Awards, Fellowships, Scholarships
- 2019 APRA Professional Development Awards, Finalist Art Music category
- 2019 Prix Phonurgia Nova Award (France), Artist Residency, Finalist
- 2019 Prix Marulić (Croatia), Preselection
- 2018 UK International Radio Drama Competition, Shortlisted
- 2018 Grand Prix Nova (Romania), Preselection
- 2017 Prix Phonurgia Nova Award (France), Sound Art, Final Round Selection
- 2016 Prix Phonurgia Nova, Final Round Selection
- 2015 New York Festivals International Radio Program Awards, Gold Medal, Sound Art Category
- 2015 Visiting Research Fellow, Goldsmiths, University of London
- 2015 Prix Phonurgia Nova, Final Round Selection
- 2014 Art Music Award, Finalist in the category of Award for Excellence by an Organisation for 2013 activities contributed to Frequency Oz as curator, performer and composer
- 2013 Prix Marulić Awards, Pre-Selection
- 2011 Prix Phonurgia Nova, Final Round Selection
- 2010 Prix Bohemia Awards, Finalist
- 2010 Prix Phonurgia Nova, Final Round Selection
- 2009 University of Sydney Postgraduate Awards (UPA) Scholarship
- 2008 Albert Travelling Scholarship, The University of Sydney
- 2003 International Prix Italia Award, Best Music Radio Composed Work
- ABC Radio, New Media Arts, Artist in Residence Fellowship 2002
- Australian Guild Screen Composers Screen Music Awards (Nomination for Best Music for a Station ID or Promo)
- National Digital Arts Award finalist and exhibiting artist, at the Brisbane Institute of Modern Art
- North Coast Entertainment Industry Association Award, Best Experimental Song
- North Coast Entertainment Industry Association Award finalist,Best Instrumental Song
- North Coast Entertainment Industry Association Award finalist, Best Rock Song
- North Coast Entertainment Industry Association Award, Best Instrumental Song
Biography
Internationally acclaimed composer, sound artist and and radio artist Colin Black won the prestigious Prix Italia Award (2003) in the category Best “Music Radio - Composed Work” for composing and producing his major work The Ears Outside My Listening Room. BBC Radio 3 described this work as "a haunting evocation of Australia", while the Prix Italia Award’s International Jury Report concluded that it, "... lived up to the claim ... that here was a patchwork sonic quilt that can be passed down the generations." claim ... that here was a patchwork sonic quilt that can be passed down the generations."
In 2014 Black was awarded an artist residency in Ljubljana by The Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities; while in 2013 Black was commissioned to create the sound art component for The Double Word inter-disciplinary installation at the Sydney Olympic Park site, commissioned to create a major work entitled Semblance and curate The Transmuted Signal four part series for Kunstradio that aired on Austrian public radio, and curated the four part series about sound art entitled Sound Fix for ABC Radio National. In 2012 Black was commissioned by ABC Radio National to created an experimental radio feature work for The Night Air.
In previous years Black was commissioned by Deutschlandradio Kultur's Klangkunst to create a feature length radio art work from field recordings made in East Germany entitled Kilian’s Antipodean Dream, which as a result of achieving final selection round status in the 2010 Prix Phonurgia Nova, was broadcast as part of the Semaine De La Creation Sonore [Week of Sound Creation] festival in France. Prior to this in 2008 Black had been invited by Czech Radio’s rAdioCUSTICA program to create Soundprints: The Prague Pressings for both broadcast and CD release. For the Australasian Computer Music Conference 2008, held at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (Australia), Black created his sound installation work The Extended Enviro-Guitar (XEG). In 2007 Black composed and produced a major musical/radiophonic hybrid work entitled Longing, Love & Loss for performance and broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation network. Black also created the Butter Churn sound sculpture installation in 2007 for Lismore’s Heritage Park (Australia). As part of the 2004 Greek Olympics, Black was commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to co-produce & compose two major audio/musical works with a Greek theme for their Olympic programming.
In 2013 Black was awarded a PhD from the University of Sydney for his research into sound art for radio. Black is also is a graduate of the UNE Contemporary Music Degree and has an Honorary Graduate Diploma of Musical Directing and Composing for TV from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
Black’s work has been selected for broadcast and podcast on stations including Deutschlandradio Kultur, the BBC, YLE Radio, Sweden’s Sveriges Radio as well as many other European stations and in South Africa, New Zealand and numerous times across Australia.
In 2014 Black was awarded an artist residency in Ljubljana by The Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities; while in 2013 Black was commissioned to create the sound art component for The Double Word inter-disciplinary installation at the Sydney Olympic Park site, commissioned to create a major work entitled Semblance and curate The Transmuted Signal four part series for Kunstradio that aired on Austrian public radio, and curated the four part series about sound art entitled Sound Fix for ABC Radio National. In 2012 Black was commissioned by ABC Radio National to created an experimental radio feature work for The Night Air.
