Chambers of Awe & Laura Inserra
present
QUALIA
A Portal of Wonder, Connection, and Transformation
A full-dome film experience combining the transformative powers of sound, ancient wisdom traditions, and cutting-edge technology to awaken your senses, deepen your connection with nature, and inspire inner transformation.
Directed & Performed by Laura Inserra
March 11th, 2025 at 5:45pm & 7:30pm
Premiere at the Planetarium of Fiske in Boulder
QUALIA is an immersive sound and visual journey into the magic of life. It invites you to transcend space and time, dissolve boundaries, and reconnect with the deeper layers of your being. Through music and imagery, QUALIA creates a space where you become the creator of your own experience, perceiving a reality that is uniquely yours.
The word qualia refers to the unique, subjective experiences each of us has—the colors we see, the emotions we feel, the meaning we assign to the world around us. It reminds us that reality is not something outside of us, but something we co-create within.
A full-dome film experience designed for planetariums, QUALIA takes you on a journey through the 5 Elements – Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space – as a pathway into grounding, connecting, envisioning, harmonizing, and integrating. You are the creator of your own experience, conceiving realities only you can perceive.
The music is an offering of sound as medicine, created to connect deeply with ourselves, the natural world, and the larger mystery of life. Composed and performed by sound alchemist Laura Inserra, featuring ceremonial instruments that have been used for centuries in sacred traditions around the world.
The visuals, drawn from real-world imagery and scientific data, offer a reverent homage to the beauty and authenticity of what is real in a time when so much around us is simulated.
QUALIA invited you to step beyond the ordinary and into a place of awe and wonder.
Chambers of AWE
Combining the power of sound,
wisdom traditions, and cutting-edge technology to facilitate
awe-inducing experiences, inner transformations, and healing.
Founded by Laura Inserra, Chambers of AWE is a mission-driven production company rooted in 30 years of experience in immersive productions, global cross-cultural studies, and healing practices.
Our passion is to help overcome the growing imbalance between humans and nature, our loss of community, and detachment from ancient wisdom.
We facilitate immersive and transformative experiences designed to enhance profound shifts of consciousness, deepen our relationship with nature, and facilitate inner transformation and healing.
Our productions feature musical journeys crafted with ceremonial instruments and field recordings, enhanced with 360º visuals and CGI content anchored in ancient cross-cultural wisdom and human-made art.
We use cutting-edge technology to augment some of the natural sound sources, creating immersive environments with a vast spectrum of frequencies, perceptible through our bones and other meta-sensory receptors. In these settings music becomes experiential.
The immersive 360º visuals give a deeper layer of introspection, providing a lens that our naked eyes alone cannot reveal. This allows us to look at the vastness of reality with new eyes, seeing ordinary life in extraordinary ways.
Music Awakens what is Asleep in Us
Chambers of AWE are rooted in 30+ years of studies and initiations in ancient traditions and modern schools of wisdom, as well as the direct observation of nature.
At the core of these productions is the use of ceremonial instruments from ancient traditions and unique modern craftsmanship. These instruments are made with the intention to transit into different states of consciousness, access inner guidance, and connect as a community.
We utilizes cutting-edge technology to augment some of those natural sources of sound, creating immersive environments with a vast spectrum of frequencies and resonances perceptible through our bones, cells, and other meta-sensory receptors. In these settings music becomes experiential.
The immersive 360º visuals give a deeper layer of introspection, providing a lens that our naked eyes alone cannot have. This allows people to look at the vastness of reality with new eyes, seeing the ordinary life in extraordinary ways.
Bringing AWE Back to Us
A key feature of Chambers of AWE is the use of audio and video field recordings made in sacred places in the world, which help us rebalance our relationship with nature and reconnect to the wisdom of previous civilizations.
In our modern times we live isolated, and in an environment filled with electronic sounds and compressed digital frequencies, which have drastically reduced the emergent properties of sound and music.
In nature nothing is isolated or compressed therefore acoustic sources of sound have a much richer spectrum of frequencies, harmonics, and textures which activate our brain and body in multidimensional ways. Chambers of AWE bring back ancient sounds and lost frequencies as sources of physical, mental, and spiritual nourishment.
