Dr Matt Lewis
- Senior Tutor (Research)
- Sound Pathway Lead
- Aidlab, Research Associate
- Polisonics Research Cluster Founding Member
Matt is a sound artist and musician, his work focuses on the relationships between sound and the social.
Matt studied at Dartington College and Goldsmiths, where he completed his PhD in 2013. Matt has exhibited and performed nationally and internationally in countries including Austria, Brazil, Portugal, Serbia and the USA, in festivals and venues such as Whitechapel Gallery, Café Oto, The Roundhouse, Diapason NYC, MK Gallery and Centro Cultural Sao Paulo. Recent commissions include Clandestine Airs with Resonance FM and VOID, no such thing as empty space, in collaboration with deafblind charity Sense, Where is the Rustling Wood? part of Metal Culture’s Harvest 15 with Studio Orta, Music for Hearing Aids as part of Unannounced Acts of Publicness in Kings Cross and Exploded Views with Turner Contemporary. From 2012-2013 he was an Artist Fellow at Central St Martins and was twice a resident artist with Metal Culture. Matt previously taught at CSM, University of Greenwich and LCC.
Gallery
More information
Practice
Matt’s practice is centred around the relationships between sound and social-space and his projects are generally focused on particular physical sites, or social issues, such as regeneration, inclusivity and noise pollution. His work seeks to test the potential for sound and acoustic design to confront and explore these issues, rather than simply representing or mitigating them, thereby reflecting the possibilities for new collaborations between artists and communities. Through the use of leading-edge technology with participatory strategies he produces work in the form of performances, installations and interventions. Informed by a background of music-making he’s passionate about the importance of coming together in groups to make things happen.
Research funding
(2011, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018) Funding through Arts Council England
(2016–2018) Artist in Residence, Metal Culture
(2012–2013) Cocheme Fellowship-Central St Martins
(2008) Artist in Residence, Artist Links Brazil
Current and recent projects
The Branded Soundscape
Research towards a publication which draws upon musical analysis, embodied cognition and communication design practice and theory. The project intends to demonstrate the influence synthetic sounds such as those from Electronic Alert Tones (EAT) and Audio Branding have on our behaviour, their symbolism and musical meaning. The work will also suggest ways in which artists, designers and musicians might take a more critical approach to the future of sound design and its impact on our everyday lives through the devices we use and sounds that modulate us.
South East Future Sounds
Collaboration with Call & Response and Anderson Acoustics, leading to a national touring immersive sound installation.
Publications, exhibitions, other outcomes
Selected Exhibitions:
(2018)
Listening Realities, 3D Audio Tour, as part of Space In Between, Southbank, London
Exploding Views, Sound Installation as part of Journeys with the Wasteland at Turner Contemporary
(2016)
Must we Suffer in the Rhythm?, Sound Installation, Peterborough City Gallery
(2015)
Where is the Rustling Wood?, Outdoor, site specific installation as part of Metal Harvest, Peterborough
Music for Hearing Aids, Public intervention as part of Acts of Publicness, Granary Square, Kings Cross
No such thing as empty space- Collaborative Project with Sense & Metal, national tour, including MK Gallery and Metal Southend, Metal Peterborough,
(2013)
Clandestine Airs, Radio commission through VOID Derry and Resonance FM
Whose sound is it anyway? - 2013, 12.1-audio installation, Sound Portal, London
(2012)
Cloths & Moves- 2012, 8.1-channel audio installation, Old Bethnal Green Library.
Dreck -2012, 8.1-channel generative audio installation, Call & Response, London.
172 Sirens- 2012, 8.1-channel generative audio installation, 319 Scholes, New York.
(2011)
I am sitting in a field- 2011, Audio and Video work, in collaboration with Jeremy Keenan, first presented at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge.
Tumble- 2011, Multichannel, generative sound installation for racing pigeons, The Pigeon Win, London
35MWph- 2011, 4 channel, generative audio installation, in collaboration with Jeremy Keenan and Nabil Ahmed working as Call & Response, as part of Code of Contingency- Agency Gallery.
False Falls- 2010, Audio Installation in 8.1, first shown as part of Netaudio Festival, Roundhouse, London.
Audio Graffiti-2011, Audio intervention at South London Gallery as part of Immature
In an instant all will vanish- 2011, Audio video installation, duration variable, as part of Cultural Olympiad, Artist commissions, in collaboration with Cecilia Bonilla, touring UK during 2011-2012
(2010)
FZOOOOOOOSH PHHHHHHT VATHROOOOM-2010, Generative audio installation, Part of Manufacturing Today, Trondheim, Norway, April 2010
Publications:
Lewis, M. (2015) ‘Ventriloquial Acts’, in The New Soundtrack, Volume 5 Issue 2, Page 103-120
Selected talks/performances:
2018, Listening Realities, Open School East, Margate.
2018, Performance with From Honey to Ashes, Maker Festival, London.
2016, Recording Gestures, UKARA, Peterborough.
2015, Where is the Rustling Wood?, Metal, Peterborough.
2014, Curating Multi-Channel Sound- Paper as part of Histories, Theories and Practices of Sound Art, Goldsmiths, London.
2013, Not Lovin It!- Paper presentation as part of Sounding Space, Chelsea College of Art, London.
2013, Performance with From Honey to Ashes, SARC, Queens University, Belfast.
2013, Sonic Disobedience- Paper presentation as part of Disobedient Acts, Central St Martins, London.
2012, Presentation as part of Code of Contingency, 319 Scholes, New York.
2012, Free Radio?- Performance/Paper as part of Topology Research Unit Afternoon, Goldsmiths, London.
External collaborations and activities
Matt is a founder of Call & Response. C&R is one of Europe’s only independent sound spaces and a 3D, spatial audio research unit.
