︎

Jon Tjhia


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Slow looping animation of the objects featured in season one of Oscillations – a 'Native Police' button, a radiesthesia pendulum, a shed filled with electromagnetic equipment, a pedestrian crossing button, a 'Dole Blitz' poster, a fragment of a Skylab oxygen tank, a collection of camera lenses

Oscillations

(Powerhouse Museum, 2022)

A podcast of seven newly-commissioned sound works about people, movements and the world – refracted through objects held in the Powerhouse collection

Featuring beautiful, critical, lateral new pieces by Dakota Feirer, Alexandra Spence, John Jacobs and Jane Curtis, Miyuki Jokiranta, Omar Musa, Sally Olds and Jinghua Qian. 

The wonderful team at the Powerhouse includes the inexhaustible Cara Stewart, Ayeesha Ash, Mara Schwerdtfeger and Callum Cooper. Erin Hyde composed the gurgling, humming theme music



Mirror

(Liminal, 2022)

A digital publication featuring eight newly-commissioned works of art and writing: poetry, essays, videos, correspondences, drawings and a hypothetical gift shop

With my deepest thanks to Serenity Department, Andrew Brooks and Arvind Rosa Brooks, Ju Bavyka, Ai Yamamoto, Fayen d’Evie and Lloyd Mst, Liang Luscombe, Flatwhite Damascus and Jean Bachoura and YY for their creativity, trust and spirit, and again to Leah Jing McIntosh for the invitation to guest-edit Mirror, and for her faith and support. Design, above, by Anny Luo



Photograph of a kraft cardboard box with 'weird noise' stamped on it in diffused, stylised text, and a stack of white A5-sized cards printed with photos, poems, essays and more

Meaningless Secs

(Weird Noise, 2022)

A short provocation about uselessness, industrial meaning-making, friction and inscrutability in radio-making, for issue one of new print zine Weird Noise

The sold-out inaugural edition of Eleanor McDowall’s latest work of space-making  (tireless excellence, I swear) includes essays, illustrations, poems and photographs by audio makers from around the world. It’s now freely readable online (with thanks to Charlie Shackleton). Thank you, El, for the invitation (🎺)!



Photograph of two copies of a book – the front cover reading 'Against Disappearance, a Liminal anthology' and the back reading 'A prescient collection of essays from the longlist of the Liminal & Pantera Press Nonfiction Prize' with cover quotes etc.

Present and Accounted For

(Liminal and Pantera Press, 2022)

An essay about materials, accumulations and the mortifying power of ten bucks. It lives in a new anthology of writing about memory and archives, available now
I’m beyond humbled to be published alongside the deeply engaged essays of the Liminal and Pantera Press Nonfiction Prize longlist. The collection is edited by Leah Jing McIntosh and Adolfo Aranjuez; special thanks to Leah for her generosity as an editor, encourager and enabler of this piece (and opportunity and collection and imprint)



A photograph of fruits and pamphlets and a headphone amplifier and candle arranged on a tablecloth amidst a mess of cords

These Thoughts Large and Public

(Open House Melbourne, 2022)

A live streaming radio broadcast from Victorian Trades Hall & Literary Institute, in collaboration with Snack Syndicate – with conversations, readings, stories and (top 40) songs about work, anti-work and the rights and precarities of labour

The broadcast spanned two days (and 13 hours) as part of Open House Melbourne 2022’s July Weekend artistic commissions, Take Hold of the Clouds, curated by Tara McDowell and Fleur Watson. Featuring Tony Birch, Jennifer Hamilton, Antony Moore, Chelsea Hart, Evelyn Araluen, Jonathan Dunk, Jathan Sadowski, Elena Gomez, Melody Paloma, Cher Tan, Terri Ann Quan Sing, MP Hopkins, Sally Olds and Arvind Rosa. Fayen d’Evie, Yue Yang and Luke Rigby’s thoughtful Open House / Open Access work intersects with this project. My gratitude for dream collaborators Andrew and Astrid knows no limit!



