Jon Wozencroft
Jon Wozencroft was born in Epsom, Surrey in 1958. He developed his sound seminars in the late 1980s as a means of highlighting the potential of sound-related research and practice in art and design education. Primarily, the seminars promote the art of listening and seek to rebalance the dominant bias of visual culture which favours the eye over the ear. Listening both enhances one’s perceptual awareness and creates an oasis away from 24/7 non-stop media. The seminars underline the power of sound and music as catalysts for change in a context in which recorded music has been progressively devalued in the digital environment. Drawing upon forty years of working in music publishing and performance, Wozencroft moves the audience between and beyond genre classifications and makes connections where past present and future come alive in the moment.
Wozencroft carried out his postgraduate studies at the London College of Printing (LCP). On leaving LCP in 1982, he worked for the Readers Digest as an art writer and researcher. Six months later, he set up his own multimedia publishing company, Touch. Wozencroft’s contribution to the company was through writing, design, editing and programme production, collaborating with artist and musicians across the world. Wozencroft developed Touch as an alternative to standard audio-visual publishing and, between 1982 and 1986, produced interactive audio-visual magazines such as Feature Mist and Travel. As Managing Editor at Touch, Wozencroft worked with a number of artists, musicians and institutions, including Neville Brody, New Order, Malcolm Garrett and Assorted Images, Peter Saville, Derek Jarman, Jamie Reid, The Royal Academy of Arts and The Commonwealth Institute.
As a curator, Wozencroft delivered the Interaction exhibition at Camden Arts Centre in 1986, which explored the history of collaboration between pop artists and musicians. Featured artists included Peter Blake and The Beatles, and Jamie Reid and the Sex Pistols.