About me
I’m a social and cultural geographer based at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. I also have a creative practice as a musician and sound recordist.
I’m interested to find out what happens when these two kinds of activities get mixed up. I have a hunch that social and cultural research could gain a lot by borrowing some of the techniques of sound art and experimental music. So I’m working on various projects to explore this.
Here’s a messy list of things I’m interested in, in no particular order:
field recording; minimalism; magnetic tape; vinyl records; the ways in which people construct the distinctions between sound/music/noise; the histories, geographies and politics of sound and audio media; sound walks and audio walks; the sound of wind turbines; minimal techno; analogue media in the post-digital age; the sound of the human voice when you forget about the meaning of what is being said; the sound of air vents, photocopiers and fridges; sounds which sound almost the same but slightly different; the resonances of spaces; musical acoustics; aural architecture; the sound of scaffolding on a windy day
My other main research interest is in children and young people’s lives. My PhD was a Foucaultian ethnography examining space and power in a Scottish primary school. Since then I have done research about youth counselling and support services, children’s participation, adolescent health and social work.
