Angus Tarnawsky   ︎    b. 1988 in lutruwita (Tasmania, Australia)    

︎    angus.tarnawsky@concordia.ca
︎    @incontextmusic







Angus Tarnawsky is a sound artist and researcher currently living and working in London, UK. As a musical improviser and curator, he has worked extensively with lathe cut records via releases on his label In Context Music, as well as through direct-to-disc recording performances as part of the Very Low Frequency Dub Collective. As a PhD candidate in Communication Studies at Concordia University (Tiohtià:ke/Montréal), he investigates the social and political dimensions of hearing and listening in urban spaces. Several phases of this work are documented in the recent book chapter, What do I Hear, and How do I listen? Thinking With Sound on the Lachine Canal as part of Palgrave Macmillan's edited volume Sound Research for Troubling Times.

CV

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Education

PhD, Communication
Concordia University, 2020–present

MFA, Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design
OCAD University, 2018–20

BMus, Performance (Honours)
University of Melbourne, 2006–09

Expertise and Interests

Research-Creation:Practice-based and practice-led approaches to research; Sound art projects and musical performances in mixed-used and shared urban spaces; Participant engagement and practices of co-creation.

Sound Studies: Everyday listening practices; Colonialism and settler colonialism; Urban sonic environments; Location recording; Sound mapping and counter mapping techniques; Soundwalking.

Media Production: Audio recording, editing, arranging and mixing (Ableton Live, Logic Pro X, Pro Tools, Adobe Audition, Audacity, et al.); Creative use (and strategic misuse!) of analog and digital audio technologies (Max MSP, Pure Data, radio broadcasting, tape machines, turntables, et al.); Lathe cut records/dubplates and experimental record making.

Research Experience

Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP), Concordia, 2021–present: Involvement with multiple projects incorporating direct-to-disc recording using three disc cutting lathes located in the Lathe Room; a co-creation space I developed alongside Dr. Owen Chapman in 2023.

SpokenWeb, Concordia, 2021–24: Development of virtual and in-person soundwalking workshops with participatory online components, and expanded archival documentation. Restoration of 1940s transcription disc recording lathe. Advisor for collaborative lathe cut record projects, and co-curator of audio art exhibition.

Landscape of Hope, Concordia, 2020–24: Restoration of multiple 1940s transcription disc recording lathes, organization of talk by Dylan Robinson (Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts), and project management plus content contributions for podcast series.

Podcasting for Art and Design Public Engagement, OCADU, 2019–20: Technical support for podcast series “The Deaths of the Artists.”

Embodying Algorithms Through Performance, OCADU, 2018–19: Investigation of new interfaces for musical expression using Max MSP software.

Teaching Experience

Instructor: Communication Analysis of Environment (COMS 324), Concordia, 2023

Instructor: Communication Media: Sound I (COMS 276), Concordia, 2022

Teaching Assistant: Communication Media: Sound III (COMS 477), Concordia, 2022

Teaching Assistant: Communication Media: Sound I (COMS276), Concordia, 2020–2023

Teaching Assistant: Global Visual and Material Culture II (VISC-1002), OCADU, 2019–20

Teaching Assistant: Global Visual and Material Culture I (VISC-1001), OCADU, 2018–20

Publications

Book Chapters

What Do I Hear, and How Do I Listen? Thinking With Sound on the Lachine Canal in “Sound Research for Troubling Times,” edited by jessie l. beier and Owen Chapman, Palgrave McMillan, 2024

Pocket in “Metaphors in Music and Sound,” edited by Nina Eidsheim, Dylan Robinson, J. Martin Daughtry and Daniel Walden, Duke University Press, 2025

Journal Articles

Habits of Listening: Encounters with Sound Art in Urban Spaces, Performance Research 28, no. 6 (2023)

Nothing to Hear, So to Speak: Spaces of Sounding and Listening at 100 McCaul St, The Journal of Media Art Study and Theory 2, no. 2 (2021)

Variable Frequencies: A Sound Installation Investigating Process and Interaction, Panic at the Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal 1, no. 2 (2020)

Presentations

Unheard Frequencies, Global Reggae Studies Conference, Kingston, Jamaica, 2024

Amplified Listening, philoSOPHIA, University of Calgary, Online, 2024

Walking and Listening on the Lachine Canal, SpokenWeb Symposium, Edmonton, AB, 2023

Sonic Encounters and Settler Colonial Perception in Urban Spaces, 4S, Cholula, Mexico, 2022

Sound, Sound(s), Sound(ings): Listening to the Lachine Canal, Neil Postman Conference, New York, NY, 2022

Acoustic Graffiti and the Uncertain Potential of Re-Sounding Spaces, Convergence, Leicester, UK, 2022

Research-Creation Methods in Communications, CCA Congress, Online, 2021

Unsettling Spaces, SFU Communication Graduate Conference, Online, 2021

Sonic Matter(s), Université de Montreal Arts and Medias Annual Symposium, Online, 2020

The Hum, Royal Musical Association (UK) 56th Annual Conference, Online, 2020

Improvisation for Computer Musicians (w/ Adam Tindale), ICMC, New York, NY, 2019

Sound, Affect, and Installation Art, UnDisciplined Conference, Kingston, ON, 2019

Embracing Imperfection, Music in New Technologies Forum, Halifax, NS, 2018

Spaces and Rituals (w/ Adam Tindale), Music in New Technologies Forum, Halifax, NS, 2018

