︎

Jon Tjhia


about, email, ︎: 🍔️ 💎️ 🌵️.


Hey! Thanks for coming by. Here are a few things from the last little while.

Emotional Support Animal

(Darebin Arts, 2021)
An interactive narrative essay 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)



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



Making Art Work: Horror Vacui (2020)

Making Art Work: Horror Vacui

(Institute of Modern Art, 2020)
A multimedia essay about fear of empty spaces, written in collaboration with Mia McAuslan

Commissioned by Alex Holt




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



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 podcast




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

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




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



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/analogue and temporary/permanent prompts




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 publish right now. Hm – I wonder what Bryanboy is up to.