Art, in all the wrong places

What would be like to read the weather report in a place with no weather? And where no one is listening anyway?

A one-minute weather report from the Moon. 

Part of my ongoing series of weird public announcements:

Created for Audio Playground, a fun audio assignment project run by Sarah Geis.

Photo by Photo graphics Art on Unsplash

A public service announcement about gambling harm, aimed at migrant women. The presenter knows the script. She's less sure about the conclusion.

Part of my ongoing series of weird public announcements.

Created for Sonic Dash, a biannual 48-hour audio competition run by Silver Sound (New York): an original piece, under two minutes, made entirely from scratch in 48 hours in response to an emailed prompt. No archival material, no AI, no pre-existing music. Summer 2026 prompt: Going for broke.

Photo by Stewart MacLean on Unsplash

A personal reflection on bodies, loss, and the things we do without thinking. Starting from an everyday habit, walking barefoot at home, the narration moves toward a family story that reframes everything that came before it. 

Quiet, direct, and with somewhere unexpected to go.

This piece was created for 60 Sec Radio, an international radio art competition and broadcast platform founded by Boris Chassagne, launched annually on February 13 (UNESCO World Radio Day). The sole constraint: works must be exactly 60 seconds. Over its 11 editions it has gathered more than 2,000 works from artists in 74 countries working in 30+ languages, d...

Dies ist eine Geschichte darüber, als Erwachsene Fahrradfahren zu lernen — und über all die Gründe, warum es so lange gedauert hat. Über eine Kindheit in Sardinien, wo Fahrräder für Jungs waren. Über eine geborgene Gasse und meinen Freund Giuseppe.

Von Niebuhrstrasse to Savignyplatz ist ein kurzes Audiostück für alle, die jemals etwas spät lernen mussten — und es alleine lernen mussten. Entstanden für das Cities and Memory Spring Project 2026.

Es gibt noch einen kleinen Epilog zur Geschichte: Der Grund, warum ich mich zwang, Fahrradfahren zu lernen, war, dass ich einige Mona...

The salt is blinding. The provisions are half gone. There is no turning back.

Lagoon picks up where Bitter Water ends: the vault is behind her, the liquid expanse is ahead, and the white formations on the horizon may or may not be what the Elders described. The surface is hostile: quicksand beneath the salt crust, acid water, beasts adapted to sulfureous ponds. She keeps moving. Above the white formations, the sky is doing something she has no word for.

The Elders said the phoenicotterius stood still as statues in the Molentargius Lagoon, long...

"Water used to have no taste. That's what the Elders say, and that's the hardest thing to believe. In a future Sardinia where every surface water is alkaline and corrosive, a young woman leaves the underground vault at dawn, before the UV peaks. She is looking for something. She has rope, smoked glass, and not much else."

Bitter Water is a dystopian tale of hope and magic amidst the desolate landscape of the Molentargius Lagoon, which is said to be inhabited by monstrous beings and, perhaps, by sublime creatures as well, which could be the same being.<...

Winner, HearSay International Audio Festival 2026 — Golden Prize

Every time I'm in the car and a flock of sheep passes in front of me, it almost feels like this is my home.

That line opens Spaciada sa Bregungia. It is in Sardinian, or rather, in the Sardinian I have. Which is not the same thing.

See below for English subtitles.

Spaciada sa Bregungia opens with sheep bells, that particular, unhurried sound that in Sardinia means you are exactly where you should be. Against that texture, my voice arrives, in...

Imaginary Sardinian Games presents: Flamingo Rising!

An Audio RPG · Episode One: Level One

A bit breathless, enthusiastic, slightly unhinged.

The year is unclear. What is clear: Sardinia is salt now. The hills, the roads, the vineyards. All of it, crystallised under an indifferent sky. Overexploitation swallowed the land, and what remains is beautiful in the way that only dangerous things can be.

You are Player One. Player Two didn't make it.

Your quest is simple. Find drinkable water. Your boots are already dissolving. Somewhere ahead, forty-seven flamingos a...

Sometimes magic finds you when you least expect it. That's exactly what happened when, among the many sounds from the Pitt Rivers Museum, I stumbled upon a recording of a night forest in the Central African Republic. I was immediately drawn to the sound because it felt magical. Without even reading the description to know the background of the sound, where it came from or how it came about, I selected it as a basis for my creation, trusting my intuition to guide me toward something special.

The Sound Weaver's Incantation is part of Cities and Memory's...