Participants Report
“a sense of inner peace never experienced before”
“physical and emotional pain release”
“mental clarity”
“inner guidance”
“a boost of creativity“
“a connection to the ancestors“
“a feeling of being at home“
“a life transforming experience”
“a psychedelic journey without medicine“
“a clear felt experience that all is interconnected“
“a renewed relationship with nature”
Our Next Experiential Show for Planetariums
QUALIA
An Immersive Journey into the Magic of Life
Each one of us perceives reality in a unique way. The word qualia refers to your internal, subjective experiences of reality. Your inner sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts are your unique qualia - the qualitative aspect of how you perceive the world around you. Any experience you are having right now is qualia.
QUALIA is an immersive sound and visual journey into the magic of life. Music and visuals become storytellers but you are the one creating the plot. You become the creator of your own experience, conceiving realities that only you can perceive. QUALIA is an invitation to open doors within you that have been forgotten, awakening human abilities that are dormant and yet ready to be activated.
Conceived to take you on a journey, Laura uses the 5 Elements structure - earth, water, fire, wind, and space - as a pathway into grounding, connecting, envisioning, harmonizing, and integrating. It is up to you to experience QUALIA as a transformative journey, or an immersion into beauty, a booster for creativity, a physical, mental, and emotional release, or a joyful and meaningful time to share with your friends and beloved ones.
The music score is made with ceremonial and modern instruments from around the globe. Some of those acoustic sources are augmented to create unique drones and harmonics, giving to the compositions a contemporary style. With a similar approach, the 360º visuals will combine sources from nature, ancient sacred sites, and human creations, along with CGI and AI generated content.
Creating Chambers of AWE
Shifting dissonance into resonance, we deepen our connection to self, to each other, and to nature. From private gatherings to big venues sitting thousands, Chambers of AWE are custom-made for:
Special Events ~ Conferences / Festivals / Corporations / Leadership Programs / Private Gatherings / Sacred Ceremonies & Weddings
Permanent Installations ~ Retreat Centers / Hotels / Waiting Rooms / Commercial Buildings / Companies / Hospitals / Hospice / Homes & Gardens
Touring ~ Planetariums / IMAX Theater / Museums / Concert Halls / Universities / Schools / Site Specific Installations / Sacred Sites in Nature / Field Recordings
Further Areas
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Global Expansion ~ Distribute shows through hundreds of additional planetariums worldwide.
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Venue Expansion ~ Deliver in IMAX theaters, multi-media venues seating thousands, conferences and festivals, museums, permanent installations, hotels, retreat centers, and waiting rooms.
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New Forms of Digital Distribution ~ Partner with existing digital art platforms and create content for in-home displays, mobile wallets, and NFTs.
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AWE Product Development ~ License content for vibro-acoustic devices and next generation smart feducials.
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Live-Streaming ~ Provide 360° VR Live Streaming and 24/7 Linear Broadcasting.
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Brand Building ~ Conduct special events, tours, and real-time interactive performances.
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New Business Models ~ Explore new opportunities through online platforms and mobile app.
Laura Inserra
Founder & CCO
Laura Inserra is a world-renowned leader in sound healing - a sound alchemist, multi-instrumentalist, educator, and multimedia producer. She lives and creates at the confluence of global music, ancient wisdom traditions, and cutting-edge technology.
Laura grew up in Sicily and has been exploring the power of sound since her youth. She has decades of worldwide industry experience in soundtrack and sound design for movies, performing arts, and site-specific installations, as well as immersive multidisciplinary productions.
Laura plays hundreds of rare ancient and modern instruments from around the world - Zapotec clay flutes, Mongolian jaw harp, Tibetan bowls, Laotian khen, Australian didgeridoo, African djembe, various shamanic drums, numerous percussions, and unique custom-made instruments, including many made by her.
Combining her intimate knowledge of music with her spiritual studies, Laura developed MetaMusic Healing, gaining recognition in the NYT bestseller "Your Brain on Art" by Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen. Her work has been chosen by Johns Hopkins for a research project around the benefit of music, aiming to uncover how music can amplify the therapeutic effects of psychedelics, enhance well-being, and expand our understanding of consciousness.
