Andra McCartney

Multimedia soundscapes
Assistant Professor, Communication Studies: Concordia University, Montreal QC

I make multimedia soundscapes, working with my own location recordings to create websites, CD ROMs, tape works and performances that are evocative of my experiences of places, and their sonic and sociopolitical resonances. I like to use moving microphones, digital filters and multitrack composition to focus attention on intricate subtleties and sonic undercurrents in everyday life. My sound works are available on CDs produced by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (Montreal), Terra Nova (MIT), Musicworks (Toronto en /fr), Artemisia Gallery (Chicago), the Canadian Society for Independent Radio Production (Ottawa) and Entartete Kunst (London, Ont), as well as online.

I was born in Fleetwood, near Liverpool, UK and lived in several other British ports before moving to Canada with my immediate family in 1968. I gave birth to my daughter in 1979 and my son in 1980. BA (Trent, Cultural studies, 1983), MA Ed. (St. Francis Xavier, Adult Education, 1990), PhD (Music, York, 1999). I have lived in several parts of Ontario and northern Canada, and moved to Montreal, Quebec in 1999, where I teach Sound in Media for the Communication Studies department at Concordia University.

Current Research

Marches sonores, canal de Lachine
Lachine canal soundwalks

Online Video Interview
Mobilegaze 3

Recent Online Work
Full Moon Over Killaloe, 2000 soundwalk Flash presentation, 3 mb (6 minute soundwalk)
Le terroir sonore du phare Lachinois @ Groupe Intervention Video (Flash, 300k - 1.5 meg)
Sounding Places with Hildegard Westerkamp @ Electronic Music Foundation
The River @ Earth Ear (MP3)

Online publications on gender, sound and technology

Contact me by email: andra@vax2.concordia.ca