Jon Tjhia

about, email, ︎: 🍔️ 💎️ 🌵️.

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

(Liminal Magazine, 2021)
An 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 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)

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

(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

(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

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

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