Adopting Sound

A lecturer and PhD student, Jonathan Lindley spoke of his journey into the adoption of sound. He started out like myself as a Graphic Design student, struggling to sync video with audio. This process of adopting sound seemed to be a way of rejecting being a specialist and trying to become more of a ‘Jack of all trades’. He spoke of the difficulties he faced while trying to be freelance when you aren’t an established designer, having difficulties getting work and getting work that pays well for your time. After working for a few artists doing graphic videos for their songs he decided to start his own recording studio to make his own music instead of just designing graphics for other people’s music he could do it for his own too. Not only that he could also begin to design the experience; using sound responsive graphics to engage the audience. He became interested in the idea of Neo-tribalism (a new revived form of being in a tribe) and how this affected your life and experiences. This idea of Neo-tribalism is harnessed in his studio Sunbird Records, a platform for designers, artists and producers to all support each other. Sunbird Records doesn’t run with a managerial hierarchy; but in a way where everyone has equal significance. Sunbird Records and his relationship sound developed drastically when they got their own venue to host events at, making the collaborations with musicians much easier.