Constellations is a sound art and experimental narrative collective that illuminates international artists making sound works that convey meaning through evocation and abstraction. Co-founded by Michelle Macklem and Jess Shane, Constellations curates and produces podcasts, live events and publishes sound materials. They feature a wide-range of audio works which unravel the distinctions between experimental documentary, sound art, soundscapes, fiction, and music. The pieces they air encourage listeners to expand their conception of narrative, musicality and attention.
Shaughn Martel is a Sudbury born and Tkoronto (Toronto) based new media artist. Focusing
in the performance of electricity, electronics and human collaborations with it. Their work extends to grounding the mystification of technology in natural phenomena and attempting to augment sensory perception of spaces and forces normally outside the faculties of the body.
Nicole Pingon is a multidisciplinary artist, theatre maker and artist facilitator, working across live performance, installation and digital mediums. She enjoys collaborative, curiosity-led, process-driven creative spaces, and exploring the possibilities of physical and sonic world-building in live performance.
James Bailey is a sonic explorer who has been recording sound pieces since the mid-'70s and performing on occasion since the early '80s. Tape recorders and their manipulation were prominent in the beginning, but eventually electronic modification devices ("stomp boxes") joined the arsenal, and computer effects used in post-recording processing. He has also been known to play objects unmodified by electronics, even "real" instruments, though rarely in a conventional manner.
Arif Mirbaghi is a Canadian-born composer & arranger based in Tehran, Iran. He has performed with dozens of ensembles throughout the world, in styles varying from folk, jazz, progressive rock, and beyond. His work explores the relationship of disconnection and reconnection for communities in the diaspora. More from Arif on his Soundcloud and on Spotify.
Claude Schryer is a franco-ontarian sound and media artist, arts administrator, advisor & facilitator. He holds a MM from McGill U and was in involved in acoustic ecology in the 1980’s & 90’s. From 2000 to 2020 he was at Canada Council for the Arts. He current produces conscient podcast & volunteers with SCALE-LeSAUT.
Sophia Steinert-Evoy is a student and audio editor and producer living in Brooklyn. You can also find her on Instagram here.
Dan Tapper is an artist who explores the sonic and visual properties of the unheard and invisible. From revealing electromagnetic sounds produced by the earth’s ionosphere, to exploring hidden micro worlds and creating imaginary nebulas made from code. His explorations use scientific methods alongside thought experiments resulting in rich sonic and visual environments. Dan also regularly uses his skills as a creative coder and interactivity designer to help artists and musicians facilitate projects. These range from building a 20 ton stone boat embedded with interactive soundscapes and pressure sensors to digital video feedback software and audio reactive light environments.
Trevor Wishart is based in York (UK), composes with digital audio media, both fixed and interactive. He has also written extensively on the topic of what he terms "sonic art", and contributed to the design and implementation of software tools used in the creation of digital music; notably, the Composers Desktop Project. Although mainly a freelance composer, he holds an honorary position at the University of York with composer-in-residence appointments at the University of Durham in 2006, andUniversity of Oxford Faculty of Music in 2010–11, supported by the Leverhulme Trust.
Wishart's compositional interests deal mainly with the human voice, in particular with the transformation of it and the interpolation by technological means between human voice and natural sounds. He is also a solo voice performer and an improviser of extended vocal techniques, using the recordings of his own improvisations to compose his electroacoustic pieces as well, like he did for Red Bird and Vox 5. Wishart has written two books, On Sonic Art and Audible Design. On Sonic Art puts forth his theoretical and philosophical ideas, while Audible Design deals mainly with the practice and technique of composing with digital audio.