Laura conducts transformative leadership retreats and corporate programs with senior executive teams of companies such as Google X, Walmart, and Synergos. She is also actively engaged in creating immersive experiences and as a public speaker in the most cutting-edge conferences such as BrainMind, MAPS, and Wisdom 2.0
Contact Laura Inserra if you are interested in
creating a sound-immersive environment for your next conference or event.
AWE Advisory Board
Evolution is the Result of Cooperation
In order to build a sustainable growth engine that allows us to develop and scale high impact experiences of AWE around the world, we are combining the mission-driven focus of a non-profit organization with the financial and operational benefits of a for-profit company.
Our goal is to raise funds to create an AWE Lab in the Bay Area in which we will develop flagship shows to be distributed over the next 5 years across 50 planetariums. This will set the stage for a regenerative phase of growth and impact.
At the AWE Lab, we will also conduct research to deepen the content of our Chambers of AWE, and will host leadership retreats to ripple the impact of our work in diverse communities and industries.
Scaling AWE Together
We invite you to join the Angels of AWE, a like-hearted and forward-looking group providing funds and resources to evoke what’s best in humans. Among this incredible community of luminary minds, we welcome you as aligned angel investor and business partner.
Investing in Chambers of AWE, LLC goes beyond financial returns. These experiences have a profound impact on individuals, fostering personal growth, healing, and spiritual awakening. By supporting the expansion of Chambers of AWE, LLC investors contribute to the wellbeing and transformation of individuals and communities.
We will be happy to meet with you and share in detail the full vision, the financial possibilities, and the self-sustaining business model.
To schedule a meeting please contact Founder & CEO Laura Inserra
Staged world premiere at
Prague Congress Center - Czech Republic
Oct. 30 - Nov. 2, 2018
Devcon is the annual Ethereum conference for designers, developers, researchers and artists. The Ethereum Foundation hosts Devcon to educate and empower our community to build decentralized applications, and to bring Ethereum protocols, tools, and culture to the world.
This is a conference for builders: designers, UX researchers, smart contract devs, blockchain researchers, client implementers, test engineers, infrastructure operators, community organizers, and even artists in the community.
Behind the Scenes of Chambers Of AWE
An Interview with Laura Inserra during the world premier performed in Prague for DevCon4, the Ethereum Foundation's conference 2018.
Using Music & Cutting Edge Technology for
Immersive & Transformative Experiences
Chambers of AWE was premiered in 2018 in Prague during a large cryptocurrency conference, when Laura transformed for four days a forum hall into a decompression room, creating a sound and lighting reactive installation. Participants were entering an invisible but palpable 60 foot diameter sphere of sound created by an ambisonic system of 16 speakers and 4 subwoofers.
Laura and her live set was in the center of the sphere with 8 mics, each one connected to 2 speakers, plus 2 mics connected to the whole sound system. This allowed her to map and create live sound architectures in addition to her pre-recorded tracks.
The ongoing intertwined pre-recorded and live music created a striking immersive sound environment. In addition, she offered twice a day guided immersive sound experiences.
An Article by Michael Ellsberg
Why do the most forward-thinking tech conferences
hire Laura Inserra to create their decompression rooms?
Heading into the 2020s, the most forward-looking corporate conferences create decompression lounges where attendees can relax and recharge for a few minutes before diving back in headlong to the intensity and bustle of the conference. However, most decompression lounges, are paltry affairs with perhaps a little ambient music playing off an iPod, a tea station, and some diffused lights.
At DevCon4, the main annual meeting for the Ethereum community, the Foundation wanted something more immersive, more artistic, and frankly, more decompressive and recharging. The foundation wanted participants not just to have a relaxing and restorative experience, but one that would also uplift them, and bring them into deeper resonance with their bodies - thus getting more in touch with their creative potential. That’s why the Ethereum Foundation hired sound alchemist Laura Inserra, creator of Chambers of AWE (Acoustic Waves Emergence).
Artist Statement
When we are in ‘awe’ we naturally enter a state of mindfulness and presence with our whole body and senses. We naturally are in the 'here and now’. In Laura’s work the awe is created by Acoustic Waves Emergence.
As in alchemy and in nature, the emergent property allows the whole to be greater than the sum of the parts, acquiring qualities that its parts do not have. In the digital era, we actually went in the other direction: as we created more compact and lighter formats (CDs, MP3s etc.), we cut off a lot of frequencies deemed ‘useless’ without realizing we were losing a lot of their inaudible, powerful impact.
