About
Aaron Dees is a researcher and multimedia artist based in Ireland and London. His practice involves making interconnected visual, spatial and sonic works that engage with sound, data, and digital processes to explore how living systems are mediated through technology.
He is currently a PhD candidate at TU Dublin and co-director of Old Barracks Studios & Gallery, Ballyshannon, Donegal.
More information on research can be seen below and projects can be found here.
Thanks for visiting.
Exhibitions / Awards
- 2025 How to Break a Broken Cistem, Group Exhibtion, PADA Gallery, Portugal.
- 2025 PADA 49 International Residency, Barreiro, Portugal.
- 2024 Research Residency, Ircam, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
- 2024 Hivernal, Group Exhibition, Roscommon Arts Centre, Ireland.
- 2024 Donegal Artist Bursary, Donegal County Council.
- 2023 In-formation, Solo Exhibition, Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland.
- 2023 Agility Award, Arts Council of Ireland.
- 2023 LSC Exhibtion Residency, Manorhamilton, Ireland.
Workshops & Talks
- 2025 Generative Latent Spaces of Audio Textures, DAFx, Ancona, Italy.
- 2025 Audio Texture Synthesis Talk, Ircam, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
- 2025 Creative Coding Workshop, Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland.
- 2024 Data to Art Workshop, FABLAB & Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland.
Research
I am interested in how digital mediation reshapes the act of listening. As encounters with the environment increasingly occur through technological systems, I am interested in what it means to hear the world around us when sound is filtered, processed, and reconstructed, challenging distinctions between natural and artificial listening.
Research Interests
- Field recording and soundscape studies
- Sound perception, memory, and place
- Digital mediation and audio synthesis
- Interactive systems for sound and installation
PhD Project
I am currently a PhD candidate at TU Dublin, working at the intersection of field recording and digital audio synthesis. My research develops new methods and systems for interacting with environmental recordings. The project produces both technical and artistic knowledge: new ways of modelling and manipulating environmental sound, and new forms of listening that blur the boundaries between natural sound, music, and artificial systems.
My current work focuses on neural audio codecs, typically used for compression, and investigates how their learned latent representations can instead be shaped and navigated as creative spaces for sound synthesis and transformation.
These ideas are realised through software prototypes and evolving sonic environments, demonstrating how environmental audio can be reconfigured as an interactive and continuously changing medium.
I am open to collaborations exploring these themes and related areas - please get in touch if you are interested in working together.
Publications
- 2025 Generative Latent Spaces for Neural Snythesis of Audio Textures, DAFx25, Ancona, Italy