Student profiles
Wendy Smith
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wendyeacomposer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendyeacomposer/
Email: Wendy.Smith@liverpool.ac.uk
Website: https://soundcloud.com/wendyeacomposer
Thesis Title
Institution
Supervisors
Dr Oliver Carman
Prof. Lisa Colton
Research Summary
My PhD research investigates the concept of homage in electroacoustic music, which I am using to create new compositions that shine a spotlight upon forgotten and marginalised women composers in the early history of electronic music.
The demographic of this study is women electronic composers who created music in Europe between 1940 and 1975. This time frame is understood as the founding period when the first studios and ‘schools’ of electronic music began to appear in Europe, along with the first outputs of musique concrète. The creative works and activities of male electronic composers have traditionally been recorded in the history and the canon from this time. Thus, it is necessary to attend to early women electronic composers’ cultural neglect, examining the ways that their contributions to the field have been overlooked, forgotten or hidden; I undertake this partly through practice-based research. Paying homage to these composers involves drawing inspiration from an analysis of their music and a study of archival sources belonging to them; I am also collecting an oral history through conducting interviews. My study aims to fill the literature gap around women’s creative contributions by interviewing early women electronic composers.
Research Interests
I am an electroacoustic composer and women in sound researcher, currently conducting a practice-based PhD at the University of Liverpool. My research interest centres around revisionist musicology, gender studies, oral history, archival research and musical analysis; I use these methods to uncover the contributions of early women electronic composers and understand their place and practice in the early field of electronic music. My primary composition outputs are acousmatic works and sound installations. My compositional works also explore practices of intertextuality, interaction, soundscape, improvisation, sound diffusion, multichannel surround, sound design, live performance elements, laptop improvisation, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Researching women in sound has provided both inspiration and creative focus for my latest electroacoustic compositions.
During my studies, I have also been an active member of several committees (listed below) focused on raising awareness of and tackling equality, diversity and inclusion issues in Higher Education (HE). Being on these committees has enabled me to work as part of a team to help break down barriers in education to create inclusive, safe and supportive learning spaces for communities that have often been marginalised and underrepresented in HE. My involvement in these committees has enabled me to share and bring my personal experience and expertise in navigating HE as a dyslexic student, composer and researcher.
2021 to present – AHRC NWCDTP’s (UK) Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee
2020 to present – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Music Studies (UK) Physical, Sensory and Cognitive Differences Working Group
https://edims.network/differences/
2020 to 2021 – Keele University’s (UK) Decolonising the Curriculum Committee
Publications
Jun 2023 – University of Liverpool (UK) Music Department PGR Colloquium
Delivery of an academic paper: titled ‘Homage in electroacoustic music: Honoring the pioneering work and music of Janet Beat (1937-)’.
Sep 2022 – Bangor University (UK) Rethinking Women’s Work in Music Workshop
Panellist: on the panel titled ‘How might we shape women’s work in music scholarship in the next twenty years?’. I discussed the question, ‘Why have early women electronic composers’ electronic music not been valued to the same degree as their male contemporaries resulting in their music not being preserved?’.
Jul 2022 – The University of California (USA) Electronic Music: Sounding Women of the Americas course
Guest speaker: lecture titled ‘Homage in electronic music: Honouring the pioneering work and music of Janet Beat and Elżbieta Sikora’.
Jan 2022 – Uniarts Helsinki (FIN) Gender and musicianship” study days conference
Delivery of an academic paper: titled ‘Revealing the hidden history and legacy of pioneering electronic composer Janet Beat (1937-)’.
Jan 2022 – University of Plymouth (UK) BFE/RMA Research Students Conference in Music
Delivery of an academic paper: titled ‘Homage in electronic music: Honouring the pioneering work and music of Janet Beat (1937-) and Elżbieta Sikora (1943-)’.
Nov 2021 – The Open University (UK) Student Research Presentations
Delivery of an academic paper: titled ‘Revealing the hidden history and legacy of pioneering electronic composer Janet Beat (1937-)’.
Oct 2021 – University of Manchester (UK) NWCDTP Research, Resilience, Resurgence conference
Delivery of an academic paper: titled ‘Navigating creative challenges: An electroacoustic homage to pioneering electronic composer Janet Beat (1937-)’.
Mar 2021 – Keele University (UK) Music Research Forum series
Delivery of an academic paper: titled ‘Exploring homage in electroacoustic music: Exposing the hidden histories and work of early women electronic composers in Europe (1940-75)’.
Mar 2019 – Capstone Theatre (UK) The Sounds of Opera Concert
Guest speaker: I discussed Pauline Oliveros’ (1932-2016) tape work Bye Bye Butterfly (1965) and her feminist sonic critique against Giacomo Puccini’s (1858-1924) Madama Butterfly (1903) opera.
Sep 2017 – Bangor University (UK) First International Conference on Women’s Work in Music
Delivery of an academic paper: titled ‘Women Electroacoustic Composers: Challenging Historic Musical Gender Stereotypes through Compositional Outputs’.
Jun 2016 – Liverpool Hope University (UK) Research that Makes an Impact Conference
Sound installation demonstration and research presentation: titled ‘dɪsˈlɛksɪə ˈɡeɪtweɪ (dyslexia gateway): An Interactive Sound Installation Highlighting a Dyslexia Perspective’.
Mar 2015 – Liverpool Hope University (UK) Women in Music Since 1913 Symposium
Delivery of an academic paper: titled ‘A Composer Portrait of Pauline Oliveros’ Technology: Influences on Her Early Electronic Works’.