The Cetacea Foundation

Looking Deep

The Cetacea Foundation is a 501(c)(3) based in the United States and New Zealand whose goal is to foster cultural connection and mutual learning, promote health, and reduce multi-generational trauma and suffering. We apply advanced technologies and ancient wisdom for the betterment of marginalized peoples, neurodivergent communities, and anyone who has experienced trauma.

United States · Aotearoa New Zealand · Est. 2024

Our Approach

Sound is how we reach the unheard.

We work at the intersection of advanced sound technology, artificial intelligence, integrative biotechnology, and neurosomatic research. Each discipline is a different lens on the same question: how does the human nervous system respond to signal, frequency, and environment, and how can that response be shaped toward healing?

Our work draws equally on cutting-edge engineering and on traditional knowledge that has guided communities for generations. We believe these are not in tension. We build laboratories and we hold ceremonies. We measure biometrics and we honour story. Both forms of knowledge make the work credible.

Projects

Where the work lives.

Flagship Program

Soundwaves of Connection

An ongoing cultural-exchange program between the United States and Aotearoa New Zealand. We bring leading American acoustic technology, immersive sound experiences, and wellness practitioners to NZ communities; we bring NZ artists, healers, and frameworks of relationship to the US. The program runs as a series of events, residencies, and collaborative installations. Our March 2025 evening with Pink Floyd's Scott Page at The Piano in Christchurch is one realisation of this work.

Research Initiative

52 Blue

Named for the 52-hertz whale — a single cetacean recorded calling at a frequency no other whale of its kind uses, popularly called the loneliest whale in the world. The project is our standing investigation into cetacean acoustics, machine listening, and what it means to hear what others cannot. We collaborate with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution lineage and with contemporary marine bioacoustics research. The metaphor is the work: a frequency unheard is not a frequency unreal.

Forthcoming Venue

The OCEAN

Oasis of Collective Energies and Acoustic Nourishment

A forthcoming Christchurch venue and our most ambitious physical project. The OCEAN will be a permanent home for the Foundation's acoustic, neurosomatic, and cultural-exchange work — a space where the Dragonfire Acoustics technology can live in service of the community, where residencies and ceremonies can happen under one roof, and where the Sponsor a Student initiative finds its physical anchor. The venue is in development with our partners at Exchange Christchurch. Watch this space.

Applied Technologies

Four disciplines, one question.

01

Advanced Acoustics

At the heart of our research lies the sophisticated application of state-of-the-art planar magnetic technology, meticulously crafted by our collaborators at Dragonfire Acoustics. We leverage DFA's ultra-thin, 5-micron space-tempered cryogenic diaphragms, working in concert with their patented unipolar neodymium drivers. This fusion of precision engineering allows us to investigate the profound effects of hyper-fidelity audio across a broad spectrum of therapeutic avenues.

The technology equips us with the capacity to delve into the acoustic spectrum with unparalleled clarity, avoiding the high distortion and auditory strain common to conventional loudspeaker systems. We chart new courses in sonic therapy and expand the boundaries of how sound can be used for healing and transformative experience.

02

Artificial Intelligence

We apply contemporary artificial intelligence — multimodal models, machine listening, and adaptive biosignal processing — to the development of digital health software and integrative bio-technologies. AI is not the work itself; it is the tooling that lets us measure precisely, intervene gently, and respect the complexity of the human nervous system at scale.

Our 52 Blue research extends this lens into cetacean acoustics: training machine-listening models to identify individual whale vocalisations is a methodological cousin of identifying individual human stress responses. The same underlying capabilities serve both.

03

Biotechnology

Our biotechnology work is integrative by design: combining contemporary diagnostic and intervention methods with traditional and plant-based approaches that have served communities for generations. We are particularly interested in the somatic ground of trauma — the body's record of experience — and in the modalities that allow that record to be acknowledged and gently rewritten.

04

Neurosomatic Intelligence

Neurosomatic intelligence (NSI) is the capacity to recognise and understand the connection between the mind, the nervous system, and the body — to perceive and interpret physical sensations, emotions, and thoughts as an integrated whole rather than as separate channels.

At the Foundation we employ NSI protocols and techniques to monitor biometric data and surface insights into how the nervous system responds to stimulus. Our approach helps individuals calibrate their physiological responses to stress, navigate emotional landscapes with precision, and find a state of homeostasis conducive to wellbeing. The work is rigorously measured and gently delivered.

Partners

The work is built with these organisations.

Technology

Dragonfire Acoustics

The acoustic-engineering partnership that gave the Foundation its origin. DFA's patented planar magnetic loudspeaker technology — built around 5-micron cryogenic diaphragms and unipolar neodymium drivers — is the substrate of our Advanced Acoustics research.

dragonfirepro.com →

Venue & Programs

XCHC — Exchange Christchurch

Our NZ-side anchor. XCHC is the Christchurch creative-exchange venue and community whose partnership has carried our southern-hemisphere work from the start — from co-developing the forthcoming OCEAN venue to running the Sponsor a Student initiative and hosting our residencies and events.

xchc.co.nz →

About

The Foundation in plain language.

The Cetacea Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation registered in the United States, with active operations in Aotearoa New Zealand. We were established to extend a specific technology partnership — Dragonfire Acoustics' planar magnetic loudspeaker work — into therapeutic and cultural applications, particularly in the southern hemisphere where this work had not previously had a home.

From that origin, the Foundation has grown into a multi-disciplinary organisation working at the intersection of advanced sound technology, AI-driven health research, integrative biotechnology, and neurosomatic intelligence. Our audiences are marginalised peoples, neurodivergent communities, and anyone living with trauma — anyone whose experience has been at a frequency the wider world has trouble hearing.

We are a small organisation with intentionally narrow scope. We would rather do a few things deeply than many things shallowly. The 52-hertz whale is our patron animal not by accident; we believe the work of hearing what others miss is the actual work.

Support the Work

Donations are tax-deductible.

The Cetacea Foundation is a US-registered 501(c)(3) public charity. Contributions are deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. We accept donations for general operations and for specific programs — Soundwaves of Connection, 52 Blue, and the Sponsor a Student initiative.

Get in touch Donate

For wire transfers, in-kind contributions, programme sponsorship, or estate gifts, please contact us directly.