A scrolling animation of the NGA audio tour website for Ceremony

Ceremony audio tour

(National Gallery of Australia, 2022)

Seventeen audio tour stops for Ceremony – the NGA’s fourth National Indigenous Art Triennial curated by Hetti Perkins – composed around recordings of each artist in conversation and at work

With thanks to Keir Winesmith and Brittany Burgess at the gallery. Ceremony is open 26 March to 31 July 2022 in Canberra, on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country



A branded graphic for 'The Circular' superimposed over a photo of headlights shining on dry grass fading into darkness at night

The Circular #18: audio edition

(Sydney Review of Books, 2022)

For The Circular’s first audio edition, a curation of sound works that implicate listeners or play with attention in interesting ways

Every Friday, The Circular assembles a curation of new and archival non-fiction from ‘Australia’, bringing some select pieces out from behind paywalls, too. It really embodies a belief in archives of ideas. Thank you Tiff Tsao and Sydney Review of Books for inviting me to be a guest editor!



A photograph of a magazine – Un Magazine – opened to the page of the essay mentioned below, laid out on a bed spread

_____________ complete ____ replacement

(Un Magazine, 2021)

An essay about solutions, metabolism, self-snooping, bodily score-keeping, latent heat, a long line of belly buttons, dead birds, our inscrutability … and possibly more? 👀

Published in Un Magazine 15.2: Metabolism (December 2021), commissioned and edited by Snack Syndicate (Astrid Lorange and Andrew Brooks). Thank you, A+A, for your patient and wise editing! I’m also grateful to Amita Kirpalani, Caroline Jumpertz, Emma Hartley, Lily Sloane, Mike Williams, Natalie Kestecher, Virginia Heal and Zacha Rosen for the loan of their voices, and for their generosity and trust



A photograph, in shallow focus, of bright yellow flowers in a dry brush forest

Midday, Wellsford State Forest

(Field Recordings, 2021)

Birds, bugs, breeze, bushes, Box-Ironbark

Recorded in Wellsford for Eleanor McDowall’s Field Recordings project



Black texta markings and doodles on pink paper

Disorganising

(Liquid Architecture/West Space/Bus Projects, 2021)

Audio archive recording and short narrative documentation as part of a multi-institutional exploration of cooperative art/s practice, centred around Collingwood Yards

Doodle/notes/scan by Nina Gibbes. Audio developed in collaboration with Joel Stern, Xen Nha and a host of others. Some recommended reading: Cher Tan, Maddee Clark, Timmah Ball



A brightly coloured photograph of two people's hands holding a runner's tether between them, and cups of tea

Play New: Jaryd Clifford

(Nike/SouthSouthWest, 2021)

Narrative audio and composition as part of a cross-media celebration of vision impaired runner Jaryd Clifford and his bond with guide runner Tim Logan

With Ben Birchall, Andy Sargent, Ben Bomitali, Alica Kroupa, Bonnie Moir and … a lot of other people. You have no idea how many people work on these things. (Film is mind-boggling). The nice photo above is by Sam Wong. Sorry for ruining your photo by adding the tile artwork, Sam 😰️



A collage of four pictures of artists from the Museum of Us project

The Museum of Us

(Arts Access Victoria/Victoria Together, 2021)

A digital exhibition of 49 Deaf, Disabled and Neurodiverse artists

Over a few months, I worked with artists to assist them in producing digitally accessible pieces for this fully captioned, audio described exhibition, with help from the AAV team (especially Fury). Curated by Caroline Bowditch



The Big Break That Broke Kate

(ABC RN, 2021)

Actor Kate McNamara walks us through her big break … down, for the ABC storytelling podcast Days Like These

With thanks to Kate, supervising producer Kyla Slaven, host Elizabeth Kulas, and the Days Like These season three team



Interview #172

(Liminal Magazine, 2021)

A nice long conversation with Nathania Gilson for Liminal, with photos by Leah Jing McIntosh

I wouldn’t normally put this kind of thing here, but some day we’ll all be dead, so why not?



