Listening to Waterbodies in East London
@ NIME 2026

This full-day workshop (or walkshop), aims to foster horizontal human-river-technology relationships alongside the Lee Navigation in East London, at the venue of the New Interfaces for Musical Expression Conference (NIME) 2026.

We will explore together how sonic practices in sounding, listening, and recording shape our sensory experiences and relationships to waterbodies and ecological factors. Together, we’ll foster ecological sensibilities based on listening and care and connect these sensibilities to a broader discussion about urbanised waterbodies and how sound and sonic technologies shape our relationship to them.

Together, we’ll create narrative accounts about how and what we have discovered, shared, and or engaged with when listening to the river. We’ll will promote a collective listening walk alongside the Lee Navigation canal as it moves towards its reunification with the rest of the River Lea, where we end our walk. Working in small groups, we’ll explore critical ecological themes and create, capture, and attune to sonic experiences of this waterbody in London.