Sometimes magic finds you when you least expect it. That's exactly what happened when, among the many sounds from the Pitt Rivers Museum, I stumbled upon a recording of a night forest in the Central African Republic. I was immediately drawn to the sound because it felt magical. Without even reading the description to know the background of the sound, where it came from or how it came about, I selected it as a basis for my creation, trusting my intuition to guide me toward something special.

The Sound Weaver's Incantation is part of Cities and Memory's...

Asylum is an immersive piece that takes listeners into a disorienting world of raw, urgent, whispered confessions layered on a cinematic soundscape worthy of your best psychological thriller. Listeners are left with a vague sense of uneasiness, and one piece of advice: do not look in the kitchen sink.

The piece was created for Small Audio Art, the online space by Phoebe McIndoe where audio artists respond to simple prompts, like a kitchen sink, every other month. It's a low-pressure spot for short, creative audio pieces that connect makers worldwide.

This piece reflects a journey from witnessing US events and feeling powerless to taking creative action.

As an independent audio producer living in Sardinia (Italy), I could not make sense of my desperation while witnessing ICE violence in Minneapolis. I was horrified, so I decided to channel my energy into creating an incantation, using my skills to feel less powerless.

This piece aims to be cathartic resistance and magical defiance against oppression. I used the only weapon that I have, my creativity, as a tool to denounce horrific realities and, hopefully, inspire other creators to...

Didn’t You Ask for Kids? is a political satirical piece about the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, all based on the misunderstanding arising from the fact that the word kids means both children and young goats. The piece starts with a weird phone call in which Epstein is informed that the kids ordered are about to be delivered to his island, “just in time for the party with my friend Donald” 

but when the kids arrive, Epstein is very disappointed, while Trump will still able to find a silver lining.

The Biannual Sonic D...

A woman's perfect new home begins to feel inhabited by presences she can't quite see. In the corner of her eye, they move. When she turns, they vanish. A psychological tale of perception, paranoia, and the fine line between reality and imagination.

This piece is partly autobiographical, and partly an homage to Giorgio Manganelli's masterpiece Centuria - 100 Romanzi Fiume (Centuria: One Hundred Ouroboric Novels), a book consisting of one hundred very short absurd, enigmatic, and dreamlike stories that I read at a very young age and that had a huge impact on my artistic practice.

I...

Stuart Fowkes, creator of Cities and Memory, published a call asking artists to re imagine a curated selection of field recordings from 36 countries around the world to develop brand new compositions on the theme of sustainability, equity and well-being in cities. The project launched at the C40 Summit in Buenos Aires in October 2022. I had the honour to be one of those artists.

I started from the idea that the organisation of the city and its meeting spaces have a profound impact on society.

I then collected real and existing examples of hostile architecture, bringing...

A woman writes a message during her daily tram commute to work. Seemingly insignificant details, like selling a table or a couch, hide a deeply personal story about love, and the fragility of the hope for new beginnings. In these small, fleeting moments between home and work, she is rewriting her story, while the ordinary tram ride becomes the extraordinary vessel navigating the delicate space between now and tomorrow.

Just before leaving was created for Cities and Memory's Autumn Project, reimagining the sound of a Melbourne tram.

What happens when the characters revolt against the writer? That's what happens in this meta-nightmare, where the protagonist literally calls out from the page to tell off the writer who keeps writing her dead. A piece that answers the question: how many settings and locations can you possibly pack within 3 minutes?

The piece was originally created to address Audio Flux 06's prompt "creative tension." It plays with the idea of using cinematic soundscapes to layer scenery and characters, jumping from one fictional setting to the next while giving us a glimpse of the writer's reality at the...

Variations in Memory Flat [bilingual Italian and English - links to translated videos below], is a quiet reflection on childhood memories, caught in a kitchen between big moments of joy and small, unexpected sadness. 

This is the final outcome of my participation in THE ECCO, unveiled at the ((XMTR)) Festival.

Slippery memory, the theme chosen for THE ECCO’s second cohort, was more than a concept, it was a sensation that speaks to those memories that slip away and hide just as you try to grasp and describe them. 

I tried to translate this...

Was passiert, wenn eine Uhr, die früher an der Wand hing, nicht mehr funktioniert und weggeworfen wird? Und warum fühlen wir uns gezwungen, eine Streichholzschachtel zu schütteln, selbst wenn wir sie nicht benutzen wollen? In diesem Werk finden Sie keine endgültige Antwort auf diese Fragen, aber ich lade dich trotzdem ein, zuzuhören – für eine ruhige Erkundung der beständigen Gewohnheiten unseres Gedächtnisses, dessen, was nach dem Verschwinden von Menschen und Gegenständen aus unserem Leben bleibt, und wie der Klang ihres Lebens lange nach ihrem Verschwinden nachklingt.

