Sonic Futures: Talk with MoMA artist on her Audiovisual Research "Preemptive Listening"

In the search of different mediums of speculative design focused on worldbuilding and future imaginings, I encountered the work of Dr. Aura Satz during the CPH:DOX documentary festival in Copenhagen in March 2024. I had the privilege of meeting Satz personally at the festival, where her film Preemptive Listening was featured as part of the Nature:Science accreditation class, which I attended for a week. Alongside my classmates, I had the rare chance to view the film a day before its European premiere, in an intimate setting that allowed for a private screening and an in-depth discussion with the director herself. During this conversation, Satz shared insights into the seven-year journey of creating the film and the extensive design and ethnographic research that underpinned it. I also presented my thesis to her and requested her contribution to my research through a detailed, semi-structured interview. 

Consequently, this case study analysis is deeply informed by my direct experience of the film, the meaningful dialogue with both the audience and Satz, and the valuable perspectives she provided during our interview. The convergence of speculative design and the insights from the interview offers a unique depth to this study, connecting critical themes such as the role of sound in art and design, the speculative process, and the political dimensions of sound that explore concepts of hope, fear, and the future.

Case Study Analysis of Preemptive Listening and Interview with Dr. Aura Satz

Dr. Aura Satz is an artist and tutor at Royal College of Art in London, teaching the class of Contemporary Art Practice to Master’s students. Her vast academic background which started in 2002, combined with her artistic practice with sound, sculpture, performance, and film, made her an incredible character to interview as the discussion expanded thoroughly, yet remained within the theme of climate futures. Preemptive Listening has gained significant international attention since its release in February, being featured at several prestigious events and festivals. The film had the world premiere at MoMA's annual international festival of nonfiction film, Doc Fortnight 2024 in New York where it was officially selected for the award, and it also won the New:Vision Award at the 2024 CPH:DOX festival in Copenhagen where it had the European premiere. It was additionally officially selected for the International Feature Dox Competition at DokuFest in Prishtina and at the Open City Documentary Festival in London. The UK premiere took place at TATE Modern, accompanied by a three-day program that included musician and artist-led performances, talks, and a symposium centered on the film. Additionally, Preemptive Listening has been screened at numerous festivals across Switzerland, Poland, and Greece, among others. In my opinion, it stands as an important example of the kind of work that is highly valued in today's art community, and what I would put under the umbrella of design fiction following the general definitions provided by Dune and Raby (2013).

Preemptive Listening" is more than just a docu-fiction film; it is an immersive and speculative exploration into the role of sound, particularly sirens, in shaping our understanding of emergencies and the futures we face. By selecting over 20 sound artists, Satz created a tapestry of sounds that challenge the traditional notions of alarms and warnings. In February 2024, during an interview with Tendai John Mutambu for the Ocult Magazine Satz beautifully explains what the film is about in one simple sentence: “The film is a prompt, an invitation to recalibrate what we understand as worthy of attention - a score for listening with the future in mind.”.

Reflecting on that, and other interviews of Satz such as for the MoMA Magazine, a siren does always ask for our attention, but in the case of Preemptive Listening it serves as a prompt or a score, to reimagine its function - moving away from their traumatic and anxiety-inducing associations toward something that could potentially be nurturing or inviting for a positive environmental change (Cavoulacos, 2024). 

Although often categorized as a documentary, Preemptive Listening blends fact and fiction. The documentary aspect emerges through drone-captured landscapes and interviews with six notable figures—Khalid Abdalla (actor and activist in the Arab Spring), Daphne Carr (organizer and scholar on Police Sound), Asantewaa Boykin and Niki Jones (co-founders of Mental Health First), Erin Matariki Carr (lawyer and co-lead for RIVER), and Arturo Escobar (anthropologist and environmental philosopher)—who discuss environmental and socio-political issues and their connection to sirens. Meanwhile, the 20 speculative siren sounds commissioned for the film belong to a “distant future” and remain fictitious creations of sound artists for a timeline yet to come. This approach aligns with the broader fields of speculative design and experiential futures, where the aim is not just to predict the future but to shape it by challenging the status quo and proposing alternative realities. In between the interviews that are featured in the film, these speculative sirens are at the heart of the narrative, immersing the audience in extended sequences where the visuals consist solely of aerial shots of landscapes or sirens, accompanied by the soundtracks, all without the need for narration. The landscapes themselves, ranging from massive fields of trash to abandoned nuclear power plants and solar fields, visually echo the stories and ideas shared by the interviewees, reflecting the current state of our ecology. While the shots that highlight the sirens as designed objects bring new light to the often-overlooked details of their physical structures, even visually anthropomorphizing them into distinct characters.

The blurred line between the fictious and non-fictous nature of the film is further emphasized by how segments of the project have been presented as media artworks in galleries and on stages. These presentations incorporate videos of striking drone imagery, installations of pulsating lights and siren sounds, and live performances featuring Aura Satz alongside the sound artists involved in the film. Preemptive Listening fluidly transitions between the popular domain of cinema and the more exclusive environment of contemporary art galleries, challenging conventional boundaries of both presentation and audience perception.

Inside the walls of an art gallery, Prof. Jason van Eyk points out that curating sound art requires a reimagining of the exhibition space itself, as sound is inherently uncontrollable and fluid (Van Eyk, 2018). Similarly, in a gallery, snippets of Preemptive Listening transforms into something more participatory and chaotic, where sirens overlap, creating a dissonance that is both intriguing and unsettling. In contrast to the immersive, focused experience of the cinema space, where sound is tightly synchronized with visuals, the gallery setting allows for a more fragmented engagement. On the other hand, reflecting on the aspect of sound art curation, Miriama Young, the Head of Comporistion at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music expresses that when it is presented as an ubiquitous medium, it can further complicate the curation process. She argues that sound art, especially when mediated through portable devices like earbuds, can create intimate, personal experiences that blur the lines between public and private spaces (Young, 2016). Although there are no such devices present at the presentation of this film, the immersive visual and sonic narrative of the film naturally invites the audience into extended periods of silent listening, where the sounds and hypnotic visuals draw viewers into a shared yet deeply personal experience. The nature of the cinema space, where silence is maintained, fosters a sense of privacy, yet togethernes during these immersive minutes of the film. This thoughtful placement of sounds of sirens, narration, and silence, together with the impactful imagery, elevates the film to a highly artistic level.

If each listener’s experience is uniquely shaped by the physical context they’re in, can this film also represent a metaphor for the personalized, often isolated ways we approach the future based on our environment? And if so, what does this mean for collective futures, where shared experiences and responses are necessary? Maybe the answer lies on finding patterns and understanding the common wants and needs that are universal across the globe. The way that the sirens were imagined and composed for this film, reveal this answer too. 

The Collaborative Process Of Imagining Sirens Of The Future

The speculative sirens crafted by various sound artists in Preemtive Listening do more than alert - they provoke, question, and unsettle our assumptions about what warnings should sound like, and even what futures we should be preparing for. During our interview, Satz explained that the sound artists involved in the project were given the freedom to imagine sirens that do not necessarily resemble traditional alarms. Satz provided guidelines that were intentionally open-ended, allowing for creative freedom and speculative exploration. Rather than issuing strict instructions, she presented them with three key principles to guide their work which also help us understand the process of designing speculative sirens:

1. Reimagining the Siren: The artists were encouraged to create a siren that does not conform to traditional expectations. It could be a soundscape or any auditory form that breaks away from the conventional anxious sounds.

2. Considering the immediate, the future, and the deep future: The artists were asked to consider the lifetime of their compositions as something that could be applied to the society now, but also potentially be present as far as possible into the future. This temporal flexibility was designed to resonate with the various future scenarios conveyed by the compositions' emotive tones—ranging from frightening to calming, inspiring to melancholic.

3. Connecting with Earth and Nature: The artists were also urged to root their creations in the natural world. By considering the environment and non-human entities, the artists were tasked with expanding the concept of the siren to speak not just to human emergencies but also to ecological and planetary concerns.

In our interview Satz reveals that initially she reached out to around ten artists whose work resonated with the her musical preferences - whether due to their use of particular instruments, vocal styles, or conceptual approaches. Each artist typically submitted three versions of their work, allowing for a range of interpretations that were either used throughout different parts of the film, or only one was selected. 

While Satz did not explicitly instruct the artists to avoid intense or alarming sounds as it was important to keep their original perspective on the future, she did guide the project’s final stages by balancing the variety of sirens. As the project evolved from a sound art experiment into a film with visual and narrative elements, she recognized the need to combine the more jarring contributions with calmer sounds, ensuring a well-digestible and meditative experience for the audience. This shift was less about direct instruction and more about responding to the natural progression of the project.

The project included contributions from highly appraised artists, among which are the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon, and musicians Kode 9, Sarah Davachi, Mazen Kerbaj, Elaine Mitchener, Moor Mother, Camille Norment, Laurie Spiegel, David Toop and FUJI|||||||||||TA.

The interview with Ocult Magazine highlights how Satz’s collaboration with 20 artists allowed the film’s narrative to remain fluid over the years, enabling different elements to evolve or alter the storyline. This dynamic approach began with the 2017 project Preemptive Listening (part 1: The Fork in the Road), initially a standalone 9-minute short film. Satz had invited several musicians to compose new siren sounds, and The Fork in the Road featured a siren composed by a jazz trumpeter from Lebanon, Mazen Kerbaj, and an interview with an actor, and activist in the Arab Spring, Khalid Abdalla from the UK. Mazen Kerbaj’s piece Starry Night, was a combination of the Israeli air force bombing sounds during the 2006 Lebanon War, with Kerbaj’s trumpet sounds, recorded at the same time from his own balcony in Beirut. He employed his "prepared trumpet" technique, which involved spinning the trumpet around as he played, creating a centrifugal sound. Satz talks about this work as an extraordinary submission that reshaped her path with the project. She describes it as “defiant, rousing and centrifugal” - pulling the listeners in, and then upwards like a “clarion call”. By embodying a sense of urgency, the siren, in this context, acts as a public address system that doesn’t just broadcast but also cultivates a public by gathering to take action.

 The collaboration with Khalid Abdalla came about serendipitously, when Abdalla, of ethnically Egyptian descent, shared a personal account of his experiences during the Arab Spring. To Satz, his words were full of trauma yet tinged with hope, and so poetically articulated that they became the backbone of her project. The synergy between Kerbaj’s hauntingly defiant sound and Abdalla’s evocative narration established a foundational tone for the film, exploring the concept of the alarm - a word derived from "all'arme," meaning "a call to arms" (Satz, 2024, as cited in Ocula Magazine). Therefore, Preemptive Listening seeks to challenge this traditional interpretation of alarms as merely signals of impending violence or danger. Instead, it invites the audience to imagine sirens as calls to something different, a possibility of change or action that is not rooted in fear but in hope, connection, and new possibilities.

While these were the beginnings of the concept of the film, the actual opening soundtrack was composed by Laurie Spiegel, an American composer and electronic music artist whose work was featured on the Voyager Golden Record sent to space in 1977 - a 10-minute song entitled “Harmony of the Worlds”. This song was based on Johannes Kepler’s book and theory of the mathematical and musical harmony present between all frequencies produced by celestial bodies - Harmonices Mundi (Spiegel, 2012). Similarly for Preemptive Listening, she merged the frequency data of the planets of the solar system and translated them into the sound of the first siren of the film. As a second submission to the film, Spiegel combined animal sounds, including recordings of endangered species, with electronic tunes, which were used in the middle of the film, as Satz reveals during our interview.

On the other hand, the closing soundtrack of the film is a translation of Earth’s electromagnetic field data into a sine wave shepard tone, composed by the electronic music artist and DJ - Kode 9. The selection of the opening and closing sirens of the film, also represents a journey that begins from the vast astronomical space, and moves to the internal core of Earth, and inherently of us, - Satz points out in the interview, which was a quite similar approach as the telescope one introduced earlier in the thesis by Papanek. These carefully selected sirens for specific points of the timeline of the film, go beyond the visual or narrative alignment, and represents a meaning rather invisible to the audience. It reflects Satz’s motive to conceptually link elements together in the film, is not very similar to the practice of scriptwritting as there are no events happening in the film, but but rather similar to the act of curating.

The apparent interest of artists to approach the challenge at hand by bringing the sounds of nature to the front, either in the form of spacial sounds, or in that of living beings, showed a recognizable trend and pattern in collectively imagining the future, without knowing what the other is imagining. For example, FUJI||||||||||TA recorded 30 different species of insects and bats, while David Toop recorded natural sounds of fire, with its sparks and smoke. By incorporating sounds that mimic or respond to natural elements, the speculative sirens in the film invite us to listen not just to the immediate dangers posed to humans but to the broader ecological threats that often go unnoticed. They support one of the guiding principles behind Satz’s project, the concept of “kincentricity”, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of all living things. This perspective is elaborated further in the film during the interview with Erin Matariki Carr, the co-lead of RIVER, an organisation that deals with the heritage and perseverance of Indigenous people and environmental governance. It challenges the anthropocentric view that places human needs and desires above those of other species and the environment, and therefore of the sound design of the future siren that should be effective for humans and non-humans too (RIVER, n.d.). This approach is particularly relevant in the context of climate change and other environmental crises. As Satz and her collaborators suggest, the sirens of the future should not only warn us of imminent threats, which are often us, humans,  but also guide us toward a more sustainable and harmonious relationship with Earth. 

Controversally, there are parts of the film, where the uncomfortable silence becomes a siren too. In one of the most powerful scenes, a matriarchial tribe stands determined in front of the police to protest and protect a natural source of water from being destroyed. During this act, they don’t say a single word. The use of silence as a form of alarm subverts the traditional notion of a siren as a loud, attention-grabbing sound, instead suggesting that sometimes the most powerful warning might be the absence of sound. This speculative and political approach to silence as a siren invites the audience to consider the power of quiet resistance and the ways in which we might rethink our responses to crises.

Satz’s collaboration with sound artists from diverse backgrounds highlights the importance of collective imagination in speculative design, which has also been pointed out in Hafner’s methodology of collaborative foresights, as well as the diverse set of phobias and social issues present at Anti-Furniture. In the context of futures studies, this collaborative approach is crucial, as futures are not created in isolation but are as the result of collective action and imagination. By involving a diverse group of artists in the creation of speculative sirens, Satz provides a reflection of the collective imagination across the globe. 

Sounds of Sirens as Speculative Design

Sound, as a medium for creating experiential futures, occupies a paradoxical space within the arts. On one hand, it is omnipresent, influencing our emotions and behaviors in profound ways, yet on the other, it is often relegated to a secondary role, overshadowed by visual or textual elements. Aura Satz’s Preemptive Listening challenges this oversight, positioning sound not as a mere backdrop but as the primary means through which audiences engage with speculative futures.

In speculative design, the purpose is not to provide immediate solutions but to stimulate thought, provoke debate, and encourage reflection on the possible futures we might encounter. Similarly, Satz’s film invites the audience to reconsider the purpose and emotional impact of sirens in our lives, and therefore to redesign them.

Traditionally, sirens are efficiently designed to elicit a sense of urgency and fear, driving immediate action. And that usually works. However, if we are so accustomed to expect hearing sirens in the case of emergencies or danger, shouldn’t we be hearing a siren all the time for the state of emergency that our planet is in right now? Could an alarm remind us to take urgent action against the rising temperatures threatening to disrupt all of Earth’s ecosystems? These thought-provoking questions are woven into the film through interviews and Satz’s own reflective narration. As she poignantly states,”We are living in a tempo of emergency caught in the rhythm of the everyday." (Satz, 2024). Though this is a terrifying fact, and some proposed siren sounds in the film do provoke feelings of discomfort, Satz, tries to challenges this attitude by proposing sounds that could evoke a different range of emotions and responses - those of care, awareness, and proactive engagement with the environment. Somewhat enjoyable sirens that remind us to build a better future. 

During our interview, Satz cleverly points out that sirens are also designed to evoke a feeling of hope. That is hope of survival in the next 5, 10, or 30 minutes, depending on the level of danger and the length of the route to escape. Siren amplifiers are strategically positioned within buildings to ensure they are heard by the majority, guiding people toward the designated escape routes. From a young age we are taught how to follow these signals and symbols, instinctively responding to the sirens as they direct us to safety. In her words, “sirens are pathways to a hopeful future”, though very immediate futures. So she asks the artists and the audience - how can pathways to hopeful deep futures be like?

There is, of course, a political dimension to this discussion. Sirens have historically been used not just as signals for escape but also as tools of deception and harm. In various war strategies, fake sirens or the simulated sounds of approaching fighter jets have been employed to scatter enemy troops, only for them to be met by an ambush from occupying forces. Satz highlights this duality, noting that sirens embody both hope and horror. She references the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster, where the employees were trained to respond to either an earthquake or a tsunami, but not both occurring simultaneously.However, the scale of the tsunami that followed the earthquake on March 11, 2011, was far beyond the plant's anticipated limits, which led to the catastrophic failure of the reactors. In this case, we came to the question if sirens and instructions to safety are sufficient to lead people to a hopeful survival?  

The film’s speculative nature, transforms it into a work of design fiction, in which the narrative suggests that society might respond differently to crises if the signals we receive are designed with a more nuanced understanding of human behavior and emotion. This also allows it to operate within the realm of experiential futures, due to its highly immersive visual and sonic qualities. From a product design point of stance, Papanek’s vision for integrated design which is presented at the Speculative Design chapter of this thesis, can be applied to this case study. Integrated design involves viewing products, tools, environments, and human needs as interconnected and interdependent, with a focus on durability - “A more durable kind of design thinking entails seeing the product (or tool, or transportation device, or building, or city) as a meaningful link between man and environment” (Papanek, 1984, p. 293). This holistic approach aligns with siren’s goal of creating adaptive solutions that respond to both human and environmental needs. Papanek, similarly to Satz, advocates for a design philosophy that considers all aspects of human life, from the physical to the symbolic, reinforcing the importance of speculative design in addressing complex societal challenges.

This is not to say that only the sound of the sirens has been critically assessed in the film. The design of these products and the way they are meant to attract attention through the extension of red and blue pulsating lights, or by being placed in a higher position in the landscape, is also a point of comparison. Presented in the collage figure below, each shot of a siren reveals similarities and differences between their physical designs, and when the question of what their sound might be in the future is posed, it also subconsciously prompts the audience to consider what they might look like as well. Although this film is primarily about sound, it would be fascinating to see an extension that explores speculative physical designs of future sirens too.

Figure 4.1Self-made collage of stills taken from Preemptive Listening film by Aura Satz

Preemptive Listening as an Experiential Futures Project

In response to my interview question about the potential of the speculative sirens from Preemptive Listening to be applied in real-life situations, Satz clarified that none of the sounds featured in the film have been actually tested in practical scenarios. The sirens are, at their core, “philosophical scores” intended to provoke thought and inspire change, rather than created for functional use. However, during an experiment at a fellowship focused on the psycho-cognitive science of warnings, Satz collaborated with scientists and security specialists to explore the principles of effective warning sounds. In this experimental setting, they improvised and examined what it takes to create auditory signals that effectively communicate danger and prompt action.

One of the leading experts in this exercise, who specializes in healthcare alarms, proposed that the traditional beeping sounds used in medical devices should be reconsidered. Humans naturally respond more instinctively to the sound of a heartbeat than to the digital beeps that currently dominate healthcare environments. By designing sounds that resonate more closely with human biology, we could combat the sensory desensitization and attention deficits that are becoming increasingly common. Thus calling for a review of the current sound design in our emergency systems worldwide.

Interestingly, this expert assessed and confirmed that a few of the speculative sirens featured in Preemptive Listening could realistically function as effective sirens in a real-world setting. While this is the only real-life assessment of the sirens of the future, for now, their application remains hypothetical.

However, there are also other professionals working in the area of sound design who are thinking along the lines of Satz’s, and which are practically applying sound design as a way of changing future ways of living. One of them is Martin Hallberg, the creative director of Efterklang, a Swedish company specializing in urban sound and vibration services by combining engineering, design, and technology to create optimal sound environments. Their main mission is to improve life quality through paying extensive attention to designing sound, thus by enhancing emotions, collaboration, concentration, play and learning (Efterklang, n.d.). I had the opportunity to hear about the activities of Hallberg during his talk at the Futures of Sound and Song conference and book release at Media Evolution in May 2024. Hallberg critiques the city planners that they have shown a lack of social responsibility when not considering the soundscape created by the built infrastructure of the cities. Humans are meant to listen to many natural sounds, such as birds, wind, water rushing down the river, and crackling of leaves. Instead, when walking in cities, people are avoiding the soundscape by putting their headphones on, almost as a sort of shield from the unpleasant sounds. And while trying to make cities more silent and adding more noise barriers has been an ongoing attempt for some time, the reality is that “no city will ever be quiet” (The Conference / Media Evolution, 2024). To try and fight this phenomena, Efterklang have several soundscape projects around the world, one of which is a 16-chanel Jungle Soundscape Playgroung in Helsingborg, Sweden. The speakers are placed meticulously at different positions in the playground, adding monkey sounds on top of the trees, lion cubs behind the slides, and other sounds of nature that make the environment come to life. Hallberg points out that this type of playground can metaphorically be placed anywhere in the world if we agree that sound design is just as vital as object design in urban planning.

Expanding on this, Hallberg introduced a speculative product - the City Sound Remixer. This mixer allows users to control the soundscapes of their cities by having control over the choice of sounds, such as: turning down traffic sounds, increasing that of human voices and nature, adding a melody that we like for the ambience, and amplifying the sound of a fountain for the proven positive effect it has on the mental health. Through a design fiction video he showed the potential of the product, and demonstrated how the street right in front of the conference hall would otherwise sound if we could change the variables. This demonstration of a speculative object which has yet a lot of challenges to overcome in order to come to fruition, is a great example of how experts from different fields, just like Satz, are working towards the future and are realizing the importance of design in shaping it.

Figure: Screenshot taken from Youtube link of the live presentation of the talk Futures of Sound and Song: Martin Hallberg – Sound and Noise in Our Cities, by Martin Hallberg and Media EvolutionSource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ9yp7ID-BA

I argue that the speculative nature of the siren sounds in Preemptive Listening can be seen from the perspective of the design fiction genre, considering its audiovisual format, narrative, and focus on the future, as opposed to a physical object design. As Dune and Raby state in Speculative Everything “...design fiction is increasingly being understood as a genre of future vision video (sometimes photos but rarely stand-alone objects) designed specifically for circulation on the Internet rather than in exhibitions.” (p. 100). Although, Satz’s work extends its “circulation” on platforms with higher impact and social value than just the Internet, such as film festivals, stages, and media art installations.

Within the framework of the Experiential Futures Ladder tool, Preemptive Listening embodies the following characteristics:

Setting: The film navigates a spectrum from possible to preferable futures, with no strict timeline defined. As Satz mentioned in our interview, it explores both immediate and deep futures.

Scenario: Five distinct scenarios emerge, corresponding to the topics discussed in the film's five interviews.

Situation: While each speculative siren could hypothetically represent a situation within these scenarios, they abstractly convey emotions rather than specific events.

Stuff: Although the film does not result in physical objects or real-world spaces where these future sirens are heard, when presented as a performance by Satz and the sound artists on stage, it makes the experience tangible through other senses besides touch.

One of the key concepts in experiential futures is the idea of creating tangible experiences that allow people to engage with speculative scenarios in a meaningful way. Preemptive Listening does this by transforming the abstract concept of a siren into a sensory experience that can be seen, heard, and felt, though not touched. The film’s use of drones to capture the landscapes where the sirens might one day be deployed, combined with the speculative sounds created by the artists, creates an immersive experience.

Moreover, the principles explored in Aura Satz's "Preemptive Listening" align closely with Maya Van Leemput’s methodologies of media, art, and design (MAD) explained in the Experiential Futures chapter, particularly in how MAD facilitates immersive and interactive environments that foster critical engagement with speculative scenarios. This intersection between sound design, speculative futures, and the immersive, meditative, nature of the film is an example of how MAD does not only visualize but also sonically and emotionally engage participants in future-oriented thinking. Moreover, Satz’s approach in molding the narrative of the film in collaboration with six professionals in mental health, politics, environmental studies, anthropology, indegenous governance, etc.,  parallels the ethnographic research methods often necessary in creating experiential futures. By embedding speculative soundscapes within the footage of real-world contexts, Satz’s work echoes the experiential futures method of immersing audiences in lived experiences, where the space is isolated with the sounds of the sirens, as if they would be a constant part of our environmental soundscape, reminding us of the emergency present everyday. Thereby the film deepens the audience’s understanding of possible and preferable future scenarios through the tradition of participatory learning as defined by Inayatullah (1990). This combination of speculative design, ethnography, and MAD underscores the value of interdisciplinary approaches in crafting futures that are not only imagined but experienced and felt on a deeper level (Candy & Kornet, 2019; Dunne & Raby, 2013).  The very format of film, allows the audience to engage with future scenarios on an emotional and intellectual level, bridging the gap between imagination and reality, and therefore successfully presenting a form of experiential future. 

Summary

Preemptive Listening is a profound exploration of how we might reimagine the role of sirens in a world facing increasingly complex and interconnected challenges. By reimagining sirens as instruments of care and connection rather than fear and trauma, Satz invites us to consider the possibility of a future where the signals we receive not only warn us of danger but also guide us toward more compassionate and informed responses. This shift in perspective, from sirens that induce panic to sounds that encourage reflection and action, represents a significant departure from the traditional sound design of sirens. The film’s emphasis on collaboration, inclusivity, and kincentricity is an example of how such creative works can align with the broader goals of futures studies, which seek to create a more equitable and sustainable world by engaging as many voices as possible in the process of imagining and creating the future.

Through its speculative sounds and thought-provoking narrative, "Preemptive Listening" challenges us to what she terms “listen forward”, to think critically about the futures we are creating, and to consider the role that sound—and by extension, design—plays in shaping our perceptions and responses to the world around us. 

In considering these contrasting presentations of this work of Aura Satz, it becomes clear that sound art as a form of experiential future holds a unique, albeit challenging, role. The speculative sirens in Preemptive Listening serve as both a warning and a question: are we truly listening to the futures we are designing, or are we merely echoing the familiar alarms of the past? By curating sound in different contexts—whether in the inherently immersive environment of a cinema or the unpredictable space of a gallery—Satz’s work forces us to confront these questions. In doing so, it underscores the need for a more nuanced, critical approach to sound as part of our designed systems, one that recognizes its power not just to inform, but to shape and even improve our future.

In conclusion, Aura Satz’s "Preemptive Listening" is a complex work that exemplifies the potential of speculative design and experiential futures to create meaningful change. By challenging conventional notions of what a siren can be, the film invites us to listen more deeply, think more critically, and act more responsibly as we navigate the complex and uncertain futures ahead. Through its innovative use of sound, collaboration, and speculative thinking, "Preemptive Listening" offers a compelling vision of a future where our alarms not only alert us to danger but also guide us toward a more just, sustainable, and compassionate world.