SOUND ART

Most of my sound art projects have been directed either towards radiophonic practice or towards environmental sound in site-specific contexts, situated practice, examining critical issues and topics around landscape, ecology, ethnography, the use of the voice and the anthropology of sound from both documentary and poetic perspectives. Past projects include investigations into conversational practice, acts of listening, the uncertainties of language, the instabilities of the voice and speech and sociolinguistics, for example: working with a growing archive of field recordings from Semana Santa, the highly ritualised Holy Week processions taking place in the streets of Seville; exploiting sound’s potential to offer a more readily perceptible representation of climate change data, inviting fresh perspectives and perceptions with respect to our understandings of anthropogenic climate change; an ongoing interdisciplinary situated practice working across landscape and environment.

Conceptually I'm drawn to ideas relating to rupture, disruption, dislocation, transmission and disarticulation, all fundamental elements in the history of experimental radiophonic practice.

Currently I’m developing new multi-media work that takes account of the writings of Marcel Mauss, notably his seminal study os sympathetic magic A General Theory of Magic. Through this lens I consider that the chain of transmission in electroacoustic diffusion (the ubiquity of sound through loudspeakers) has many significant and non-trivial similarities to the idea of a ritual circuit of contagion. This theoretical position takes account of the anthropological foundations of our emotionally and socially constructed responses to audio recordings. 

Electroacoustic musical composition and radio or sonic art more generally not only share a common ancestry but also thrive on processes such as metamorphosis and mutation. I like to keep the two apart, considering the musical domain in terms of abstraction and that of the sonic arts as offering a vehicle for the examination of themes, topics  and concepts, each requiring its own methodology.