Dr GUI Ren
We are pleased to host a guest talk by Dr GUI Ren at 10:00 am on Thursday, 12 March 2026. The session is part of SM5302 Studio II / SM6302 Thesis Project.
Dr GUI Ren will present her doctoral research, “Listening, Public Space and Sonic Practice: The Soundscape of Female New Immigrants in Hong Kong”, which explores how female new immigrants engage with urban public space through listening and sonic practices, and how these practices shape their everyday experiences of the city.
Through a range of sonic practices, including participatory soundwalks, field recordings, interviews, and spatial audio practices with Chinese female new immigrants in Hong Kong, the research examines how everyday listening becomes a way of sensing, negotiating, and re-imagining the city.
The project is developed through a series of practice-based processes, including soundwalks, a spatial soundscape composition, an interactive sound installation, and a sound art exhibition. Together, these practices investigate how listening mediates relationships with public space, memory, identity, and belonging, and how lived experiences can be articulated through sound.
Emerging from these processes, the thesis proposes Feminist Sonic Practice (FSP) as both a concept and a methodological framework. Integrating fieldwork, listening practices, and artistic production, it demonstrates how sonic practices can function as a form of feminist knowledge production, translating individual listening experiences into shared and public forms, and opening alternative ways of understanding urban life and rethinking public space.
Dr GUI Ren is an artist, curator and musician. Her research and artistic practice focus on the complexities of everyday listening experiences in relation to sound, identity, emotion, and space.
She holds a PhD in SoundLab from the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. Her work spans soundscape composition, participatory soundwalks, spatial installations, live performance, and feminist curatorial practice.
She initiated the Female Soundscape Project, which guides women to explore various spaces in Hong Kong through diverse sonic practices. The project has developed into collaborative artistic outcomes, including the exhibition Sonic Transitions: Auditory Stories of Female New Immigrants in Hong Kong (2025), which she curated and exhibited.
She has participated in numerous international artistic and academic projects, including the DAT/ACT Exhibition (2022, Hong Kong), In the Field 2 (London), isaScience (2023, Vienna), and Spark Festival (2024, Hong Kong).
