About

Dr Leah Barclay is an Australian sound artist, designer, and researcher who works at the intersection of art, science, and technology. Leah’s research and creative work investigates new methods in ecoacoustics, exploring the soundscapes of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to inform conservation, scientific research, and public engagement. She is a specialist in underwater recording and has over 15 years of experience recording marine and freshwater ecosystems across the planet. Her work explores ways we can use creativity, new technologies and emerging science to reconnect communities to the environment and inspire climate action. Leah is the Discipline Lead of Design at the University of the Sunshine Coast, where she is also co-leading the Creative Ecologies Research Cluster.

Andrew Skeoch is a professional wildlife sound recordist, acoustic ecologist and author of ‘Deep Listening to Nature’. Over the last thirty years, he has documenting the sounds of environments around the planet, and through his label 'Listening Earth', published over one hundred recordings allowing listeners to immerse themselves in wild soundscapes from around the world. His recordings have been heard in documentaries, installations and feature films such as Peter Gabriel's soundtrack to 'Rabbit Proof Fence’. He has given presentations to audiences ranging from local community and naturalist groups to university students. He’s appeared at festivals such as WOMADelaide’s Planet Talks, written for The Conversation, and presented radio features, keynote addresses and a TEDx talk. He is the president of the Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group.

Tristan Louth-Robins is an Australian artist working principally in the medium of sound art, composition and acoustic ecology. Ideas of sound and its signification are key elements in Louth-Robins’ practice, traversing the spaces between the visual and aural his work is realised through recordings, installation, visual art and performance. He is interested in sound and its associative implications - including its relationship to the surrounding environment, objects, technology and urban spaces. Since 2011, he has facilitated the Fleurieu & Kangaroo Island Sound Map (FKISM).

Vicki is a versatile chamber musician, sound artist, music practitioner and educator. She performs as a clarinetist with Sonus Ensemble and the Geelong Symphony Orchestra. Her recordings vary from a chamber music clarinet soloist to her exploratory work with Elephants, Sound Art and Meditation/Practitioner projects. Vicki’s compositional process is constantly evolving and explores the space between hearing music as a cultural experience and the aural vibration within the being. The ongoing quest for sonic immersion and creative compositional devices with authenticity and inspiration leads both Vicki and the listener through an organic landscape of sound.

Kim V. Goldsmith (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and creative producer based on Wiradjuri Country on the Western Plains of New South Wales. Since 2008, her creative practice has encompassed community engagement, field-recorded sound, video, installation, story-gathering, writing, and community engagement. Directed by an evolutionary process of responding to the environments she works in, Kim tackles the challenging environmental issues faced by rural, regional and remote communities. Her work is an exploration of the many layers of nuance and complexity within the territories across which she works, seeking the hidden elements that make them vibrate. Kim is also a radio broadcaster and journalist, and is the founder and lead artist of ecological arts project platform, ecoPULSE.art, and international tree soundscape site, arboreus.earth.

Keira J. Simmons (she/they) is an emerging South Australian sound artist and sound designer based on unceded Kaurna Land. She creates projects that explore bodily engagement with place and sound, through speculative soundwalking and through performing meditative ambient sets. As a freelance sound designer, she works with local and global artists on creative projects focusing on queerness, ecology, neurodivergence and embodied theatrical experiences. She is also passionate about creating and supporting opportunities for marginalised and underrepresented voices, both literally (as an audio technician) and systemically (with Creative Original Music Adelaide).

​​Jesse Budel is a composer-performer and sound artist based in Adelaide, South Australia. His  PhD at Elder Conservatorium of Music, The University of Adelaide (with an Australian Postgraduate Award), focussed on adapting soundscape ecology frameworks and methodologies to creative process, applied in the production of works responding to engagement with specific sites, and related ecosystems and soundscapes.  In 2024, Jesse was an Arts South Australia Fellowship for higher-order ambisonics research and creative practice. Currently, he is a Research Associate at The University of Adelaide, and also serves as the Secretary for the Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology.​ Website

​Dr. Toby Gifford is an acoustic ecologist, audio technologist and sound designer. His research focusses on ‘Aural Embodiment’ – the notion that much more of our lived experience is mediated through sound than is typically understood. His Jambot software has received national acclaim, appearing on the ABC New Inventors program. Interactive installations have been exhibited in the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, the Museum of Melbourne, Splendour in the Grass music festival, and the European Capital of Culture Festival in Patras, Greece. He has been artist-in-residence at the Gallery of Modern Art developing live soundtracks for silent films. He is an active acoustic musician, live electronic music performer, and works at the arts/science nexus. His research in Ecoacoustics specialises in soundscape analysis for freshwater ecosystems.

Dr. Diana Chester is an internationally recognised digital media artist, who uses sound to explore more-than-human dimensions of understanding existence in the time of the Anthropocene. Their work fluidly explores multilingual, inter-environmental, and data generated soundscapes, finding rhythmic cadences and synergies from the natural world, and placing them in conversation with visual materials to compose “listening stories” that compel humans to think more deeply about inclusive ideas of place and belonging. Diana is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney.