Alex De Little is a sonic artist and researcher with bases in Leeds and London, UK. His practice encompasses installation, composition, performance and workshops; it is concerned with the interrogation of listening as a practice of world-making -a way of thinking into and through environments, notions of self, and social relations.

Selected Exhibitions

  • Solstice ’93 (with Laura Grace Ford) – Dorich House, London (2022)
  • Driving the Human (with Sonic Acts of Noticing) – Radialsystem, Berlin (2021)
  • Sonic Boom – National Science and Media Museum, Bradford (2021)
  • Garden of Privatised Delights (with Studio Polpo)– British Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale (2021)
  • Tomorrow is Our Permanent Address – East Street Arts, Convention House, Leeds (2019)
  • Above the Noise – National Science and Media Museum, Bradford (2019)
  • Alternate Languages: Confronting Boundaries – Royal Academy of Arts, London (2019)
  • Biorhythm – Health Museum, Houston TX, USA (2018)
  • Kosmologym – Den Frie Centre for Contemporary Art, Copenhagen (2018)
  • Supersenses – National Science and Media Museum, Bradford (2017)
  • …the etiquette to keep still is similar to playing dead… – Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds (2016)

Selected Performances

  • Spatial Drone, Walmer Yard (2019)
  • Thread, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (2018)
  • Reflection // Position [sound intervention] ODRATHEQUE Festival, London (2018)
  • Deep Sea [collaboration with dancer Tora Hed] Hull City of Culture Choreography Competition (2017)
  • Partition – India’s Children [collaborative performance commission] Opera North, PRS, South Asian Arts UK (2017)
  • Tableau Funéraire (after Henry Purcell) [collaboration with Musarc and Tongue], Palais de Tokyo (2016)
  • THREAD [performance collaboration] South Asian Arts UK and Arts Council (2016)
  • Trombones in Spaces – London Contemporary Music Festival (2013)

Curatorial Projects

  • Ways of Listening IV ‘Listening with the Clarinet’ – Woolwich Works, London (2021)
  • Ways of Listening III ‘Full Ears’ – Online (2020)
  • Ways of Listening II – Convention House, Leeds (2019)
  • Ways of Listening – Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds (2019)
  • Space: On Sound and Architecture – The Calder, The Hepworth Wakefield (2016)
  • Sound; Space; Play, University of Leeds (2015)

Public Lectures and Presentations

  • Listening in the Chthulucene, Sound Practices for Survival, ‘Auraldiversities: Expanded Listening’ [workshop] – Goldsmiths (2021)
  • Listening in the Chthulucene, Sound Practices for Survival, ‘Vibrant Practices’ conference [workshop] – University of Leeds (2021)
  • Sonic Acts of Noticing: Listening with the High Street, ‘Art, Architecture and Design Research Sessions: Exploring the Potential of Listening’ [research presentation] – London Metropolitan University (2021)
  • Sonic Acts of Noticing: Listening with the High Street, ‘Transdisciplinary Session’ [round table] – Future Architecture Platform Creative Exchange, Ljubljana (2021)
  • Sonic Futures, ‘Sound Instruments and Sonic Cultures’ conference [round table] – National Science and Media Museum (2020)
  • Sonic Futures, ‘Museums and Digital Culture after the Pandemic’ [research presentation] University of Nottingham (2020)
  • Eastside [research presentation] – Same Skies Think Tank, Leeds (2020)
  • Spatial Listening – UK and Ireland Soundscape Community Symposium, University of Sussex (2020)
  • Spatial Listening [research presentation] – School of Music, University of Leeds – Colloquium (2020)
  • Spatial Listening [workshop] – Imprint, Building Centre, London (2019)
  • Spatial Listening [research presentation] – London College of Communication Sonic Arts Visiting Practitioners Series (2019)
  • Spatial Listening [research presentation] – Leeds School of Architecture (2019)
  • Listening Beyond the Ear [workshop-performance] – Science Gallery London (2019)
  • Spatial Listening, [workshop] – Royal Academy of Arts (as part of Alternate Languages) (2019)
  • Spatial Listening [workshops and presentation] – British Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale (for Royal Academy of Arts) (2018)
  • Listening Games [presentation] – Arts Council Digital Cultures Symposium (2017)
  • Workshop leader- Field Studies – Listening After Pauline Oliveros
  • How Nice It Is [audio-visual installation] – Somerset House, London (collaboration with Tongue)
  • Spatial Listening [workshop] – DŹWIĘKO DZIAŁKA festival (Poland)
  • Listening Devices [workshop with Trevor Cox] – Tate Modern
  • Listening Games [workshop] – Shoreditch Church (for Points of Listening: London College of Communication)

Selected Artist and Research Residencies

  • Belgrade International Architecture Week (2021)
  • East Street Arts’ Convention House, Leeds (2019)
  • LEGROOM, Manchester (2017)
  • Leeds Creative Labs: Hepworth Wakefield (2014)

Lecturing

  • Visiting lectures at Goldsmiths, London College of Communication, Bartlett School of Architecture, Royal College of Art, Sheffield Hallam University School of Architecture
  • Visiting Tutor, Leeds University School of Fine Art (2019-)
  • Visiting Lecturer, School of Music, University of Leeds (2017-)
  • Visiting Lecturer, Leeds School of Arts, Leeds Beckett University (2017-2018)

Research Appointments

  • Honorary Fellow – Goldsmiths Sound Practice Research Centre (2019-)
  • Associate Fellow – University of Nottingham (2020-2021)
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow – School of Music, University of Leeds (2019-2021)
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute (2019-2020)
  • Associate Member – Centre for Audio Visual Exploration, University of Leeds (2017-)

Academic Qualifications

  • PhD, Sound Studies / Sonic Arts, University of Leeds (2019)
  • MMus, Composition – University of Leeds (2014)

Awards

  • University of Leeds Partnership Awards: Best Postgraduate Lecturer, Faculty of Arts and Humanities (2017)
  • University of Leeds Partnership Awards: Best Postgraduate Lecturer, University-wide (nomination) (2017)
  • Thurston Dart Award – Royal Musical Association (2015)
  • Featured Artist, British Art Show Untitled #3 Publication (2014)
  • University of Leeds 110 Anniversary Research Fellowship (2013)

Publications

  • Yue Mao, Naomi van Dijck, Radha Smith, eds., ‘Sonic Acts of Noticing’ (with Julia Udall and Jon Orlek), in Forest, Body, City, Flow. Landscapes of Care, DPR Barcelona (Barcelona, 2021)
  • George Kafka, ed., ‘Listening With’ (series of text scores), in Sonic Urbanism: Listening to Nonhuman Life, Theatrum Mundi, &beyond(London; Paris, 2021)
  • Spatial Listening, Wild Pansy Press (2019)
  • ‘Georgia Rogers Line of Parts, hcmf//’, TEMPO (2020)
  • ‘Spatial Listening’, RA Alternate Languages Venice Architecture Biennale Catalogue (2019)