Maria Papadomanolaki - Sound & Transmission Art
Maria Papadomanolaki is a sound artist, researcher and educator based in Chania, Crete. Working across sound, transmission, walking and participatory practice, she explores listening as a situated, collective and pedagogical process. Her work brings together sonic pedagogy, transmission art and site-responsive approaches to cultivate critical and attentive modes of listening across remote and co-located environments.
Originally trained in linguistics and literature at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Papadomanolaki subsequently specialised in sound art and sound studies. She holds a PhD from CRiSAP (Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice), London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, where her doctoral research, "Sonic Perceptual Ecologies", examined the relationships between sound, perception, place and mediated environments.
Her artistic and curatorial practice includes long-term transmission and sound-led work with Soundcamp/Reveil and the Festival of Sound and Ecology, alongside A Certain Geography, an ongoing series of site-specific soundwalking performances. Across these projects, listening becomes a means of encountering places, technologies and communities, creating situations that invite participation, questioning and reflection.
Under the alias Dalot, Papadomanolaki has released a critically recognised body of music exploring the intersections of electroacoustic composition, environmental sound and experimental electronic music. Her broader practice encompasses sound design for dance, live performance, installation and collaborative work, moving between musical and non-musical approaches to sound and experimenting with different aesthetic and technological forms.
Education and sonic pedagogy have been integral to her practice since 2010. She has devised and led workshops for public programmes and taught at academic and educational institutions in the UK, US and Greece. From 2017 to 2019, she was Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for Digital Music and Sound Arts (currently Electronic Music and Sound) at the University of Brighton, where she developed new curriculum initiatives alongside public-facing and community-engaged projects. During her tenure, the UoB's Music subject area rose from 65th to 25th place in The Guardian UK University League Tables.
Papadomanolaki’s research and editorial work includes "sounds remote" (Soundcamp/Uniformbooks, 2016) and "Transmission Arts: Artists & Airwaves" (PAJ Publications, 2011), both of which she co-edited, as well as contributions to "Listening Glossary" (Silver Press, 2026), "One By Walking" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026), "Bodies of Sound" (Silver Press, 2025) and "Radio Content in the Digital Age" (Intellect Books, 2011). Her research and writing have appeared in publications including Organised Sound (Cambridge University Press), Leonardo, Performance Research, and publications by Nefeli Editions and Galaad Edizioni. She has also written about experimental music and sound for publications including A Closer Listen, Velvet Magazine, ATHENS VOICE, Fluid Radio, Sonic Field and Artcards Review.
Her projects and research have involved collaborations with cultural and academic organisations across Europe, the UK, the US and Asia, including Wave Farm and the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Cabinet Magazine, ISSUE Project Room, the British Library, the Royal College of Art, the Barbican, Royal Festival Hall, Athens Biennale, Greek National Opera and Onassis Stegi.
Her work and research have received support from the Schilizzi Foundation, Alexander S. Onassis Foundation, University of the Arts London, Arts Council England, Sound and Music, H&L Fund and Creative Europe. Her interactive installation "Stoma" received an award from Nagoya University of the Arts.
Papadomanolaki is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a co-founder of the non-profit organisation SoundCamp, and a member of Shortwave Collective, an international feminist radio collective exploring the possibilities of DIY radio and collective listening.