Immersion, Experimentation, Presentation
Immersion, Experimentation, Presentation: A Workflow for an Authentic Soundscape
Can lived experience shape the way we design sound — and what happens when that process involves memory, movement, and place? In this talk, experimental composer and sound designer James Welburn explores how immersion in environment, attentive listening, and experimentation can lead to authentic soundscapes — with ideas relevant to purely audio-based works as well as documentary film, fiction, games, and other audiovisual practices. Drawing on four artistic residencies in Longyearbyen, Svalbard — a landscape shaped by industrial ruins, epic nature, fragile ecology, and immense natural forces — he demonstrates how environment, perception, and lived experience can be transformed into raw material for composition and sound design. Alongside sharing sounds, music, and imagery from these projects, James reflects on how embodied impressions — the textures of place, the movement of the body, and the memory of lived encounters — can shape creative decisions and contribute to a unified sonic environment across different media.
James Welburn is an assistant professor at the TV-school, University of Inland Norway
