The Story of My Research

I am continuing my study of sound design in a PhD program at the University of Edinburgh, advised by Martin Parker. Concentrating more on sound, I am studying the nature of sound in three-dimensional contexts where sound objects can be observed from multiple angles and vantage points. It is an effort to create meaningful interactions with sound by sculpting the way sound radiates in three dimensions from a single source object. Although this is a much more concentrated study on sound, there is an underlying visual aspect to my work. I am trying to create an audio object that we consider in much the same way as we do visual forms of sculpture, where an object is observed and studied as a three-dimensional form that must be observed from multiple points in order to fully appreciate what is being presented.

I previously completed an MSc in Sound Design at Edinburgh University directed by Martin Parker. During this period I was able to further my studies and deepen my understanding of sound while in a context that allowed and often required a consideration of accompanying visual material. This ended in a project creating an audio synthesizer that generated sound based on the spatial and color data contained in a video stream. This was an effort to create a truly audio-visual object where the sound only exists because the visuals exist.

I've always been interested in both visual and sonic domains. During my undergraduate studies at Bennington College, before a three-year span working in Japan, I dual-majored in music and digital art; concentrating in improvisational saxophone performance with Bruce Williamson and computer animation with Nino Mendolia. Additional studies in computer sound with Randal Neal lead me to explore a deeper understanding of what sound and music is, and branched into a similar consideration of my visual work. This lead to a series of audio-visual works of tightly knit image and sound.