Who we Are
Sound Meetings are an open-ended, informal initiative by acte vide (Danae Stefanou and Ioannis Kotsonis). Until 2022, the initiative operated in cooperation with Syros Institute and fostered an extended network of guest artists and collaborators.
acte vide is the duo project of Danae Stefanou and Ioannis Kotsonis. Active since 2006 as an experimental & improvisatory unit, they dwell at the interstices of noise and silence in ever-changing, real-time formations, which often resist or creatively undermine documentation. The duo have created performances and installations in international and regional festivals and exhibitions (Borderline, Irtijal, Documenta, Athens Festival, TIFF and many others), as well as in DIY contexts. They have also composed live soundtracks and original sound design for a range of films, from early classics like Battleship Potemkin (Goethe Institut Athen 2016) to contemporary experimental shorts like Itys, Praxithea and Me (dir. Prokne, 2022). Their joint activity extends towards a broader range of artistic research and critical practices, through the design and realization of original curatorial and educational interventions, including the Knot Gallery sonic improvisation workshops (Athens, 2009-2014) and Sound Meetings initiative (Syros, 2011-2022).
Danae Stefanou makes improvised sounds, texts and concepts. She is Professor of Musicology and Sound Studies at the School of Music Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), where she teaches experimental and improvised music, sound studies, philosophies of sound and music, creative historiography and intermedia artistic research. Danae has led artistic research and training programs for a variety of projects and EU networks including COINVENT, Interfaces, Sounds Now, Transmissions and Music4Change, and has contributed chapters to peer reviewed volumes, including the Cambridge Companion to Film Music (CUP, 2016), Made in Greece: Studies in Greek Popular Music (Routledge, 2018), Contemporary Popular Music Studies (Springer, 2019), Music and Landscape / Soundscape and Sonic Arts (Universal Edition, 2019) and Perspectives on Greek Musical Modernism (Routledge, 2025), as well as authoring entries on several Greek musicians for Grove Music Online. She has also co-edited a special issue on Creative Conceptual Blending for Musicae Scientiae. (2018) and two collections of text and graphic scores resulting from participatory improvisation and interdisciplinary co-creation workshops (Multimodal Community Scorebook, 2022 and A Sound Sketchbook, 2025). Active as a performer since the 1990s and a founding member of Athens-based research-creation unit acte vide since 2006, she is the founder and director of σ.π.Α.Μ.* Experimental and Improvised Music Ensembles and has performed, composed and devised hundreds of independent actions and interventions in public spaces, DIY venues, arts institutions and educational settings.
Ioannis Kotsonis is a sound artist and musician based in Athens. He has composed electronic music for theatre, dance, multimedia installations, and film. He gives concerts on a regular basis, often in collaboration with other artists, and is a founding member of Athens-based research-creation unit acte vide. Ioannis has released seven solo albums and has contributed to several compilations. Since 2009 he has been active as an independent workshop, residency, and concert coordinator (Syros Sound Meetings, KNOTmusic, minor act). He has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Media Studies, Film and Philosophy, and Sound Design at the University of Wales Swansea and the University of Piraeus in Greece where he currently teaches at the Digital Cultures postgraduate program, and has organized and facilitated DIY electronics and sound art workshops for schools and local community groups around Athens in the context of ”Interfaces” and ”Sounds Now” (Creative Europe – Onassis Foundation). Ioannis has worked as artistic research associate at the ERC-CoG project ”Music, Trauma and the Ethics of Witnessing” (Hellenic National Research Foundation). He produces and hosts the ”Resonator” radio show (for Concertzender radio ) and ”Sound Unfolds” (for movement.radio) and co-hosts ”Proschedio”, a weekly Athens-based underground and experimental music internet radio show since 2014..