Dr Johanna Linsley

There are several current strands I am following in my research. I am interested in sound and listening, and I have an ongoing collaboration with Dr Rebecca Collins (Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh) based on a creative methodology we describe as ‘sonic detection’. We have used this methodology to create site-specific and participatory performance works across the UK. Our first album, Stolen Voices001, was shortlisted for a Scottish Award for New Music in 2021. Our first book, Sonic Detection: A Polygraph, is forthcoming from punctum press. I also make solo audio works, which have been commissioned by a range of cultural institutions including D21 Gallery (Leipzig) and the Centre for Poetic Innovation at University of St Andrews.

I am interested in the documentation of ephemeral and immaterial art works. I am an editor of the book Artists in the Archive: Creative and Curatorial Engagements with the Documents of Art and Performance (Routledge, 2018). From 2016-19, I co-convened a working group on Documenting Performance for the Theatre and Performance Research Association, and as part of this, organised two stand-alone events at Tate Exchange at Tate Modern: a study day on Collecting and Curating Sound, and a symposium titled Hear Tell: Describing, Reporting, Narrating. A special issue on the latter is forthcoming from Contemporary Theatre Review.

I am also working on several projects about the relationship between performance and writing. In 2023, I was commissioned to create a performance text for Ursa-X, a new performance work by Liz Rosenfeld for the Sofiensaele Theatre in Berlin and the Kampnagel Theatre in Hamburg. I’m working on a larger project about form and formlessness in writing for/with the body, drawing on a range of contemporary queer performance art works that use text in challenging and imaginative ways. 

I teach across the Creative Writing programme, including convening the Creative Practice dissertation module for fourth-year students. I also convene a second-year Humanities module on Gender/Sexuality/Culture. At postgraduate level, I have developed and convened modules on Voice & Text, and ‘The Weird’ in Literature and Art. I have also initiated partnership projects for students with cultural institutions including Creative Dundee, and the New Scriptorium (a project of Arbroath 2020+1 and Hospitalfield House).

I am available to supervise PhD projects about contemporary performance, Live Art, sound, the voice, performance writing, and performance archives/documentation.