Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Science Meets Art: A Sonic Journey into Pain
On 11 November 2025, I had the pleasure of speaking at Otley Science Café during Otley Science Festival, alongside my colleague Nikos Stavropoulos (Professor of Music Composition, Leeds School of Arts). Our talk, Beyond the Notes: Exploring Pain and Suffering Through Spatial Acousmatic Music, asked a simple but powerful question: What happens when we start listening differently?
Acousmatic music is fascinating because it breaks away from the traditional 'instrumental music paradigm'. The sounds you hear are detached from their source - they float free, creating a space where listening becomes an act of curiosity. Drawing on Novalis, the German Romantic poet who believed art could make the familiar strange and the strange familiar, we explored how this approach might transform our understanding of pain and suffering.
In fact, we've just published a perspective article in Frontiers in Pain Research that lays out this premise in detail. We argue that engaging with acousmatic music can help people articulate and reframe their experiences of pain, evoke memories, and even alleviate distress. It's about opening new ways to express somatic, emotional, and cognitive experiences.
The periphonic (full 3D) ambisonics studio at Leeds Beckett University.
Professor Mark Johnson
Mark Johnson is Professor of Pain and Analgesia. Mark is an international expert on the science of pain and its management and the world leader on transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). He has published over 300 peer reviewed articles.
