Irish Design Week, Day Three: Yuri Suzuki & Folding Waves

Yuri Suzuki and Folding Waves

Design Diplomacy featuring Yuri Suzuki

Institute of Creative Advertising & Design present in collaboration with Design & Crafts Council Ireland an immersive, multi-sensory experience that reverberates between sound and design. Taking place in the RIAM’s Whyte Recital Hall, one of the country's foremost sonic spaces, "Reverb" will harness the venue's exceptional acoustic environment to explore the reciprocal relationship between sound and visual communications.

Through demonstrations, discussions, and performances, Reverb will tune into the creative power of audio-visual symbiosis, enabling attendees to experience sound in new ways and gain a deeper understanding of its often-unsung role in creativity. The program features leading Irish and international creatives, including Yuri Suzuki, the first Pentagram partner to specialise in sound design. Suzuki will bring a mix of insight and interactivity, using installations to give sound a physical dimension. His contribution will explore how sound acts as a shared medium for collaboration and communication, inviting the audience to engage in a unique shared experience of thought, sight, and sound.

Staged as a single, unified show that incorporates Design Diplomacy, Reverb will be a first-of-its-kind audio experience, designed to educate and inspire attendees while investigating new possibilities for creative disciplines to work in harmony and evolve.

Yuri Suzuki is a sound artist, designer, and musician whose work explores the relationship between people and sound. Across interactive installations, sonic identities, and experimental instruments, Suzuki investigates how sound can connect communities, foster dialogue, and enhance daily life. His works have been exhibited internationally, including at MoMA, SFMoMA, the Barbican, Tate, the Design Museum London, and Triennale Milano, and are held in collections such as MoMA, SFMoMA, and the Israel Museum.

Recent projects include UTOOTO, a participatory acoustic city built from modular pipes; Sound of the Earth, a global listening sculpture series; and Arborhythm, an AI-based generative sound environment. Suzuki also collaborates with brands, technologists, and musicians — from MUBI to Google and Teenage Engineering — to shape sound experiences at multiple scales. Based between London and Margate, he continues to research how sound can be used as a playful, civic, and social medium.

Folding Waves is a creative audio studio based in Dublin, Ireland. As a team of composers, sound designers and mixing engineers, they're united by a shared passion for story, design, and the symbiotic relationship between sound and moving image.

Formed in 2020, Folding Waves has emerged as a creative force across film, television, commercial and design. Their work approaches music and sound design as a singular entity, a font of both storytelling and emotional potential waiting to be explored. As sonic collaborators within the flourishing creative industries here in Ireland, they are dedicated to treating the creative audio process with care and a unique perspective.

With multiple award-winning projects to their name and a long-list of collaborators ranging from Nike to Tayto, a highly detailed, personal and emotive approach is the beating heart of Folding Waves' process. Treating every project as a conversation, and always striving to bring an uncompromising ethos that honours creative work, while harnessing the raw emotional resonance of music and sound design.

Design Diplomacy. 6:15pm-7:15pm
Design Diplomacy is a concept developed by Helsinki Design Week, and produces unique, intimate conversations between two creative minds. During the event the international design professional meets an Irish designer over a card game of questions. Visitors will have an opportunity to experience carefully curated and unique conversations as in each situation the participants meet for the first time.

Japanese Designer: Yuri Suzuki

Irish Designer: Announcing Soon

Join us at the Royal Irish Academy of Music for an evening filled with inspiring discussions, innovative ideas, and creative collaborations.

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Host or Publisher Design & Crafts Council Ireland