Listening together-apart (2022) is a theory of listening, which is always listening and responding, that I am continually practising and developing through my work. I hear it is a way of being in the world; a way of tuning with and through others. It is a way of listening that is always changing, as I am changed by the matters I listen to and the people I listen with. 

Between 2016 and 2021 I undertook a practice-research PhD project at the University of Glasgow exploring collaborative approaches to the conceptual and actual composition of sound with moving images. Through a portfolio of compositions spanning film, installation, publication, performance, music and sonic arts the thesis I wrote explores the notion of the sound-image; an agential entanglement of sound, image, artist, audience, and the matters to which each sound-image speaks. Theories of non-hierarchical, non-binary relation in cultural studies, sound and filmmaking are explored through collaborative projects realised with artists and community groups, using the indeterminacy of Open Works as a site for creative investigation into these matters. The text outlines the theoretical framework for this study and documents the practical and conceptual approaches to each work included in the portfolio.

Funded by The Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities and The Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Complete Thesis (PDF)