Emotional Support Animal

(Darebin Arts, 2021)

An interactive short story about applause and the ways we crave to be observed, acknowledged and rewarded. Published in Proximities, a part of Exhibiting Culture Online

Commissioned and edited by Vidya Rajan. Interaction and layout coding by Bec Fary. (Full version works best on a laptop/desktop)



Good Long Time

(Going Down Swinging, 2021)

A short story about getting old, getting cold and living forever (or just a little longer, anyway). Published in Going Down Swinging #41: AR Edition

Edited by Magenta Sheridan. Augmented by augmented reality artist Anneli Goeller. Read it on a laptop/desktop if you can. In 41 Extra!, the digital launch of the edition, you can watch a short reading or eavesdrop on a conversation with fellow 41’er Lujayn Hourani. This story was included in the Woollahra Digital Literary Award 2021 Fiction shortlist



Tile image of a botanical background with a square tile in the middle, showing text: 'Radio Row featuring Jon Tjhia'

Radio Row

(WFMU, 2020)

A 59-minute radio broadcast constructed of smartphone voice memos and audio notes-to-self. Or: what is this sound, and why the hell did I record it?

Thanks to Adalya, Amita, André, Bec, Beth, Connor, Isobel, Ivy, Karishma, Masako, Nicole, Nicola, Pepi and Silvi for sharing their recordings




Horror Vacui

(Making Art Work/Institute of Modern Art, 2020)

A multimedia essay about fear of empty spaces, written with Mia McAuslan

Commissioned by Alex Holt. An extract appears in the book Making Art Work (IMA, 2021)




Manus Recording Project Collective: where are you today

(Liquid Architecture, 2020)

A recording and listening project

Produced in collaboration with Farhad Bandesh, Farhad Rahmati, Samad Abdul, Shamindan Kanapathi, Thanush Selvraj and Yasin Abdallah in Australian immigration detention, and André Dao and Michael Green. Read a dossier of writing about this work in Disclaimer



Division Exercises

(Avantwhatever, 2020)

A video essay about delineations, discernments and boundaries

For Avantwhatever’s 2020 artistic programme curated by Ben Byrne




Separation Studies

(LIMINAL, 2020)

A multimedia essay about divisions and separations

Edited by Cher Tan for LIMINAL Magazine’s Glitch series




Grey-headed Flying Fox Colony

(Field Recordings, 2020)

Ten minutes amongst the bats at dusk in Yarra Bend Park

For Eleanor McDowall’s Field Recordings project




Eavesdropping: A Reader

(City Gallery Wellington, 2019)

A contribution to the book accompanying the exhibition/investigation

Edited by James Parker and Joel Stern




Thing-Like

(Constellations, 2019)

A four-channel sound installation and a podcast commission about the human voice, time and money

Part of the Resonant Bodies project curated by Aliya Pabani, Michelle Macklem and Jess Shane – exhibited at Toronto Media Arts Center and published on Constellations



Stipple patterns overlaid on a washed out photo of the Oulipo group

As Far as the I 

(BBC Radio 4, 2019)

A short radio feature for an Oulipo-themed episode of the podcast/radio programme Short Cuts



Signal Boost stylised text graphic

Signal Boost

(Wheeler Centre, 2019–)

Developed an inclusion- and experimentation-focussed audio storytelling programme

Participants received $10,000 each in funded learning, tailored mentorship, tools and equipment, practical support and paid work experience



Credit: Eddie Jim

The Empathy Museum: A Mile in My Shoes

(Arts Centre Melbourne, 2019)

An audio story about walking through the city of Melbourne and around the Yarra River at night

Presented as part of a rather literal installation in which you could wear … my shoes



Animated image showing different illustrated tiles for Notes

Notes

(Wheeler Centre, 2018–2020)

A digital publication showcasing award-winning original Australian writing and adventurous multimedia stories. R.I.P.!

Created and edited with Sophie Quick




Mind the Step: Kinesthesia and Craft 

(Barbican, 2018)

An essay about the body as a listening device – drawing on experiences of contemporary dance

Curated by Eleanor McDowall and Nina Garthwaite for the Barbican Centre’s Soundhouse: The Listening Body exhibition and public programme. Sketch by Nina!




