Scholarly Work
PhD Dissertation
Title: Waste Not, Want Not: Transecology and the Sounds of Refusal
Supervisor: Dr Rajna Swaminathan (Department of Music, University of California, Irvine)
Abstract: Waste Not, Want Not: Transecology and the Sounds of Refuse is a multi-year research project which situates my diverse creative practice in a rigorous conceptual framework. Over the course of my dissertation, I have developed the concept of transecological performance as an attitude towards creative practice which synthesises both queer and ecological thinking. The use of the “trans” prefix highlights the contingent, relational nature of ecological systems-in-time, drawing on theories of queerness and alterity to describe ways of making and performing otherwise. These scholarly lineages also inform my approach to temporality in improvised performance, where I consider how the enforced vulnerability and precarity inherent to experiences of alterity can be more generatively reactivated the course of performance. My dissertation research, both scholarly and creative, explores the polyvalences of refuse; both as physical waste materials, and also as acts of refusal — refusal to conform, refusal to follow predictable creative pathways, refusal to use materials in the ways for which they were intended. In my own creative projects, I practice transecological performance by foregrounding discarded and everyday objects. This contingent, exploratory practice adopts an ethics of care, which I interpret as making the time to take the time to spend time with those beings, human and nonhuman, which we encounter in our everyday environment, but so frequently fail to meaningfully acknowledge. I am interested in the emergent moments of rupture, friction, and absurdity which characterise the quotidian, and which can be deployed in creative works to effect a juxtaposition between the familiar and the unexpected. Waste Not, Want Not is an investigation into ways of making meaning in performance which are both aesthetically compelling and also attuned to processes of production, consumption, usage, and waste in our specific urban-ecological niches.
Dissertation requirements for the PhD in Integrated Composition, Improvisation & Technology involve both a written scholarly dissertation and a major creative project. I will present works at two upcoming events: my Desert Event (Yucca Valley, CA) in October 2025; and my Urban Event (UC Irvine, CA) in February 2026.
ICIT Thesis Colloquium
An early version of my dissertation research was presented to the annual ICIT Thesis Colloquium (Department of Music, University of California, Irvine) in February 2025. A recording of this presentation is available below.
Conference Presentations & Performances
Xylocyclos [performance] (see project page for more details and performance documentation)
International Conference for New Interfaces in Musical Expression (NIME). Australian National University, Canberra, June 2025.
Sound + Science 3.0 Symposium. UCLA Art | Sci Center, Fowler Museum, May 2025.
Sounds of De/Composition Conference. New York University, November 2024.
Radical Negativity: Conceiving a Queer Ecology of Sound
Caring Amidst Neoliberalism: History, Solidarity, Desire. 5th Symposium of the LGBTQ+ Music Study Group, Society for Music Theory. Virtual, October 2024.
Errant Textility: Jon Rose's "Great Fences of Australia"
[Extended presentation] 2024 Musicking Conference: Resurgent Voices. University of Oregon, Eugene, April 2024.
[Early version] University of Toronto Graduate Music Conference. Toronto, Canada, March 2024.
Interactivity as Improvisation
Reconsidering Music, Gender, and Technology: A Symposium. UCLA Center for Musical Humanities, Herb Alpert School of Music, January 2024.
Curatorial Work
Yes and NoTation: Event Scores and Immersive Sound (see exhibition website for more details)
Exhibition of graphic scores and immersive audio, including performances of featured scores. Co-curated with Dr Isaac Otto and Livia Schweitzer (Sibelius Institute, Helsinki), as part of the Sound Circus festival.
Kohta Taidehalli, Helsinki, Finland. Exhibition open July 2025.
Electrifying Music: The Untold Story of Remi Gassmann. (see exhibition website for more details)
Exhibition celebrating the life of pioneering electronic composer Remi Gassmann, featuring archival material from UCI's Special Collections; as well as a selection of graphic scores illustrating innovations in music notation from the mid-century period until today.
Langson Library, University of California, Irvine. Exhibition open February - December 2024.