Sound Exchange is an international creative audio project bringing together blind and visually impaired young adults in New York City and Rome through listening, recording, storytelling, and creative exchange.

The Idea

Six young adults, three in New York City and three in Rome, participate in a six-month creative exchange. Using accessible recording technology, participants capture their voices, homes, neighborhoods, journeys, and everyday environments and share selected recordings across the Atlantic.

The project begins with simple acts of listening and recording. As participants become more comfortable with the technology and with one another, those recordings become introductions to their lives, their surroundings, and the ways they experience place.

Listening as Connection

Sound Exchange is not simply an exchange of audio files. Participants listen to material created by their partners in another city and respond through questions, observations, stories, and new recordings. Over time, sound becomes a way of discovering another person's experience and building a relationship across language, culture, and distance.

The Creative Process

The creative process develops gradually, moving from individual exploration toward conversation and collaboration. Participants work with voice, environmental sound, memory, movement, sensory description, and storytelling while leaving room for their own interests and discoveries to shape the exchange.

VOICE  →  HOME  →  NEIGHBORHOOD  →  JOURNEY  →  EXCHANGE  →  COLLABORATION

As relationships and material develop, recordings from New York and Rome begin to inform one another and eventually contribute to a shared audio composition. The process concludes with reflection and a public listening experience that brings together the voices, soundscapes, stories, and discoveries created during the exchange.

The Pilot: New York + Rome

The first Sound Exchange is being developed as a six-month pilot connecting blind and visually impaired young adults in New York City and Rome. Braman Arts is working with advisors and exploring partnerships with organizations experienced in serving blind and visually impaired people in both cities.

The pilot is intended not only to produce creative audio work, but to explore how accessible recording technology, attentive listening, and artistic exchange can foster confidence, independence, curiosity, storytelling, and meaningful cross-cultural relationships.

A Project of Braman Arts

Sound Exchange builds on Braman Arts’ longstanding commitment to arts education and creative participation while extending that work across cities, cultures, and borders.