Anna is a Brighton based sound artist, field recordist, and researcher with a love for heritage sites, landscapes, and buildings at risk. She is a PhD Candidate with SEAHA CDT and University of Brighton, about to complete. Her research involves designing and composing immersive mobile listening experiences for the heritage sector, exploring public engagement and storytelling through ambisonics, taking the form of musical composition, dialogue, and sound effects. She prioritises versatility and accessibility in the new technology she tests, aiming to create experiences which can be enjoyed by a wide range of listeners.
She first began recording in her teen years, writing piano and voice music which she captured with a handheld recorder, moving on to a small studio set up by her university years, where she studied songwriting. Enjoying commercial songwriting and music to film, after her bachelors she expanded her songwriting interests into more experimental work. She gained a Distinction in MA Sound Arts from London College of Communication, after completing her first series of heritage-specific works exploring ‘acoustic caretaking’, with a final exhibition piece in December 2016 presenting her work undertaken at Cuzon Street Station in Birmingham; a histoically important building at risk.
After spending time honing in her skills, she was awarded an EPSRC funded opportunity with SEAHA-CDT and University of Brighton to complete a PhD composing and designing 3D mobile immersive listening experiences for the heritage sector. This soundwalk research was in partnership with Echoes geolocative mobile application, and The Regency Town House, a local museum and venue, at the site of Brunswick Square, Brighton & Hove. She completed an MRes at University College London in Science and Engineering in Arts, Heritage and Archaeology as part of her research award, which expanded her heritage, conservation, and public engagement knowledge. Through her doctorate, she has undertaken many public tests, completed two large-scale listening experiences, an exhibition, presented and published papers, and has a broad archive of sounds and compositions which she looks forward to adapting into future works. She has completed a following Heritage Lottery funded immersive heritage soundwalk, with another soundwalk in the pipeline. Alongside this she is a lecturer at the University of Brighton, and has run immersive masterclasses for small businesses and the heritage sector with RISE Research and Innovation.
If you have any exciting projects you think Anna could contribute to, please feel free to contact her on a.edmonds@brighton.ac.uk. She would love to hear from you!