A big challenge in the Urbanism/Mobility sector is not anymore to reduce what we call noise but to qualify the soundscape, to shape the vibrations of urban spaces, and to design the ambiance of the city in a way that makes it enjoyable, secure, and familiar. We must consider acting on the sound of the city as a design issue applied to the most immersive “matter” in order to improve the quality of urban life. If Goethe defined music as liquid architecture, he probably meant that this is the dark matter of our urban environment that we should tame, design, and desire. ReSilence will use new technologies (AI & XR) to 1) explore the borders between noise and music in a changing world by producing an acoustic awareness in urban spaces (not only reducing the intensity of noise, but also considering it as an energy producer and designing positive sounds, sounds we want to preserve and multiply), 2) create new types of sonic urban experiences that expand possibilities for accessibility, active participation/engagement, sustainability, and social inclusion, and 3) involve and collaborate with artists in order to leverage multiple sources of inspiration, interdisciplinary collaboration, and build trust around AI & XR technologies. ReSilence will support Art-Driven Experiments (ADE) through Open Calls to artists (type a) and artist-SME teams (type b), with a specific budget allocated for this purpose. Artists in ReSilence will have access to AI and XR technology in order to reflect on novel uses and their impact on society. They will also help in ensuring that the development process and system behavior of the technologies explicitly acknowledge human values and needs.

MindSpaces aims to create a novel approach to urban and architectural design by generating 3D-VR immersive and emotion-adaptive ‘neuro-environments’ that will help in designing emotionally-relevant urban spaces. The emotional aspects of an environment will be captured through the use of mobile EEG (Elecroencephalography) headsets, wearable bracelets/watches, and other physiological sensors that will be embedded with a VR-headset, so as to allow capturing the neuro-feedback of a VR-experience. The neuro-feedback will allow the virtual space to be adapted accordingly, resulting in an emotion-adaptive space. The ‘neuro-environments’ will be used at two levels of granularity. At the first level, artists and creatives will experience the ‘neuro-environments’ with the intention to improve the emotional-relevance of the urban space through the neuro-feedback of individuals, that have very-well developed the perception of aesthetics in what refers to symmetry and harmony but also to unconventional thinking leading to unexpected solutions. At the second level, the ‘neuro-environments’ will be experienced by the potential occupants of the urban space, so as to improve the emotional-relevance of this space through the neuro-feedback of individuals that have developed through experience the perception of space usability, comfort and functionality. This will allow MindSpaces to combine the transversal competencies and unconventional thinking of Artists, with the empirical and pragmatic perception of actual occupants, so as to drive the development of unconventional and unexpected solutions in the design of urban spaces.