Key details
Dr Brona Martin
Lecturer in Music and Sound
Dr. Brona Martin is an Electroacoustic composer and sound artist from Banagher, Co. Offaly, Ireland. Her compositions explore narrative in Electroacoustic music, acoustic ecology and spatialisation techniques through the creation of metaphorical and real-world representations of soundscapes where the aim is to reveal particular sonic characters that are not normally the focus of listening. Brona's portfolio of works explore the layers and textures of sounds that contribute to the overall sonic-makeup of specific places both real and imaginary. Through listening, recording, analysing and processing, the layers of a soundscape are studied in great detail.
Brona's artistic portfolio offers an in depth and alternative listening perspective and experience where the complexity of everyday sounds are examined and rearranged into a new context. References are also made to the design of the acoustic environment where noise pollution often masks the more pleasant sounds of the natural environment.
Her research also explores ways in which creative music technology can be more inclusive and diverse through the facilitation of community engagement projects and also thinking about ways in which her research can be presented to wider audiences. She is currently exploring ways in which different media are being used to bring soundscape studies into the wider community through VR projects, smart phone applications and streaming technologies.
Her works have been performed internationally at EMS, ACMC, ICMC, NYCEMF, ISSTA, ZKM, BEAST, Balance/Unbalance, SSSP, iFIMPaC, Sonorities and MANTIS. She has been guest composer at EMS, Stockholm and Associate Artist in Residence at Atlantic Centre for the Arts, Florida.
Brona is currently a Research Associate at the University of Kent, on the AHRC funded project, A Sonic Palimpsest: Revisiting Chatham Historic Dockyards. She is also a member of the SOUND/IMAGE Research group at the University of Greenwich.
Recognition
Research Associate in Music and Audio Technology, University of Kent
Affiliate Researcher, SOUND/IMAGE Research Group, University of Greenwich
Visiting Research Fellow, University of Southampton
Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Research / Scholarly interests
- Spatial Audio
- Acoustic Ecology
- Game Design
- Electroacoustic Composition
- Electronic Music
- Sound Art
- Community Engagement
Recent publications
“Soundscape Composition: Enhancing our understanding of changing soundscapes”, Organised Sound 23 (1), April 2018 (Peer Reviewed).
"The Thing About Listening is..." Compositional Approaches and Inspiration using spoken word, field recordings and electroacoustic techniques, (2014) CEC (Canadian Electroacoustic Community’s online journal, eContact! (Peer Reviewed).
Presentations
Performances:
Electric Medway, Whispers of the Past, A Geolocated Soundwalk using the Echoes XYZ App.
Rapture Gaming Festival Medway, 3-4 July 2021, Exhibition of Where am I and Breaking the Chains.
Klingt Gut!, 5th International Symposium on Sonic Art and Spatial Audio, Frogland, 12 May 2021.
BEASTFEaST 2021, Virtual Online Festival, Where am I? 22-24 April, 2021.
BEASTFEaST 2020, Virtual Online Festival, Frogland, 1 May 2020.
ISSTA PERFORM!, International Festival and Conference on Sound in the Arts, Science and Technology, Cork School of Music, Cork, Ireland, NightEscape, 31 October/1 November, 2019.
L-ISA Studios, Highgate London, Frogland, 23/31 July 2019.
Audiorama, Stockholm, Places/Spaces, NightEscape, 16 March 2019.
SHIFTS Turner Sims, University of Southampton Sowing Seeds, 27 January 2019.
London College of Communication, REAL LIVES, NightEscape, 20 January 2019.
Electric Audio Unit presents, Places/Spaces, NightEscape, Oslo, 6 December 2018.
Presentations:
In Practice, Conference, University of Ulster, Tales from the other side: What happens after the PhD??? 17 June 2021.
BEAST FEaST, Recalibration, 24 April 2021, University of Birmingham. Soundscapes, Identity and Place with Aki Pasoulas and Andrew-Knight-Hill.
PEEP (Pratiques de l'écoute, écoute des pratiques) (Listening Practices, Listening to Practices). Composing with Remote Sounds, IMéRA, Aix-Marseille, University Marseille, FR, 22 January 2020.
Guest Lecturer, KMH Royal College of Music, Stockholm, Soundscape Composition, 6 September 2019.
Guest Lecturer and tutor, Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH), Oslo, workshops with MA Composition Students, 16/17 March 2019.
'Community Engagement: Creativity and Collaboration'. Hartley Residency, University of Southampton, 27 February 2019.