Paul Oomen

Paul Oomen, born 1983 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is a sound researcher, composer, curator, inventor, and writer.

From an early age he gathered experience in theatre as an actor and director, and as a musician trained in percussion, piano and singing. Oomen holds an MA with Honours in Music Composition from the Conservatory of Amsterdam and Universität der Künste Berlin. After an early start as a composer of music for theatre and opera, his work of the past ten years has been increasingly dedicated to fundamental research on the relationship of sound, space and perception.

Paul Oomen is the Founder of 4DSOUND, a software development company that has been pioneering new technological paradigms for spatial sound reproduction and synthesis. He has been Director and Head of Development of the company from 2007 until 2020. In 2015, he founded the Spatial Sound Institute in Budapest, Hungary. In his role as Head of Development and Curation at the Spatial Sound Institute, he has fostered and driven the development of emerging artistic practices with spatial sound as a new medium. Since 2020, he is heading the R&D team at The Works Research Institute, a laboratory co-founded by Oomen, dedicated to scientific research on the potential effects of sound on human wellbeing, biodiversity, biotransformation and more.

To date, he has produced and curated over a hundred spatial sound performances, installations and exhibitions worldwide, in collaboration with numerous internationally acclaimed artists, festivals and institutions. He has contributed to more than twenty-five publications and features in over a dozen documentaries and films, covering a wide range of subjects relating to the technical, philosophical, and experiential dimensions of sound. His curatorial consistently propagates the fundamental importance of listening and proposes new forms of experiencing sound - such as through architecture, meditation, participative theatre and collective dreamstate. His work unveils the potential of spatial sound as a medium with significant impact on various fields in society, such as music & performing arts, architecture & public space, healthcare & wellness, consciousness studies and augmented & virtual reality.

Paul Oomen lives and works in Budapest, Hungary.