Diese Geschichte habe ich für Sma...

I take you on a journey of creativity, surprises and changes of direction, because this story evolves in ways I didn’t expect. 

I started intending to record an interview with my friend Kathleen McCann, who painted the painting I wanted to talk about for my Small Audio Art project. A friend who lives 10 hours time difference away. 

I end up sharing much more, beyond the messages I sent, the questions I wrote, the quiet rooms I asked for.

The piece becomes a gentle reflection on time, care, and the balance between bein...

Ich erzähle einen kleinen, aber eindringlichen Moment, der mein eigenes Bedauern über meine Reaktion in einem bestimmten Moment unseres kollektiven Lebens widerspiegelt. Eine Reflexion darüber, wie leicht Angst unsere Wahrnehmung verzerren kann und uns vergessen lässt, was wirklich zählt: Mitgefühl und Hoffnung. Diese Arbeit hat den zweiten Preis beim Kurzhörspielwettbewerb der Hörspielwiese Kölln 2025 gewonnen.
"Eine Glanzleistung, die vor allem von der Stimme von M. Cristina Marras lebt."

Diese Arbeit ist eine Adaption und Neuinterpretation eines ursprünglich auf Englisch für Small Audio Art erstellten Audios, das auch von Radioph...

This is my very first commissioned piece in German, published on Deutschanldfunk Kultur's Doku Drops, a monthly audio magazine curated and moderated by Judith Geffert and Ingo Kottkamp, featuring short documentary pieces.

In my piece, Da ist dieser Moment (There is this moment), I explore that fleeting, endless moment of waiting, the pause between dialling a phone number and hearing the other side pick up.

What seems like nothing on the outside opens up an entire universe of thoughts, feelings, and possibilities on the inside.

Text, sound and voice: M. Cristina Marras<...

A surreal exchange of words by the Aurora Bridge, near the railway. A dialogue between unlikely spies that makes a mockery of spy stories with irony and nonsense.

The scene is set by the historic bridge in Seattle, known for its striking presence over Lake Union. This audio work reimagines the soundscape of the Hannover Hydroelectric Power Plant. It is part of the Cities and Memory project, blending place, story, and sound to invite listeners into a playful world of coded secrets and hidden meanings.

Created for Cities and Memory using the 'Hydroelectric power plant...

Created in 2 days, just as the rules of Sonic Dash require, without too much fuss, a bit rough and really rushed.

The theme was 'too much information,' to be interpreted freely. My luck is having a lot of interesting and original friends scattered around the world who come to my aid without asking too many questions when I show up again with one of my strange requests.

You might actually recognise some voices (many of them work in the podcast and audio world), but I am not writing their names here. Because  when I a...

A story of childhood wonder, loss, and the consequences of chasing what we don’t fully understand, a cautionary tale about the stories we inherit, the memories we cling to, and the dangers of tampering with time-real or imagined.

Photo by Egor Litvinov on Unsplash

What happens when a clock that used to hang at the wall stops working, and is thrown away? And why do we feel compelled to shake a matchbox, even if we do not intend to use it? In this work you will not find a definitive answer to these questions, but I invite you to listen nonetheless, for a quiet exploration of the persistent habits of our memory, of what remains after people and objects disappear from our life, how the sound of their lives lingers long after they are gone.

I created this story for Small...

What happens when a clock that used to hang at the wall stops working, and is thrown away? And why do we feel compelled to shake a matchbox, even if we do not intend to use it? In this work you will not find a definitive answer to these questions, but I invite you to listen nonetheless, for a quiet exploration of the persistent habits of our memory, of what remains after people and objects disappear from our life, how the sound of their lives lingers long after they are gone.

I created this story for Small...

A haunting monologue, a power struggle between two vastly different entities. 

The speaker (a woman trapped in a toxic relationship?) reveals pain and vulnerability, shattered by constant attacks. But amidst the despair, a chilling undercurrent of defiance emerges. The speaker unveils a disturbing truth: a force to be reckoned with, a presence that has infiltrated their tormentor's very being.

As the monologue progresses, the listener's perspective shifts, drawn in by the speaker's menacing words and the hint of a power far beyond their initial fragility. 

The final revelation questions the true nature of th...

The narrative explores the complex emotions of returning to your homeland to see, possibly for the last time, an ageing parent. 

