Simon Whetham
Simon Whetham has developed a practice of working with sonic activity as a raw material for creation. He uses environmental sound, employing a variety of methods and techniques in order to obtain often unnoticed and obscured sonic phenomena. When presenting work in a performance or installation, for him the space and the objects within become instruments to be played. His artistic investigations have caused him to work increasingly in multi-disciplinary projects, leading his work to become more visual and tangible. He is currently exploring ways to retain physical traces of sound and transforming energy forms. Whetham has received a large number of commissions and awards for projects and installations – twice he received the Grant for the Arts from the Arts Council England, the first to attend the Mamori Sound Project in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, 2007, and the second to curate and organise the cultural exchange project 'Active Crossover' that has continued to run since 2009.
Simon's practice covers giving active listening and field recording workshops internationally (most recently in South Korea, UK and Taiwan). This includes workshops for children and young people, which began in Medellín, Colombia in 2013, and has led to larger projects in Norway and Australia, and with unaccompanied minors in a refugee camp in Munich, Germany in 2014.