Manus Recording Project Collective: how are you today

(Liquid Architecture/Melbourne Law School, 2018)

An installation built around daily recordings from six men living in Australia’s immigration detention on Manus Island

Part of the Eavesdropping investigation curated by Joel Stern (LA) and James Parker (MLS); shown at Ian Potter Museum of Art, City Gallery Wellington, Gus Fisher Gallery Auckland and Melbourne Law School




Editorial illustrations

(2018–)

Miscellaneous




Changes Again

(ABC Radio National, 2017)

A story about looking and seeing, breakage and recognition, for the podcast/radio programme Soundproof



Photo of Abdul Aziz Muhamat by Michael Green

The Messenger

(Behind the Wire and the Wheeler Centre, 2017–2019)

A podcast based on thousands of voice messages sent by Abdul Aziz Muhamat, a refugee detained on the Australian-run detention centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, to Michael Green, a journalist based in Melbourne

With Abdul Aziz Muhamat, Michael Green, André Dao, Bec Fary, Hannah Reich and Sophie Black. Winner of a Walkley Award, NY Festivals International Radio Awards Grand Trophy and several others. No Grammy, but mum says it could still happen



Illustration by Sam Wallman

The Interrobang

(Wheeler Centre, 2017)

Digital production of a crowdsourced festival of questions – including a publication featuring Sheila Heti, Sam Wallman, Estelle Tang, Toby Fehily and Geoffrey O’Connor

Produced with Connor O’Brien



Tile image featuring a picture of paddle boats on a blue lake in Japan

Under and Over and Into and Between 

(Assemble Papers, 2017)

A mixtape (and interview) working through minimalism, stretched sounds and various positions on the human voice

Commissioned by Jana Perković




Australian Audio Guide

(2016–2020)

Co-founder/editor of a website offering short reviews of Australian podcasts and radio series, and interviews and features about how – and why – they were made

Created in collaboration with Kate Montague



Image of two record covers side by side

Speed Painters: Bellarine and Bellarine II

(Cutters Records, 2015)

Two records alloying slow-burning house music, techno and found sound

A musical group with Tig Huggins, Nick Huggins and Oscar O’Bryan




The Big Prawn

(ABC Radio National, 2015)

A short story, written by Katia Pase, about a young girl’s search for her mother and the mythical landmark of her childhood, for the podcast/radio programme Radiotonic



Your words, not mine

(Melbourne Writers Festival/Lit Hop Melbourne, 2014)

Is it weird to play the part of somebody else in a radio feature? Our sources say yes, and we have the research to prove it: namely, this unique radio karaoke event presented at Loop, which provoked novel ethical questions while taking a very long time to subtitle

Featuring works by Timothy Nicastri, Jaye Kranz, Jessie Borrelle, John Jacobs, Julie Shapiro, Michael Brydon, Tom Cho, Natalie Kestecher and Sophie Townsend, Quinn Eades and Russell Stapleton



20 Questions

(Wheeler Centre, 2014)

Interactive campaign and digital production of statistics-driven live event

With Simon Abrahams, Ian Pidd, Martyn Coutts, Icelab and more



Photo of a plaque – 'Tweets don't deserve to live forever. Conversations do'

#discuss

(Wheeler Centre/Clemenger BBDO, 2014)
Awareness campaign for the Wheeler Centre, bridging digital/physical discussion with 100 temporary/permanent plaques mounted city-wide

With Michael Williams, Pauline O’Brien, Simon Abrahams, Tamara Zimet, Ben Keenan, Ben Birchall, Nathan Rogers, Sharon Adams, Berlin Abraham, Louise Sergent, Kate Little and more




Disorient Express

(Radio With Pictures/GRAPHIC Festival/Sydney Opera House, 2012)

A live performance of an illustrated radio feature, made in collaboration with artist Lachlan Conn, performed at Sydney Opera House and broadcast on FBi Radio

With thanks to Pepi Ronalds for sharing her experiences of the 2011 Fukushima earthquake and its nuclear aftermath. Commissioned by Gabriel Clark, Eliza Sarlos and the late Jesse Cox




Paper Radio

(est. 2010)

A long-running, now intermittent podcast (or journal) publishing fiction and non-fiction from Australia and New Zealand

Created with Jessie Borrelle









That’s all I’ve had time to put here right now. Hm – I wonder what Bryanboy is up to.