​WFAE BOARD - AFFILIATE REPRESENTATIVES

The WFAE is composed of seven affiliated groups that together form the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. Each affiliate has an elected representative on the governing board. The current representatives are listed below.

Australian Forum for Acoustic Ecology (AFAE)
Dr. Leah Barclay is an Australian sound artist, composer and researcher working at the intersection of art, science and technology. She specialises in electroacoustic music, acoustic ecology and emerging fields of biology exploring environmental patterns and changes through sound. Her work has been commissioned, performed and exhibited to wide acclaim internationally by organisations including UNESCO, Ear to the Earth, Al Gore’s Climate Reality and the IUCN. She is currently the director of Biosphere Soundscapes and a research fellow at Griffith University in Australia where she is leading a portfolio of research in acoustic ecology and climate change. ​Website

Canadian Association for Acoustic Ecology (CASE/ACÉS )
As a multidisciplinary artist since the early 1970’s, Charlie Fox has exhibited audio art, experimental film, video art, performance and installation artworks in Canada and abroad. He’s been integral to contemporary theatre, dance and music productions, directed arts documentaries for broadcast, curated art exhibitions and pioneered research in immersive sound. Charlie has co-founded media arts centres and contemporary arts organisations in Canada and continues to be involved with arts collectives and advocacy groups. Devoted to sharing knowledge, he’s been a faculty member at Fleming College, University of Guelph, Ryerson University School of Image Arts, University of Regina and a workshop presenter to artists across Canada and in Japan

Finnish Society for Acoustic Ecology (FSAE)
Simo Alitalo is a Finnish sound artist whose sound installations and radio works have been exhibited and broadcast in New York, Phoenix, Berlin, Cologne, Gothenburg, Quebec, Auckland, and Perth as well as in Finland at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma. Simo's projects often emerge from basic question of acoustemology: what do we know about the world through the sense of hearing, and how does what we hear affect the way we understand the world. He is currently working on his dissertation at the University of the Arts Helsinki. Website

Hellenic Society for Acoustic Ecology (HSAE)
Andreas Mniestris is an electroacoustic music composer, saxophone player and sound engineer born in Piraeus, Greece. Since 1995 he has lived in Corfu where he teaches at the Music Department of Ionian University as an Associate Professor of Electroacoustic Music Composition. He is currently the director of the Music Department’s Electroacoustic Music Research Laboratory [EPHMEE]. Mr. Mniestris is a founding member of the Hellenic Association of Electroacoustic Music Composers and the Hellenic Society for Acoustic Ecology. Website
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Japanese Association for Soundscape Ecology (JASE)
​Dr. Tadahiko Imada is Professor at Hirosaki University in Japan, teaching music education based on the concept of soundscape. He holds a BMus from Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo; an MA from Simon Fraser University where he studied as a recipient of the Government of Canada Award; and his PhD is from the University of British Columbia in Canada. Dr. Imada is co-author of A Little Sound Education (together with R. Murray Schafer, Tokyo: Shunjusha, 1996, 2009); Music Education Policy and Implementation: International Perspectives (co-edited with Chi Cheung Leung and Rita Yip, Hirosaki University Press, 2008) and The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy in Music Education (edited by Wayne Bowman and Ana Luca Fruga, Oxford University Press, 2012). Website
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UK and Ireland Soundscape Community (UKISC)
Dr. Rob Mackay is an award-winning composer, sound artist and performer. Recent projects have moved towards a cross-disciplinary approach, including geology, soundscape ecology, theatre, audiovisual installation work, and human-computer interaction. His work has been performed in 18 countries (including several performances on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 1 and Radio France), and a number of his pieces have received international awards (Bourges (1997 and 2001), EAR (1999), La Muse en Circuit (2007)). He has held composer residencies at Slovak Radio (Bratislava), La Muse en Circuit (Paris), the Tyrone Guthrie Arts Centre (Ireland), Habitación del Ruido (Mexico City), and CMMAS (Morelia). Website

