Biography
When being creative, I am lost in the moment. With the work I make and share with others, I want to bring
them to that carefree space, if even for a short while. My creative output takes many forms, from music
performance to interactive sound installation, to instrument design and workshop facilitation.
I describe myself as a sound artist, but within that, my day to day practice is perhaps closer in nature to
that of an engineer: working with code, electronics, mechanisms, fabrication and CAD. These are the
necessary means to an end in the creative journey I have led over the past 15 years or more.
The end is always the creation of music, which since humans started banging rocks together to make sound has been an abstract and technological medium that reaches deep into our souls and tells us who we are, in a language without words.
Where: RAMP experimental music festival Rathmullan
When: 2023
Synopsis: An engagement with the local primary school culminating in a performance. I worked with 40 students investigating sound design and performance techniques. I used the sounds they made to compose the music for the performance, and was joined by 15 of the pupils who played my instruments during the set.
Relevance: As one of the first truly collaborative commissions I have undertaken with young people, the experience gained with this and other one-off projects will inform the development of future works.
Where: Wires, Strings and Other Things music theatre show, The Ark, Dublin
When: 2022
Synopsis: As part of a trio of musicians, I was largely responsible for audience interaction through picking volunteers to control the musicians via a light interface, recording their sounds with a microphone, and walking around the audience to create alternately lighthearted and introspective moods.
Relevance: Under the tutelage of composer Brian Irvine, the show gave me valuable experience as a performer and facilitator, gaining insight into how a project is conceptualised and fleshed out over time by a multidisciplinary team.
Where: National College of Art & Design, University Limerick, current arts practice
When: 2016 - 2018, 2018 - 2019, 2019 - present
Synopsis: Interaction design, physical computing, and developing electronic circuit boards in relation to music performance have long been part of my repertoire. In my roles in 3rd level education I developed modular physical computing tools to simplify interaction design in the real world, building a technological fluency that informs my practice to this day.
Relevance: I see electronic-based instruments as the ideal medium in which to create inclusive and immersive live music experiences. Complexity can be hidden behind simple and intuitive interface design. Modularity and programmability allow participants degrees of customisation and exposure to the underlying technology.
Where: Culture Night 2024 Letterkenny / Middlesbrough Sonic Arts Week 2025
When: 2024 - present
Synopsis: Given a blank slate commission for a local arts festival, I built a battery powered speaker backpack and an LED helmet that lights up in sequence with the music. As it is self-contained and mobile, I can perform wherever I can walk or fit in (the headpiece is quite wide).
Relevance: The conceptual approach of making sounding elements mobile rather than static and stage based has long been a feature of my solo music performances. Movement, choreography and architectural space become important components, and the element of surprise for the audience ensure dynamic experiences.
Where: my brain > notebook
When: ongoing
Synopsis: for me the design process always begins with sketches on paper, where I can figure out various
aspects of feasibility, materials, fabrication methods, usability and more. A sizeable amount of my
day-to-day creative practice is spent in this space.
Relevance: Educational frameworks, musical parameters, code, instrument building, facilitation approaches and more rely on careful planning, conceptual development and research. Time spent with the notebook is essential to any new work.
Where: this website
When: ongoing
For many years my personal website has been a portfolio site with little traffic or updating. I will turn this into a repository for the various outputs of my research and development of music projects, code development and fabrication techniques. Usually I keep notes in paper form but will do so digitally to keep all relevant materials in one place - design files, code, framework document drafts, audio and video recordings, and blog posts that contextualise the data to time and activity.
Relevance: From the standpoint of learning from the past, documentation is essential. Many details get lost in human memory after even short periods of time, so documenting thought processes, design iterations, user feedback and audio-visual recordings provide an archive that can be mined for useful data when it comes to bringing the research into more concrete stages.
