Isobel Anderson (b. 1984) is a sound artist, musician and performance-maker based in Hastings, UK, working with field recording, voice, embodiment and place, increasingly through audio-visual forms. Her practice explores the relationship between landscape and the body, memory and the hyper-real, and how listening mediates between inner and outer worlds. Recent work centres on the post-apocalyptic landscape of Dungeness Nature Reserve and informs her forthcoming project, END TIMES.
Group Exhibitions
2025, Soundhouse, CMMR-25, V&A East, London, UK
2025, Collaborative, County Hall Pottery, London, UK
2025, Restless Bodies, Coastal Currents, Electrostudios, St Leonards-On-Sea, UK
2025, Intentional Pauses (and Unforeseen Gaps), Lux Scotland, ATLAS Arts, Isle of Skye, UK
2025, Folde, The Mint House, Pevensey, UK
2018, Still, Ps Squared, Belfast, UK
Selected Performances and Presentations
2025, Getting Lost, Listening Club, Brighton, UK
2023, Jack Did A Naughty, Sono-Electro Festival, St Leonards-On-Sea, UK
2015, These Places Should Only Ever Be Imagined, Sound Thought Festival, CCA Glasgow, UK
2015, Sound Art Isn’t Safe Art, Sonorities Festival, Belfast, UK
2015, Going Under, San Francisco Tape Music Festival, San Francisco, USA
2012, Glastonbury Festival, UK
Selected Audio Releases
(forthcoming) END TIMES [album]
(forthcoming) Hyperterrestrial [album]
2025, a voice leaked out through a crack in my throat [single]
2017, CHALK/FLINT [album]
2013, In My Garden [album]
2013, The Sussex Sessions [EP]
2011, Dark Path [album]
2010, Cold Water Songs [album]
Commissions
2012, Stories of the City: Sailortown, The MAC, Belfast, UK
Residencies
2024-2025, Dungeness Nature Reserve, UK
2025, Voices on the Edge, AMATA, Falmouth, UK
2012, The Curfew Tower, Cushendall, UK
Selected Awards and Funding
2017, Women Make Music, PRSF
2016, Moving On Music
2012, Arts Council Northern Ireland
2010-2015, AHRC Doctoral Studentship
Selected Publications
Anderson, I. (2023). ‘Not Healing, Never Healed’. Moving Mountains, Footnote Press, London, UK.
Anderson, I. (2016). ‘Soundmapping Beyond The Grid’. The Journal of Sonic Studies, 11 (online).
Anderson, I. (2016). ‘Field Recording as a Performative Act’ The Sampler: Sound and Music (online).
Anderson, I. & Rennie, T. (2016). ‘Self-reflexive Narrative in Field Recording’. Organised Sound, 21(3) (online).
Anderson, I. (2012). ‘Voice, Narrative, Place: Listening to stories’, The Journal of Sonic Studies, 2 (online).
Education
2010–2015
PhD in Sonic Arts (AHRC-funded), Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), Queen’s University Belfast, Thesis: My Words Trace a Path: Encounters with place through voice, performance and field recording
2010–2011
MA in Sonic Arts (Distinction, funded)
Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), Queen’s University Belfast, Dissertation: The Shell: Incorporating sound art practices within book art
2003–2006
BA (Hons) Music (First Class Honours)
Dartington College of Arts
Other Activities
Founder and Director of Girls Twiddling Knobs
Co-runs curatorial project UPVC with Miguel Martin
Coordinates The Sound Studies Book Club
image credit: Emilia Martin