GLASGOW'S B-listed Govanhill Baths promise to bring a whole new dimension to this year's Sonica, opening up the audio visual element of the world-class event. So much more than a music festival, the bi-annual gathering of carefully curated music, performance, sound and multimedia must be visually as well as aurally exciting before it is considered.

While work is being done to restore the beautifully designed former Edwardian bath house in the South Side, the empty pools will be put to use by visual artist and theatre maker Jompet Kuswidananto, who arrived in the city last month to take part in the hugely successful Discover Indonesia showcase.

He has been commissioned to produce a large-scale kinetic sculpture and will be using all three pools for Order and After, focusing on the period in his home country known as Reformasi, a time of democratic change that allowed greater freedom of expression within the arts.

"His work focuses on all the changes Indonesia has been through and how being under such a tight regime, they are now free to express themselves. That's going to be a beautiful installation with flags," says artistic director Cathie Boyd, who has co-curated the programme, produced by Cryptic, with Graham McKenzie and Patrick Dickie.

Cryptic associate Robbie Thomson will be at the same venue with a piece of work shown at Fort du Bruissin's Centre d'Art Contemporain in Frencheville, Lyon, earlier this year and described as a playful paradise of sci-fi style hi-tech wizardry. Immersive sculptural work The New Alps is a kinetic installation that imagines a disorienting futuristic landscape populated by robotic inhabitants.

"It's his comment on how human interventions have changed the planet, such as mining and damming. He is an amazing artist, one of the younger artists within Sonica. He started with Cryptic through Cryptic Nights and worked his way through the Cryptic Associates programme," explains Boyd.

"What's brilliant about the baths is they are so resonant, the sound you make in an empty bath is absolutely fantastic. It's almost the perfect venue for sonic work. When I first saw Govanhill Baths being used by Glasgow International last year it made me think: 'This is such an incredible space, we should really be using it'. "

Another performance at Govanhill Baths is the world premiere of Etanan by Alex Menzies, better known as DJ Smoke, and Florence To; immersive visuals with incredible sound – in the baby pool.

For a festival that explores the boundaries where music, visual art, live performance and digital technology meet, it is no surprise that this year, with 18 world and UK premieres, it ventures beyond conventional spaces to present new work in unusual places.

There will be a performance of 15 Seconds by musician and sound artist Lauren Hayes at Hamilton Mausoleum, which holds the world record for the longest echo. The music is formed out of a relationship with the unique architecture of the building, creating an intimate and hopefully unforgettable concert experience.

In a link that follows on from last year's hugely ambitious and daring Sound to Sea spectacular, staged by Cryptic during the Commonwealth Games, Glasgow Science Centre will host the free entry Helmholtz by Wintour's Leap.

"I saw this young duo from London last year, it's a beautiful interactive light exhibition. If you're a toddler, the sound you make in the space is where the lights light up. So when you go in speaking the lights follow you. It's UNESCO International Year of Light, so it's the perfect time for this," says Boyd.

"We have been able to programme two concerts there, Maxwell Quartet performing a programme of Glass, Meredith, Muhly & Pärt, beautiful melodic music I'm really looking forward to, and Dunedin Consort performing Palestrina's Motets for Five voices.

"Then we're having an afternoon jam session in Helmholtz where anyone can bring their instrument and play it in the space."

Much of the audio visual work, large screens with visuals and electronic music, is programmed at the Mitchell Theatre, another new venue for Sonica, and will be tagged Tramway at the Mitchell. A new part of the festival, it is specifically aimed at young people who may have been to music festivals over the summer.

Over at Tramway, Australian Robin Fox, who was Sonica artist in residence in 2012, returns and will take part in the opening performance with Speak Percussion on a journey into uncharted sonic territory. Inspired by Stockhausen's seminal work Mikrophonie 1, the UK premiere of Transducer is an electro-acoustic performance that places the microphone centre stage and redefines its function.

"Transducer tests the limits of the microphone. It's quite a fabulous piece. They have paired it with Fluorophone, which has its world premiere," says Boyd.

"The following night we have incredible Quebecoic artist Herman Kolgen presenting a triple bill and a lot of people have said, 'That's the concert we're going to.' He has never presented in Glasgow before and his triple bill includes Seismik, which is about earthquakes. It takes seismic waves and uses them in real time with visuals. The music is absolutely incredible, it's explosive.

"His last piece Link C is Philip Glass's String Quartet No2, and that is being performed by the Glasgow-based Maxwell String Quartet, which is a lovely piece of music."

The UK premiere of Wings by Eric Sleichim and BL!NDMAN, sees the return of the Belgian company to the city after performing in Mayfest in the 1980s. The 1927 Academy Award-winning silent movie by William A Wellman is screened with a live score for electronics and percussion, interlaced with fragments of 20th century percussive repertoire.

Sonica, October 29 to November 8, across Glasgow. Visit www.sonic-a.co.uk