
Chaves, R., & Iazzetta, F. (Eds.). (2021). 32 instruções para escutar (n)a pandemia. Berro.
Chaves, R., & Iazzetta, F. (Eds.). (2019). Making it heard: A history of Brazilian sound art. Bloomsbury Academic.
Chaves, R., Campesato, L., & Iazzetta, F. (Eds.). (2017). Sonologia 2016 — Out of phase: Proceedings of the International Conference on Sound Studies. NuSom, Universidade de São Paulo.
Edited journal issues
Chaves, R., & Oliveira, P. (Eds.). (2023). Escutas futuras [Special issue]. Revista Música, 23(2).
Chaves, R., Campesato, L., & Iazzetta, F. (Eds.). (2018). Out of phase [Special issue]. Interference: A Journal of Audio Cultures, 6.
Journal articles
Savasta, M., Varchausky, N., & Chaves, R. (2022). La escucha situada. Sonic Ideas, 1(26), 73–87.
Chaves, R., Patrício, E., Romero, L., Nakahodo, L., & Camara, L. (2021). We walk together (2020). Revista Vórtex, 9(2), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.33871/23179937.2021.9.2.8
Chaves, R., & Aragão, T. A. (2021). Localising acoustic ecology: A critique towards a relational collaborative paradigm. Organised Sound, 26(2), 190–200. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355771821000236
Chaves, R., & De Michelis, V. (2020). As micro-utopias de Vanessa De Michelis: Território(s) de experimentação sonoro-político para a inclusão e colaboração. RELACult — Revista Latino-Americana de Estudos em Cultura e Sociedade, 6(1).
Chaves, R. (2019). Walking alongside me: Listening, moving, performing and mapping the everyday. Debates — Cadernos do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Música, 23.
Hickmann, F., & Chaves, R. (2014). A window in between: Mediation strategies in networked sonic arts. Interference: A Journal of Audio Culture, 4.
Hickmann, F., & Chaves, R. (2012). Paulista: A networked translocal sonic performance between São Paulo and Belfast. Technoetic Arts, 10(2–3), 319–327. https://doi.org/10.1386/tear.10.2-3.319_1
Chaves, R., & Rebelo, P. (2012). Evocative listening: Mediated practices in everyday life. Organised Sound, 17(3), 216–222. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355771811000410
Chaves, R., & Rebelo, P. (2011). Sensing shared places: Designing a mobile audio streaming environment. Body, Space & Technology, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.16995/bst.85
Book chapters
Chaves, R. (2024). Fazendo-se ouvir em público, na arte e nos estudos do som. In R. Chaves & F. Iazzetta (Eds.), Em alto e bom som: Uma história da arte sonora brasileira. EDUSP.
Chaves, R. (2024). Canções sobre um dia-a-dia qualquer. In F. Iazzetta (Ed.), Culturas sonoras. Berro.
Chaves, R. (2021). 32 instrucciones para escuchar con/en una epidemia global. In A. L. Cárdenas (Ed.), Border-listening/Escucha-liminal (pp. 147–161). Radical Sounds Latin America.
Chaves, R. (2019). Making oneself heard in public, through art and in sound-based scholarship. In R. Chaves & F. Iazzetta (Eds.), Making it heard: A history of Brazilian sound art. Bloomsbury Academic.
Selected audio & video
Estrilho (2021) — with Lilian Nakahodo
Sláinte (2022) — Berro Records, BRR009
For research, commissions, editions, or teaching: