Trial lecture
Designated topic: The shell and its content: sound design for built environments.
Dissertation summary
Listening is something you do with your whole body, in a specific place, at a specific moment. That's the core argument of this dissertation. I contend that how we hear emerges from a constant back-and-forth between movement, spatial awareness, and the mixing of our senses as we move through real environments.
To explore this, I draw on embodied cognition, sound studies, and artistic research, asking how sound is not just received but actively shaped through interaction. The work moves between theory and practice: I developed methods for capturing micromotion and spatial audio, and designed ambient interactive systems that respond to subtle shifts in the body and surrounding environment. This included hacking everyday building infrastructures, turning air vents into musical instruments, introducing natural bird sounds into common office spaces and making sound actuate through furniture, finding that even the smallest sensory cues can transform how a space feels and functions.
Our indoor environments are far more alive than we tend to give them credit for. They shape our moods and movements in ways we rarely notice, and with the right design choices, they can do so intentionally. This research points toward new possibilities in the development of ambient interactive technologies that engage with real-world spaces and actually support the people living and working within them.
Maham Riaz successfully defended her thesis on 7 April 2026.
First opponent
Professor Davide Rochesso, Università degli Studi di Milano.
Second opponent
Professor Sandra Pauletto, KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Evaluation committee
- Professor Davide Rochesso, Università degli Studi di Milano (first opponent)
- Professor Sandra Pauletto, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (second opponent)
- Professor Emeritus Rolf Inge Godøy, University of Oslo (committee administrator)
Chair of the defence
- Associate Professor Judith Irmela Haug, University of Oslo
Supervisors
- Professor Alexander Refsum Jensenius, University of Oslo
- Dr. Çağrı Erdem, University of Oslo