It was 2006 when Binaural Nodar began its contemporary programming and creative activities in the Viseu Dão Lafões region. During the first few years, there was a focus on community relations with the village of Nodar and neighbouring villages such as Sequeiros, Macieira, Covas do Monte, Covas do Rio, Parada de Ester, etc, all located in the territory of the middle Paiva river valley, corresponding to the slopes of the São Macário mountain range (to the south) and the Montemuro mountain range (to the north).
As the first cycles of site-specific artist residencies in sound, media and performance arts took place, the first local partnerships were established. Of particular note was the “Sound Villages” educational project carried out in 2008 and 2009 in partnership with the Municipality of São Pedro do Sul and the São Pedro do Sul School Group.
In 2010 and 2011, Binaural organised Paivascapes #1 – River Paiva Sound Festival, an itinerant festival conceived as a series of educational activities, artist residencies and cultural programming developed along the Paiva river, which included new regional partnerships, such as the Vila Nova de Paiva municipality.
From 2013 onwards, Binaural Nodar began two complementary lines of intervention in terms of deepening local cooperation relations:
a) The development of articulated programming projects with municipalities in the region, specifically Vouzela, São Pedro do Sul, Oliveira de Frades, Viseu and Castro Daire, under which initiatives as varied as the Tramontana Festival in the municipality of São Pedro do Sul (2013), the Ocupai Festival – Iberian Festival of Art and Action in the municipalities of São Pedro do Sul, Vouzela and Oliveira de Frades (2015-2019) and two audiovisual ethnography and contemporary cultural programming in rural villages were conceived: the Viseu Rural 2.0 project in the municipality of Viseu (2015 to date) and the Memory on Wheels project in the municipality of Castro Daire since 2017.
b) Binaural Nodar’s participation in the Viseu Dão Lafões Cultural Network, an initiative of the region’s main professional cultural structures: Binaural Nodar, Teatro Viriato, ACERT, Teatro Montemuro and Cine Clube de Viseu, for the conception and/or circulation of multidisciplinary shows on themes and in spaces with heritage significance. Over the years, Binaural Nodar has conceived and presented shows for this network such as “Macário”, “Beira Campanologies”, “Thermal Sound Immersion”, “Perennial Bridges over Temporary Waters”, “Combi Nights”, etc.