Archaeoacoustic research and public outreach: Experience of the Past Has Ears at Notre-Dame

The recent fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris spurred research aimed at understanding its evolving acoustics across centuries and examining its influence on music. These efforts form part of two related initiatives launched in response to the fire: the French interdisciplinary research project The Past Has Ears at Notre-Dame (PHEND) and the European cultural heritage project The Past Has Ears (PHE). Recognizing the cultural significance of this work, a substantial effort and budget were devoted to public outreach—an uncommon step for such projects. As a result, the research findings were transformed into immersive public experiences through several audio productions that utilized the project’s methodologies and insights to engage audiences via storytelling: a radio-fiction, an audio-guide application, and a virtual concert. Each of these productions benefited from immersive spatial audio and historically informed geometric acoustic simulations and soundscape reconstructions. This paper provides an overview of the rationale behind these productions, their development process, and their public reception. We hope these experiences will guide and inspire other researchers in the emerging field of archaeoacoustics to broaden their reach beyond academic circles while upholding scientific rigor.