There are frequencies our ears do not hear but that our bones, our cells, our mind perceive. On top of it, we are not being exposed as much to ancient acoustic sources of sound and instruments, which used to bring people into different states of consciousness. Those experiences were essential opportunities for healing, well-being, and transformation. After all, we are made of cells vibrating on different frequencies, which means we are ‘sound’. That is why those experiences allowed people to amplify their senses and connect with the vast, holistic intelligence of their being and environment. These days, not only we have lost those experiences, but we live in an environment filled with disruptive frequencies and sounds.
Chambers of AWE brings back those lost frequencies as sources of nourishment and tools to expand our senses, our body intelligence, our awareness. A lot of those sounds are in the lower frequency range. Many apps and devices use that range to generate states of relaxation, meditation, and enhanced creativity, yet those waves are made with computers using synthesizers and oscillators, which isolate the frequency in order to reproduce it. Nothing in nature is ‘isolated’. Acoustic sources of sound therefore have a much richer spectrum and texture of frequencies and harmonics (which no synthesizer can match), reaching and touching our system in a multidimensional way.
Lighting Concept
The Devcon4’s decompression room installation offered a calming atmosphere where a lush instrumental soundscape was augmented by a generative lighting experience. This room allowed guests to unplug (both metaphorically and literally), sit back, relax, and take time to breathe.
Thanks to the Aurora system by Limbic Media, Lightswitch’s lighting installation followed the music in a unique way, combining traditional lighting design artistry with the capabilities of AI.
A central LED candelabra reached from the ground, in varying lengths, towards the ceiling, where a web of LED festoons reached out across the room.
As Laura Inserra’s music evolved, the AI will mapped the different sounds throughout the installation creating a unique pattern every time, following her mood and sound. Her multi- instrumental approach to meditation allows for an ever evolving palette to choose from, making this a very dynamic and enchanting room.
A lighting designer was on site to carefully select attributes for the AI to feed from, and as the day progresses the colors shifted, the patterns changed. The environment reflected the very human side of tech, and the need to relax, regenerate, and decompress from the pressures of the world.
Our goal is not to light a room per se but to create an environment where Laura Inserra’s music can encompass a wide range of senses, enveloping the attendees with sound and light while they catch a breath, relax, and revitalize themselves in one of the most unique meditation experiences.
Continuation of Michael Ellsberg's article about Chambers of AWE
AWE stands for Acoustic Wave Emergence,
a fancy term for a simple vision.
Allow people to transport themselves, for as long or short as they want, in an overwhelmingly immersive, sensorily-stunning environment, as harmonized sounds, responsive lights, and acoustic frequencies envelop them.
Laura’s installation took over one of the main rooms of the Prague Congress Centre, one of the largest convention centers in Europe.
She and her team installed 16 concert-hall speakers and 4 subwoofers around the Centre’s Forum Hall, creating an ambisonic sphere. Once you are inside the speakers, you are inside a chamber of sound.
At the center of the space, with a 50-foot custom sound-responsive light sculpture hanging from the ceiling, Laura set up her array of several dozen acoustic instruments from around the world, captured by 12 mics.
Spiraling out from her were arrays of daybeds, where conference participants could lay back, take in the sights and sounds, and trance-port themselves into realms beyond, for moments or hours.
It was an all-encompassing experience for participants. (And awe-encompassing!)
Bring Laura’s techno-artistry to your next conference or event.
For over a decade, Laura has created environments that highlight the deeply human side of tech, and the need to relax, regenerate, and decompress from the pressures of the world.
Her goal is not to simply entertain but to create an environment where the music can encompass a wide range of senses, enveloping the attendees with sound and light while they catch a breath, relax, and revitalize themselves in one of the most unique meditation experiences.
Most of your conference participants are probably exploring various forms of mindfulness in order to improve their performance, reduce stress, and connect with higher sources of inspiration. A Chambers of AWE environment at your conference or event will completely transform the way participants relate to your event and to each other.
Laura is available to create sound-immersive environments from simple corners to massive concert halls, and everything in between--in accordance with your needs, event size, and budget.
Contact Laura Inserra if you are interested in
creating a sound-immersive environment
for your next conference or event.
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