fred voisin
Sound design in the service of care
An engineer associated with several applied-research projects on digital audio devices for cognitive rehabilitation (CNRS, Ensam, Ircam, Inserm, Université de Bourgogne), Fred Voisin designed, in 2017, a device of virtual soundscapes intended for nursing-home residents living with Alzheimer's disease, in collaboration notably with Dr Pierre Jeannin and Pr France Mourey (Inserm U1093 CAPS, Dijon). This device has been the subject of clinical studies (Laboratoire Psy-DREPI EA-7458, UMR INSERM U1093) showing its positive effects on behavioural disorders.
This research extends his engineering work within the MAAMI ANR project (Maladie d'Alzheimer et Apprentissage Moteur Implicite), carried out between 2013 and 2016 at the Institut Image, within Arts et Métiers ParisTech (Chalon-sur-Saône), in partnership with Inserm and CNRS. This project already explored the connection between interactive sound design, cognitive rehabilitation and virtual reality — laying the methodological and scientific groundwork that Fred Voisin would later build on with Madeleines sonores (2017). MAAMI's central hypothesis was that sound, used as sensory feedback in a virtual environment, could facilitate implicit motor learning in patients with Alzheimer's disease — learning that relies not on explicit memory, often impaired in these patients, but on preserved motor and sensory circuits.
He also took part in research aimed at children with cochlear implants. Grounded in the principle of enaction, the device invites the child to mime the instrumental gesture — with optical motion capture and gesture recognition by neural networks — in order to produce and shape the sound, opening a sensorimotor pathway to the rehabilitation of musical listening, within the Laboratoire d'Étude de l'Apprentissage et du Développement (LEAD, CNRS – Université de Bourgogne), under the direction of Pr Emmanuel Bigand: the Mimer... c'est jouer ! device (2017).
This lineage explains the coherence of Fred Voisin's trajectory: from sound engineering applied to motor rehabilitation (MAAMI) to the design of soundscapes aimed at memory and behaviour (Madeleines sonores), through a constant collaboration with the same research networks and with Pr France Mourey, whose published work (Kinésithérapie, la Revue, 2018) empirically documents the effects of this approach on motor disorders linked to Alzheimer's disease.
Of interest to healthcare institutions, nursing homes, research teams in neuroscience or gerontology, public institutions engaged with healthy ageing.
- Design of therapeutic soundscapes for healthcare institutions (nursing homes, Alzheimer's units, cognitive care)
- Applied research and participation in clinical studies on sound/memory/cognition
- Talks and science outreach on the therapeutic uses of sound
- Consulting for care teams and institution management
Productions
- 2017 — Adaptive modules for sound and musical exploration for cochlear-implanted children — a playful device grounded in the principles of action-perception (enaction), developed under the direction of Pr. Emmanuel Bigand, LEAD (CNRS - Université de Bourgogne), with the support of the Conseil Régional de Bourgogne and Cochlear laboratories; presented at the "Musique et surdité" colloquium, ACFOS XIV, Paris (10 November 2017) — PDF
- 2017 — Virtual soundscapes device designed for nursing-home residents living with Alzheimer's disease, also known as Madeleines sonores, in reference to Proustian involuntary memory triggered by sound.
- « De l'intérêt du design sonore en Ehpad », Santé Mentale, 2022
- « Designing Soundscapes for Alzheimer's Disease Care, with Preliminary Clinical Observations » (with Arnaud Bidotti, France Mourey), in Perception, Representations, Image, Sound, Music, Springer — DOI, HAL, 2021
- « Designing Virtual Soundscapes for Alzheimer's Disease Care », 14th International Symposium on Computer Music Multidisciplinary Research, Marseille — HAL, 2019
- « Alzheimer – Les Madeleines Sonores de Fred Voisin », Plan Sonore, 2019
- 2016 — MAAMI ANR project (Maladie d'Alzheimer et Apprentissage Moteur Implicite) — interactive sound design for cognitive rehabilitation and virtual reality, Institut Image, Arts et Métiers ParisTech, Chalon-sur-Saône, with Inserm and CNRS
- « Projet MAAMI : des jeux vidéo contre les troubles moteurs », UFR STAPS, Université de Bourgogne
- France Mourey, « Projet MAAMI "Maladie d'Alzheimer Apprentissage Moteur Implicite" », Kinésithérapie, la Revue, 18(194), p. 32 — DOI, 2018