Research
My Master of Research (MRes) focused on philosophies of sound synthesis, exploring complex systems, phenomenology, and modular synthesis as compositional methodology.
My academic work spans sound arts design, ambisonics, sound & music for picture, coding and audiovisual practice.
Stochastic Genesis addresses challenges in representing emergent phenomena - drawn from both lived experience and scientific models - through sound. Telling the story of abiogenesis (the emergence of life from non-organic compounds) the project seeks to bridge a gap between abstract musical form and embodied perception, asking how dynamic, evolving sonic structures can evoke the sensation of touch, growth, and transformation.
It aims to deepen our understanding of how sound communicates not only patterns or aesthetics, but multi-sensory dimensions and processes of becoming - foregrounding music as a site where sensory, scientific, and emotional phenomena converge.
The project uses modular synthesis in a practice-based research context to emulate, embody, and sonify scientific processes linked to abiogenesis. Drawing on concepts of chaos, complexity, and natural symmetry, the project generates evolving sound structures that mimic the formation of proteins, DNA, and multicellular life.
These systems are then analysed, dismantled, layered, and reassembled to create sonic narratives exploring how sound can reflect the tactile, emergent, and awe-inspiring phenomena of life’s origins—inviting the listener into a speculative ecology where sound becomes a medium for experiencing biological wonder.
[Research Abstract]
“Solely the balance between evidence and lyricism can allow us to achieve simultaneous emotion and lucidity”
Albert Camus (1942)
As sound synthesis technology advances and proliferates, the tools we use to create music hold increasing immaterial influence over our creative capacities and understanding. This research investigates the degree to which human interfacing with sound synthesis technology for sound creation affects us on core sensory and psychological levels, and how technology manifests as a mode of comprehension. Electronic music literature increasingly intersects with other fields, so this research embraces an interdisciplinary approach.
Stochastic Genesis adopts a practice-based research approach, where studio experimentation and analysis formulate enquiry, and the application of technology for creative purposes acts as means of revealing. The research draws from sound and synthesis theory, philosophy, complex systems theory, and contextualises the studio practice in a narrative based on the natural sciences, particularly fundamental physics, biochemistry and theories surrounding the emergence of life on earth.
The project’s validity was inspired by increasing democratisation around electronic music technology, (most people have access to a computer which can run music production software, some of which is available for free) and growing emphasis around sonic art and sound design in academia, evident in our own institution (with expanding courses, electives and research surrounding sound theory, sonic art, digital/electronic music and ambisonics).
The project embraces principles of meta-narrative: certain themes interlink the various relevant contexts, studio methodologies and academic fields, namely, emergence, embodiment, interconnectivity, generativity, stochasticity, wonderment and transformation.
[full thesis coming soon]
I’m newly involved in two research groups, and intend to pursue avenues of sound research on to PhD.
The Resound research group at the Glasgow School of Art is a collaborative initiative that delves into the multifaceted world of sound, exploring its intersections with art, design, technology, and society. By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and practice, the group aims to investigate how sound operates within various cultural, spatial, and technological contexts. Their work encompasses a range of activities, including practice-based research, theoretical inquiry, and public engagement, all centered around the critical and creative potentials of sound.
This SIG group is a sound research group that considers political, social, experiential, ecological, feminist, philosophical, etc. possibilities via sound. In other words, a group that in different ways and from different sonic orientations questions and re-visions realities, everyday hierarchies and conventions as well as political, academic, and institutional realities.
It aims for a Sonic Futurism.