Overview

My research investigates how sustained embodied relationship with place transforms creative practice. Through practice-led PhD research at the University of Tasmania, I document what three years of regular cold-water swimming at Kingston Beach reveals about compositional methodology—how seasonal cycles, temperature shifts, and accumulated bodily vulnerability to oceanic environments generate musical innovations unavailable through observation or short-term engagement alone.

This work challenges conventional approaches to environmental creative practice that prioritise mobility, novelty, and representation. Instead, it demonstrates that meaningful ecological engagement in music requires depth, duration, and accountability to specific places over years.

  • PhD: "Southern Ecophony: Towards an Aqueous Compositional Practice"
    University of Tasmania (submitting early 2026)
    Australian Research Training Program Scholarship

    Investigating aqueous compositional methodologies through embodied creative engagement with Southern Tasmanian waters. The research documents how tacit knowledge—somatic memory, seasonal accumulation, bodily entanglement—shapes composition below conscious awareness. Portfolio analysis reveals compositional innovations that exceed formal training and override aesthetic intention, emerging instead from sustained environmental relationship.

    Supervisors: Associate Professor Maria Grenfell, Professor Elizabeth Leane, Dr Carolyn Philpott

  • "Listening to Antarctica: Cheryl E. Leonard's eco-acoustic creative practice"
    With Carolyn Philpott | Fusion Journal, no. 19, 2021, pp. 64-77

    Analysis of how creative practice engages with extreme environments, examining methodologies for environmental listening and eco-acoustic composition in polar contexts.

    "Wild Sea: A History of the Southern Ocean"
    The Polar Journal, 9(2), 2019, pp. 459–460

    Book review engaging with oceanic historiography and human relationships with Southern Ocean environments.

  • Submergency Collective (Co-founder, 2024-present)
    Interdisciplinary arts-science collaboration with marine scientist-musician Emily Sheppard and Trawlwoolway visual artist Mandy Quadrio. Our first major project, "Sounding the Great Southern Reef" (2025-2026), partners with Creative Australia, Monash Performing Arts Centre, Great Southern Reef Foundation, and Indigenous marine conservation organizations. We create art with rather than about marine environments, centering reciprocity and accountability.

    Spatial Audio Development
    Developing knowledge of advanced multichannel sound design capabilities for underwater acoustic installations—translating oceanic listening into immersive spatial experiences.

  • Selected radio features on ABC Hobart, ABC Classic FM, and RRR Community Radio discussing environmental listening, ocean sound art, and the intersections of music and marine science. Conference presentations on regional arts impact and eco-acoustic creative practices.