Salk Institute for Biological Studies La Jolla, California
RE:SONATE
Scientific progress deserves a stage.
01 The problem
Science built our world — yet we're forgetting its story.
Awareness for fundamental research is diminishing. Funding is being cut. The work that carries the most weight is the work the public sees least.
Immunotherapies now treat cancers that had no treatment a decade ago. The liquid crystal display you are reading this on began as a question about how molecules order themselves. Neither started as a product. Both started as basic research.
It's time to bring awareness back to the force that drives human progress.
02 The vision
Dissolve the boundary between science and culture.
RE:SONATE is an experiential format that merges music, art, and science into one evening. It is staged inside working research environments — not a concert hall dressed up as a lab, but a real campus opened to an audience.
It brings people into the heart of scientific discovery, and it honours the scientists, their spaces, and the breakthroughs they drive.
Let's create feelings for science.
A shared beat physically synchronises a room. Brainwaves entrain to periodic sound, and the effect is strongest in electronic music near 2 Hz — 120 BPM. Unity here is not a metaphor. It is measurable.
Escera et al., 2025 — The strength of neural entrainment to electronic music correlates with proxies of altered states of consciousness.
RE:SONATE uses sound, art, movement, and human connection to make science felt — not just known.
03 The location
Not a backdrop. The reason.
The Salk Institute is the conceptual and symbolic home for this idea. Jonas Salk imagined a place where scientific inquiry could coexist with cultural and philosophical life — open, creative, built for the exchange of ideas. Louis Kahn built exactly that: two ranks of concrete towers flanking a single travertine courtyard, split by one thin channel of water running west to the Pacific.
The courtyard is rarely opened to outside production. RE:SONATE would be among the few — and the first staged in service of the science made there.
In my view, art and the approach to life through art, using it as a vehicle for education and even for doing science, is so vital that it is part of a great new revolution that is taking place.
Founder, Salk Institute
04 The event
One day, built like a set.
The campus opens in stages — an invitation-only afternoon among the scientists, then the gates open, then the courtyard turns into a room for two thousand people at sunset.
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RE:SONATE Assembly
An invitation-only gathering across science, music, art, sport, and entrepreneurship. Guests explore the Institute, meet the scientists, and talk over food and drinks.
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Performance in the eucalyptus grove
An acoustic set among the trees and the art installations.
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Performance in the courtyard
The first sound to fill Kahn's concrete room.
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Doors open to all ticketed guests
Science stations and installations run through the evening.
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Sunset set
The courtyard faces due west. The set is timed to the horizon.
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RE:SONATE theme track, then the headline set
Visuals built from real Salk data, made by artists and scientists working together, projected across the towers.
Programme in development. Lineup announced closer to the event.
05 Event details
Four questions, four stations.
Every guest is handed one card at the entrance — “Ask me about…” — and the answer lives out in the grove. Each station pairs a Salk scientist with a corporate partner. Nobody lectures. Learning here is an invitation, not an assignment.
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Aging & the future of life
Timekeepers
Ask me… why some cells never grow old.
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Nature, plants & sustainability
Breath of the Planet
Ask me… how a plant holds carbon in the ground.
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Brain, mind & AI
Mindscapes
Ask me… what a memory looks like.
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DNA & genetics
Life's Blueprint
Ask me… what makes you one of a kind.
Data, turned into something you can stand inside.
Salk imagery and datasets become the visual language of the whole show — projection mapping across the towers, and sculptural installations sited among the eucalyptus. Artists and scientists build them together.
06 The guests
Who's in the room.
The afternoon is engineered as a creativity hub: people who don't normally share a table, seated with Salk scientists. Every invited guest brings one companion and nominates one more person they believe should be here.
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Music, art & youth culture
Artists, media, and the publications that shape what a generation pays attention to.
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Science, health & fitness
Researchers and communicators with real reach into how people think about their bodies.
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Tech, startups & creators
Founders and builders whose work depends on discoveries they didn't have to fund.
07 Support
What support makes possible.
- Reach a new generation of donors. Expand philanthropic reach and bring younger audiences into a lasting relationship with fundamental research.
- Put the science in front of people. Give Salk's research — and the scientists behind it — genuine public visibility.
- Set the standard for science communication. Position Salk as the institute that found a new way to do this.
- Use what only Salk has. The architecture, the network, and a cross-disciplinary story that is authentically its own.
Where partners come in
- Station partner Underwrite one of the four science stations in the grove, alongside the Salk scientist who hosts it.
- Production partner Back the staging, sound, and projection work that turns the courtyard into a venue for one night.
- Founding supporter Fund the first edition, and the template every edition after it is built from.
Talk to us about support Detailed budget, production plan, and partner deck available on request.
RE:SONATE
…where rhythm, art and science align to create an experience that not only sparks curiosity but connects minds, hearts and futures.
because scientific progress deserves a stage.