About Me

Since completing my PhD in The Domestic Soundscape and beyond… presenting everyday sounds to audiences in 2011, I have been working as a practicing artist. In May 2013 I will commence an early career research fellowship at Oxford Brookes University, developing my practice within the context of the Sonic Art Research Unit.

Although I work with a variety of media including silk-screen printing and hand-knitting, I am best known for my creative uses of sound. My projects use field-recordings and interviews to explore the meaning of objects and social contexts, and in the UK I am gaining recognition for my socially-engaged approach to working with everyday sounds.

Domestic themes – food, clothing, shelter – preoccupy my work, and recent commissions include Sonic Wallpapers (funded by Museum of Domestic design and Architecture) in which historic wallpapers were explored through sound; a soundtrack for a 1930s antenatal care film, Bathing & Dressing, Parts 1 & 2, (funded by The Wellcome Library and The British Film Institute); and a hand-knitted sound-system, Hûrd A KNITSONIK™ PRODUKTION, combining wool and sounds taken from Cumbrian sheep farms (funded by The Wool Marketing Board and Rheged Art Gallery). I was recently interviewed for the publication “In the Field”, and presented my work at the associated symposium at The British Library in February.

Forthcoming projects include:

“How are we using field recordings to change the world?” – A Sound Diaries Symposium, UK
“Radiophonics & Me” – a radio show about Daphne Oram, Maddalena Fagandini and Delia Derbyshire commissioned for MuseRuole
“Tuned City Brussels” – a field recording workshop for the Tuned City Festival, to be jointly run with Valeria Merlini, Belgium
“Plaidie & Draft” – an online correspondence re: textiles and sounds, with James Wyness, UK
“Listening to Shetland Wool” – a presentation using field recordings and oral histories being created especially for Shetland Wool Week
“KNITSONIK Estonia” – a project to develop soundscapes for the Estonian National Museum, based on the historic textiles held in their archives, Estonia

You can read about my practice in this book
You can listen to radio shows I have produced here
You can buy the DVD featuring my first film soundtrack here
You can listen to Sonic Wallpapers here

Photo of Felicity Ford © Mark Stanley