Invited Talks

Lathe Cut Records, Concordia, 2023
Sonic Encounters (artist talk), Concordia, 2021
Lathe Cut Records, Concordia, 2021
Critical Sonic Practices, Concordia, 2021
Uncommon Sounds, Concordia, 2020
Synthesis Techniques, Concordia, 2020
Sonic Interventions, OCADU, 2020
Soundwalking in Cities, OCADU, 2019
Synthesis 101, Brooklyn College, 2017
Audio Recording, The New School, 2014

Workshops (Led)

How to Make Lathe Cut Records, SpokenWeb Amplab, 2023

Making Lathe Cut Records, CSLP, 2023

Lathe Cut Conversations (w/ Owen Chapman), No Outsides Institute, CSLP, 2023

Unheard Frequencies (w/ Owen Chapman), LOH x BAM, CSLP, 2022

Walking and Listening (Together and Apart), GLASS, University of Regina, 2022

Walking and Listening on the Lachine Canal, SpokenWeb Institute, 2022

Drone (Music) Making, CJLO Radio, 2022

Soundwalk Remix, Soundwalk Symposium, 2022

Critical Listening Positionality, Lesson Play, 2022

Listening Together While Apart, Listening Practice, 2022

Noticing, Noting and Notating Sound, SpokenWeb Symposium, 2021

Soundwalk Mapping Techniques, Listening Practice, 2021

Sonic Arts For All, Brooklyn College, 2017

Street Studio, Skill Mill NYC, Make Music Festival, 2017

Working Groups / Collectives

Feminist Media Studio (FMS), Concordia, 2021–present

Concordia Sound Studies Cluster (CSS), Concordia, 2021–present

Soundwalk Symposium (organizing committee), Concordia, 2021

CATDAWG, McGill University, 2020–2025

Installations (Selected)

As the Gull Flies, Biosphère, Montreal, QC, June, 2023–April, 2024

Listening, Sound, Agency, Webster Library, Montreal, QC, May–Sep 2022

Nothing to Hear, So to Speak, 100 McCaul Street, Toronto, ON, 2020

Refrain, Roundtable Closing Exhibition, Toronto, ON, 2019

For Pauline, 205 Richmond Street West, Toronto, ON, 2019

Variable Frequencies, Harvestworks Gallery, New York, NY, 2019

H/A, Open Space Gallery, Toronto, ON, 2019

Relative Distance, Het Nieuwe Instituut, New York, NY, 2018

Held Together, 205 Richmond St West, Toronto, ON, 2018

Timestreams, Wave Farm, Acra, NY, 2018

Sound + Signal, Smartgeometry, Daniels Building, Toronto, ON, 2018

Performances (Selected)

Unheard Freqs, Phi Foundation, Montreal, QC, 2024

Radiophonic Dreamscape No. 1, Failure (Conference), Montreal, QC, 2022

No Way Around It, Crutch Contemporary Art Centre, Toronto, ON, 2019

Ra-dio-in, The Sunview Luncheonette, Brooklyn, NY, 2019

Chase / Tarnawsky (with Brian Chase), Various Locations, 2014–18

Round Robin, The Great Hall, Toronto, ON, 2018

Times Square, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY, 2017

Untitled (Solo), Fridman Gallery, New York, NY, 2017

Untitled (Solo), Various Locations, 2012–18.

Artifacts (with Nathan Liow), West Space Gallery, Melbourne, AU, 2014

Residencies

The Listening Academy, Berlin, DE, 2024

PolyVocalCity, London, UK, 2024

Roundtable Residency, Toronto, ON, 2019

Wave Farm Transmission Arts Residency, Acra, NY, 2018

Pioneer Works Music Residency, Brooklyn, NY, 2017

RBMA Residency, Montréal, QC, 2016

Curatorial

In Context Music (ICM), Record Label, 2013–present

No Outsides Polymorphous FM, Pirate Radio Station, 2023

Listening, Sound, Agency: Soundworks and Transcriptions, Exhibition, 2022

Recordings

Listening Sound Agency (7”), SpokenWeb Sounds, 2022

Colony of Desire (soundtrack), Charlotte Ballet, 2020

Subconscious Self Sabotage (7” with 1000 Petal Lotus), ICM, 2019

Live at Secret Project Robot (7” with Brian Chase), ICM, 2018

Hero Complexities (soundtrack), Theatre of Movement, 2017

Surface to Air (7”), ICM, 2016

Artifacts (7” with Nathan Liow), ICM, 2014

Pitched (12”), Inner Surface Music, 2014 

Awards and Fellowships

Doctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), 2023–2025

Graduate Studies Conference Travel Award, Concordia University, 2022, 2023, 2024

Graduate Fellowship, Concordia University, 2020–2024

Communication Studies Bursary, Concordia University, 2020–2021

Dean’s Scholarship, OCAD University, 2018–2020

Charles Patcher Award, OCAD University, 2020

Graduate Travel Award, OCAD University, 2019

Gradlink Research Award, OCAD University, 2018

Development Grant, Australia Council for the Arts, 2017

Artsbridge Grant, Arts Tasmania, 2010

Dr. Phillip Law Scholarship, University of Melbourne, 2009

Foote Trust Award, University of Melbourne, 2009






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