WFAE BOARD: EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
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President
Eric Leonardson is an accomplished Chicago-based composer, radio artist, sound designer, instrument inventor, improvisor, visual artist, and teacher. He is Executive Director of the World Listening Project (founded in 2008) and founder (in 2009) of the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology. He is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Sound at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Website

Vice President
Dr. Leah Barclay is an Australian sound artist, composer and researcher working at the intersection of art, science and technology. She specialises in electroacoustic music, acoustic ecology and emerging fields of biology exploring environmental patterns and changes through sound. Her work has been commissioned, performed and exhibited to wide acclaim internationally by organisations including UNESCO, Ear to the Earth, Al Gore’s Climate Reality and the IUCN. She is currently the director of Biosphere Soundscapes and a research fellow at Griffith University in Australia where she is leading a portfolio of research in acoustic ecology and climate change. Website

​Treasurer and Vice President
Eric Powell is a sound artist and composer working with a variety of presentation methods including stereo and multi-channel tape composition, and performing with integrated live electronics as well as creating site-specific and interactive installations. His work examines the intersection points between space, place and sound. Currently working towards a PhD at Concordia University, Eric's work has been heard throughout North America, Europe and Asia with recent presentations in Montreal, Prague, Limerick, and Dubai. Website

Past Treasurer and Past President
​Nigel Frayne (1952–2018) was a sound designer working with museums, aquariums, science and exhibition centres, theme parks and arts and leisure precincts from San Diego to West Papua, Bunbury (Western Australia) to Singapore, Genoa to Auckland. In 1996 he joined the WFAE and formed Resonant Designs, specialising in Soundscape and Electroacoustic Design. Website

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Past Secretary
Tyler Kinnear is an adjunct instructor of music at Western Carolina University. He completed his Ph.D. in musicology at the University of British Columbia in 2017, with a dissertation examining conceptions of nature in contemporary sonic art. Tyler’s teaching and research interests include music and the environment, sound ethnography, and music and advocacy. His written work can be found in the Ecomusicology Review, Music & Politics, Organised Sound, and Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology. Website

WFAE COMMUNICATIONS
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Editor-in-Chief: Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology
​Dr. Leah Barclay is an Australian sound artist, composer and researcher working at the intersection of art, science and technology. She specialises in electroacoustic music, acoustic ecology and emerging fields of biology exploring environmental patterns and changes through sound. Her work has been commissioned, performed and exhibited to wide acclaim internationally by organisations including UNESCO, Ear to the Earth, Al Gore’s Climate Reality and the IUCN. She is currently the director of Biosphere Soundscapes and a research fellow at Griffith University in Australia where she is leading a portfolio of research in acoustic ecology and climate change. ​Website

Past Editor-in-Chief: Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology
Dr. Phylis Johnson is Professor of Sound & New Media in the College of Mass Communication & Media Arts at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. She is Editor of Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology and the Editor of The Journal of Radio and Audio Media. She serves as machinima reviews editor for The Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds. She has written four books in media studies, as well as numerous chapters and articles dealing with issues in sound, new media and media studies. She operates a sim within Second Life on behalf of her university, in partnership with the University of Western Australia, with dedicated space to a several-layered interactive in-world lab used for teaching sound studies.
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Past Editor-in-Chief: Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology
Hildegard Westerkamp is a composer, radio artist and sound ecologist. She uses environmental sounds almost exclusively as the "language" for her compositional work, much of which comments on aspects of the soundscape and on our state of listening. Born in Germany, she moved to Canada in 1968 and in the early '70s worked with Canadian composer Murray Schafer on the World Soundscape project. She is a founding member of the World Forum on Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) and continues to compose, travel, and lecture all over the world. She remains associated with Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she lives and works. Website

Coordinator, Soundscape Explorations
Gary Ferrington is Past WFAE Secretary and Webmaster; he continues as coordinator of Soundscape Explorations, a directory of short videos related to acoustic ecology. Ferrington retired from the University of Oregon in 1998 and has since become a freelance journalist focusing on contemporary classical music in the US state of Oregon. His background is in the field of Instructional Systems Technology and Cinema studies with a MS degree in IST from the University of Southern California.