The salty air, the rocking of the ferry, all becomes sensory details that evoke the physical experience of the journey. Yet, beneath the surface lies a deeper turmoil, a haunting question about goodbyes and the fragility of life.

Shortlisted UK Radiodrama Festival 2026

More of a borderline stream-of-consciousness than a tutorial!

It's called a step-by-step guide, and it promises to teach you how to carve a wooden spoon, but despite its promising beginning, the piece soon becomes something completely different, as the advice turns into personal anecdotes and unexpected digressions that touch on paranoia (and maybe even murderous thoughts). 

If you are someone who wants to learn how to carve a wooden spoon, this guide will leave you disappointed. But if you are after a quirky, personal essay that is strangely c...

Night Radio was one of my first podcasts. Unfortunately it required the voice talent of a young girl and of a mature man with a deep voice, and I had no one to ask.

But I was really keen on telling the story: a young, impressionable girl who spent her sleepless nights listening to a mature man who covered the graveyard shift on the local radio, philosophising about the world with his beautiful, deep voice, a voice that in the darkness, evoked incredible worlds and strong feelings in the girl's mind.

The year was 2013...

A comedic game show called You've Got to Be Kidding Me tests contestants' knowledge of a dystopian society's new constitution and the decrees of their Glorious Supreme President.

When I created this for the Silver Sound Biannual Sonic Dash competition in January 2025, it sounded like something fun and out of this world. 

By May 2025, in the US, they are talking about having people compete for a green card by taking part in a quiz show. Yes, it is depressing. And no, if someone had asked me, I would have chosen a different audio creation to b...

This is one of the stories created for All The Best Radio's 24 hour radio challenge, in which producers were tasked with creating audio stories from scratch in a day. I participated from Sardinia (Italy) with a story starting with a recurring dream.

Here you can listen to all the entries.
Photo by Quinn Korsune on Unsplash
[29/11/2024]

I created this story for Small Audio Art, a community created by Phoebe McIndoe with artists and audio makers "looking for togetherness in a scattered world". The prompt was 'window'.
I recount a small but poignant moment that reflects my own regret over the way I reacted in a specific moment of our collective lives. A reflection on how easily fear can distort one's perception, making us forget what really matters: compassion and hope.

Small Audio Art
Featured on RADIOPHRENIA  2025

Release date:

29 November 2024

This piece was one of the 15 finalists in Audio Flux Circuit 04. The prompt asked for a three-minute piece that referenced an object related to a first and included the sound of time passing (but not a clock).

I decided to tell about the day I did something that no one in my family had ever done before me. I'd rather not tell you what so as not to spoil the narration. Featuring: strong sense of atmosphere, moods shift, and anticipation and a study on class, family, and the weight of expectation.
Here more about Audio Flux.<...

The prompt was 'door'.

Created for Phoebe McIndoe's Small Audio Art project "Exploring identity and belonging through the objects that make up a home. Join us every other month for community & creative prompts." 

Photo by Elimende Inagella on Unsplash

[09/07/2024]

Some things are lost over and over and then are found again and again.

But then there are also other things.

By Maria Cristina Marras for Sonic Dash June 2024 

Voices: M. Cristina Marras and Romeo M. Minutolo
Music: Romeo M. Minutolo
Photo by Tim Mossholder on...

Forget your morning latte, folks, because the city's daily dose of WTF is already brewing! Today's public service announcements veer into the delightfully deranged, leaving us scratching our heads and wondering what exactly they're putting in the water cooler at City Hall.
Whether a deliberate artistic experiment or a product of a malfunctioning system remains a source of speculation. However, its impact on its audience is undeniable. By embracing the absurd, the Announcement has sparked conversations about the nature of language, the power of communication, and the subjective construction of reality. In doing so, it transcends the realm...

A longing house cat dreams of returning to her old home with a garden, a lost paradise of sunlit playful hunts.
In the picture is my beloved Ombra, whom I did not have the heart of forcing to endure a flight that would have lasted several days, followed by a month quarantine inside a cage. 
Ombra now plays happy in a beautiful Northcote garden with her friend Tuppy the Puddle. 

Created for Audio Flux Circuit 03 Pet Sounds.
[09/06/2024]

A sonic reflection on the monotony of our daily routines.
With a touch of irony and a hint of existential angst, I present the symphony of mundane sounds that mark the passing of our days, a never-ending loop of bodily functions and technological hums.
This is our absurd, repetitive existence.
Photo by bady abbas on Unsplash
[15/10/2023]