SONCITIES is thrilled to welcome Dr Jo Burzynska to Oxford for a conversation as part of the conversation series ‘Countersonics: Radical Sonic Imaginaries’.

Our conversation will cover her project Sensuous Psychogeography and her multisensory doctoral research; and we will also explore sound works that emerged in response to the Christchurch earthquake in 2011: the projects Body Waves and Whakahou, discussing issues of sound, urbanism, ruin, and rebuilding.

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Dr Jo Burzynska is an New Zealand-based sound artist, researcher and curator who co-founded and curated The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery in Christchurch, New Zealand, the South Island’s only sonic arts gallery and public multichannel performance space.

Her installations and performances are regularly created at the intersection of the senses, often combining her specialisations of audition and the chemical senses (taste and olfaction). Recent years have seen her work on numerous projects that fuse multisensory art and science, which has involved research with leading figures in the fields of experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience and sensory science. She was awarded a PhD for her interdisciplinary research that investigated sensory and aesthetic interactions between sound and flavour/aroma and their creative application.

Jo performs regularly both in Australasia and internationally – also under the name Stanier Black-Five – often mixing her own field recordings live to create dense and visceral soundscapes. She has played alongside artists such as Chris Watson, Merzbow and Daniel Menche and presented her work at festivals such as London Musicians Collective’s annual Festival of Experimental Music in the UK to New Zealand’s Lines of Flight Festival. She has also had her music released, which includes the solo album Avast! (CD) on Belgium’s Entr’acte and Alone with the Black Spirits (Vinyl and mp3) on the UK’s Rail Cables label.