The 14th edition of Sónar’s innovation and digital culture lab, Sónar+D, takes over the historic Llotja de Mar with two days of talks, workshops, performances, exhibitions, community takeovers, and interactive installations. Organised around three core themes–“AI & Music”, “Beyond the Screen”, and “Digital Gardens and Dark Forests”–the programme invites audiences to move from passive consumption of technology toward active, critical engagement with it.
Sónar+D 2026 positions Barcelona’s Llotja de Mar as a temporary lab for new ways of relating to technology, treating culture and tech as forces that actively shape everyday life rather than as neutral tools or entertainment. Across the building’s redesigned stages and spaces–Stage+D, Àgora+D, Pati+D, Expo+D and Room+D–Sónar+D dissolves boundaries between conference, exhibition, and performance, combining lectures, panels, workshops, community programmes, and experimental live shows into a festival‑like environment.
The AI & Music programme powered by S+T+ARTS focuses on a “post‑AI” landscape, with concerts, talks, and a hacklab featuring figures such as Ignasi Terraza & Philippe Salembier (Piano & AI), Dadabots, François Pachet, Nao Tokui, Anna Xambó, Rob Clouth, and others, who probe how musicians and researchers adapt as AI tools become second nature.
“Beyond the Screen” gathers artists including niceaunties, Keiken, Mónica Rikić, Internet2, desilence, Eneritz Tejada, Roxanne Harris and Outer, reintroducing physicality, robotics, live coding, and wearable tech into digital practices and questioning the dominance of the flat screen.
Under “Digital Gardens and Dark Forests”, speakers like Yancey Strickler, Joana Moll, Mindy Seu, Chia Amisola, Mario Santamaría, Eugene Healey, 0xSalon and others explore alternative futures for the web, from handmade and community‑driven spaces to critiques of metrics‑driven social media and corporate surveillance. Experimental performances by Evicshen, Fitnesss & Riusforza, Shoeg, Dadabots and others punctuate the days, while the expanded Expo+D exhibition hosts installations by Arts Korea Lab, Superbe (From0), Volvox Labs (Astral Twin), AUSGANG studio and more, including new digital works at Fira Gran Via that link Sónar+D to Sónar 2026.
