- Location
- Notre-Dame de Paris - Paris, France
- Year
- 2023 - 2024
- Device
- Geolocated immersive self-guided visit experience
- Status
- Available on stores
The venue
Notre-Dame de Paris is one of the most famous monuments in the world. Its silhouette, its towers and its rose windows are part of our collective imagination. Yet one essential dimension of its history remains largely unknown: its sonic identity.
For more than eight centuries, the grand old lady has been built and transformed. Changes to its architecture, its furnishings and its decoration have altered its acoustics. At the same time, liturgies, chants, bells and daily activities have punctuated life within its walls, tracing across the centuries a sonic history that has itself been constantly evolving.
It is this invisible memory that the research project The Past Has Ears at Notre-Dame, funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR), has explored and documented, going as far as reconstructing acoustics and soundscapes that have long since disappeared.
For mediation, the challenge is to translate complex, multidisciplinary scientific research into a sensitive and immersive experience, accessible to the general public.
Our mission
How do we bring eight centuries of sound history around Notre-Dame back to life?
The challenges
Bringing together multiple disciplines and years of research to create an experience accessible to the general public, without losing the scientific richness that underpins the reconstructions.
Restoring vanished sounds and soundscapes, then placing them within the historical acoustics corresponding to the different states of Notre-Dame.
Creating a sound immersion that transports visitors into the past while keeping their gaze on the monument and the elements visible from each station.
Designing a tour around Notre-Dame — still closed to the public following the 2019 fire — capable of renewing the discovery of the cathedral from its surroundings.
Making the visitor an active participant in the discovery, by inviting them to explore the different facets of Notre-Dame's sonic identity and to continue their visit through a trail of memories.
Methodology
Co-creation & VX Design
Working with research teams to translate scientific findings into a visit experience, then designing the six stations and twelve memories around Notre-Dame.
Content Production
Writing the narratives, directing the voice of Notre-Dame, and creating sound scenes from acoustic reconstructions and soundscapes drawn from research.
App Development & Systems
Designing and developing the Ekko application, with station geolocation, content triggering and memory-collection mechanics, followed by on-site testing.
Implementation & Impact Measurement
Deploying the route around Notre-Dame, making the application available on app stores, conducting a reception study and providing technical maintenance.
The creative vision
Notre-Dame is not merely the subject of the tour: she becomes its narrator. Embodied as a grandmother who is at once noble, warm, and playful, she speaks directly to the visitor and shares her memories. Two creative choices give shape to this encounter.
Trail
Six stations to travel through time
The trail unfolds across six stations around Notre-Dame. When a visitor enters a geolocated zone, they discover and collect a memento tied to the place where they stand: the medieval construction site as seen from the banks of the Seine, the first polyphonic chants from the late 12th century near the choir, or the era of Viollet-le-Duc, face to face with the traces of his intervention.
From one point to the next, the stroll around the monument becomes a journey through eight centuries of history.
Memory #6
Monument of Stone, Monument of Paper
Anatomy of a Memory
Two Men at Notre-Dame's Bedside
In this memory, Notre-Dame takes us back to the 19th century, when the cathedral was deteriorating and under threat. Victor Hugo and Viollet-le-Duc meet there in an unexpected dialogue. Their own words, drawn from their writings, echo one another and tell the story of how, from literature to architecture, their works helped transform the ancient building into a listed historic monument.
Enable or disable the different sound layers to discover how each one contributes to the scene.
A rediscovered memory
The Rose of Memories adorns itself with colour
Each memory takes the form of a medallion. As the visitor listens to it, the medallion fills with colour, then finds its place in the Rose of Memories. Gradually, the twelve medallions restore its polychromy, in the manner of the stained-glass windows of the Middle Ages.
The Rose becomes the metaphor of a sonic memory that, memory after memory, comes back to life.
In pictures
The venue, from the visitors' perspective
A few images of the trail, its installation, and its first visitors.
01 / 09
More than a historical, scientific and archaeological experience, this immersive sound walk is a singular and poetic encounter. It is a living experience that awakens the imagination
They lived it
What visitors are saying.
Very detailed and vivid descriptions, an upbeat guided tour, interesting historical facts — speaking in the first person brings the experience to life. Keep up the "wonderful" work.
Our teenage children, passionate about sport, also came to appreciate the beauty of Notre-Dame thanks to you.
A child with ADHD, captivated from start to finish.
Superb, incredibly realistic — as a stained-glass artist with 48 years of experience restoring countless public and private buildings, many of them listed heritage monuments, I am in awe of this tour.
Congratulations — an incredible experience. You truly feel that Notre-Dame is speaking to you.
I deeply appreciate the tremendous effort it takes to create an experience like this — hats off!
I felt privileged to take part in this experience — thank you.
Thank you so much, bravo for this creation — keep it up, for the joy of all those who listen.
The musical segments were incredible.
Press coverage
What they had to say
At six geolocated stations around the monument, visitors enjoy this journey combining sight and sound.
Beaux Arts Magazine2024This experience also promotes interdisciplinary academic research and offers new emotions to visitors.
La Semaine du Son2024This immersive audio app will plunge you into the secrets of Notre-Dame de Paris
Marie Claire2024The cathedral itself won't reopen until the end of 2024. But you can already immerse yourself in its history and restoration.
NPR2023The scientific team specialising in acoustics involved in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame — and soon enough, we were on our way to Paris to hear their stories.
Materially Speaking2024Scientific publications
The project in research
- 2026
Public Evaluation of Notre-Dame Whispers, a Geolocated Outdoor Audio-Guided Tour of Notre-Dame's Sonic History.
De Muynke, J., Peichert, S., & Katz, B. F. G.
Heritage, 9(1), 19.
- 2024
The Past Has Ears at Notre-Dame: Acoustic digital twins for research and narration.
Katz, B. F. G., Cros, C., Peichert, S., & De Muynke, J.
Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, 34, e00369.
- 2024
The Past Has Ears at Notre-Dame: Immersive Audio Experiences for Public Engagement.
Katz, B. F. G., Pardoen, M., Lyzwa, J.-M., Peichert, S., Cros, C., Poirier-Quinot, D., De Muynke, J., Ling, A., Cacheux, S., Griner, J., Mouscadet, J., & Mullins, S. S.
Presented at the AES 156th Convention 2024 June 15–17, Madrid, Spain.
- 2024
Notre-Dame Whispers: A geolocated immersive walk through the sonic memory of Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral.
Peichert, S., De Muynke, J., & Katz, B. F. G.
Résonances Gothiques, Sep 2023, Avignon, France. pp.105-128.
Project partners/collaborators
