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Press Release Where art and science meet. Loneliness due to a hearing problem? Is art a solution? Research from Erasmus MC and the knowledge center Veiligheid.nl shows that an estimated 13 percent of the Dutch population aged 40 and older has a hearing loss of more than 35 decibels. This amounts to 1.2 million people who struggle to understand others in daily life, especially in an environment with poor acoustics. More attention to this is certainly necessary, as the effort it takes to compensate can lead people to drop out of work or become socially isolated. A hearing aid may sometimes just not be necessary, but attention to acoustics is. Too often, Scheijen sees in his consultations that people move from a house to a modern apartment and then opt for a living room with an open kitchen. Large spaces with smooth walls, smooth floors, and hard materials. This creates a huge echo in the room. And when friends are visiting and chatting together, the poor acoustics have a significant impact on speech understanding in that space. Dyon Scheijen is a clinical physicist - audiologist and visual artist. He has practiced both professions separately for years, but since 2020 he has found a brilliant way to combine them. An improvement in acoustics can be achieved by using acoustically absorbing materials. This can also include large wall-filling artworks that can improve the acoustics.