In previous years Black was commissioned by Deutschlandradio Kultur's Klangkunst to create a feature length radio art work from field recordings made in East Germany entitled Kilian’s Antipodean Dream, which as a result of achieving final selection round status in the 2010 Prix Phonurgia Nova, was broadcast as part of the Semaine De La Creation Sonore [Week of Sound Creation] festival in France. Prior to this in 2008 Black had been invited by Czech Radio’s rAdioCUSTICA program to create Soundprints: The Prague Pressings for both broadcast and CD release. For the Australasian Computer Music Conference 2008, held at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music (Australia), Black created his sound installation work The Extended Enviro-Guitar (XEG). In 2007 Black composed and produced a major musical/radiophonic hybrid work entitled Longing, Love & Loss for performance and broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation network. Black also created the Butter Churn sound sculpture installation in 2007 for Lismore’s Heritage Park (Australia). As part of the 2004 Greek Olympics, Black was commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation to co-produce & compose two major audio/musical works with a Greek theme for their Olympic programming.
In 2013 Black was awarded a PhD from the University of Sydney for his research into sound art for radio. Black is also is a graduate of the UNE Contemporary Music Degree and has an Honorary Graduate Diploma of Musical Directing and Composing for TV from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
Black’s work has been selected for broadcast and podcast on stations including Deutschlandradio Kultur, the BBC, YLE Radio, Sweden’s Sveriges Radio as well as many other European stations and in South Africa, New Zealand and numerous times across Australia.
Artist Motivation Statement
My work is about exploring concepts related to fragility, the morphology of cultures, our changing relationship with place, and human mortality. It aims to enfold the un-embraceable through the ephemeral metaphor of sound that disappears instantly once it is heard. My audio recordings in my work are poignant reminders of people, places, objects and events that have already changed, past or no longer exist.
As an artist I am interested in how cultures relate to place and space, and the impact of human mobility in contemporary society. My artistic practice centres on the process of building a multi-facetted, intimate, aural geography in which human imprint is present. Further to this I am interested in how, through mobility, one place (with its history, stories and even elements of its soundscape) can be virtually superimposed onto another place and how that can deconstruct notions of a fixed place and time. My work questions how this type of re-conceptualisation of place can also impact on notions of identity, both personal and national. It is a form of sonic ethnography (which does not rely on words) that seeks to reveal the complexities and diversity that exist in communities and our relationship with localities and place. As a sound artist and radio artist I focus on bringing attention to elements of culture that could otherwise remain silenced, are sometimes confronting, often pluralistic, frequently restrained in private thought or overlooked aurally due to the overbearing “noise” of stereotypes, preconceived beliefs and concepts.
As an artist I am interested in how cultures relate to place and space, and the impact of human mobility in contemporary society. My artistic practice centres on the process of building a multi-facetted, intimate, aural geography in which human imprint is present. Further to this I am interested in how, through mobility, one place (with its history, stories and even elements of its soundscape) can be virtually superimposed onto another place and how that can deconstruct notions of a fixed place and time. My work questions how this type of re-conceptualisation of place can also impact on notions of identity, both personal and national. It is a form of sonic ethnography (which does not rely on words) that seeks to reveal the complexities and diversity that exist in communities and our relationship with localities and place. As a sound artist and radio artist I focus on bringing attention to elements of culture that could otherwise remain silenced, are sometimes confronting, often pluralistic, frequently restrained in private thought or overlooked aurally due to the overbearing “noise” of stereotypes, preconceived beliefs and concepts.
Testimonials
"What beautiful work! Subtly mixed, gorgeously realized, a pleasure to hear.” - Dr Warren Burt, 21 December 2012.
“Black is an expert composer … works of high technical quality and profound cultural engagement.” - Dr Ros Bandt, February 2013.
"What a wonderful programme [In Search of Captain Cat of Llareggub]. Enormously impressed. I'm not surprised you got gold at the New York Festivals for this." - Tim Crook, Professor of Broadcast Journalism, Goldsmiths, University of London and author of Radio Drama and The Sound Handbook (Media Practice).
"… amongst the most significant Australian creative artists of his generation, a composer/sound artist who has created a significant body of important work in a relatively short time, work which spans installation, sound art, fìlm, radiophonic works, and beyond, with many of these works having gained international attention." - John Davis, CEO Australian Music Centre , 25 February 2011
"It’s a gorgeous piece [In Search of Captain Cat of Llareggub]. Stunningly vivid and evocative sounds and voices woven together with real artistry.” - John Biewen (Audio Program Director at Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, USA)
"Colin Black's artistic sensibility is nuanced, considered and indicative of a wide-ranging knowledge of contemporary audio arts. He is forward-looking, engaging, smart and incisive, and produces work of the very highest quality.” - Ed Baxter, CEO Resonance FM, Composer and Associate Lecturer (Sound Arts & Design) London College of Communication.
“A haunting evocation of Australia” - BBC Radio 3, UK 11th June 2004
"Strongly recommend Colin Black's lustrous audio work! Homage to Under Milk Wood: evocative and affecting.” - Siobhan McHugh (University of Wollongong, Australia), 3 December 2014
"I loved this piece [In Search of Captain Cat of Llareggub]. I played it to my class this morning and they really got into it, which is a major success! Nice recording and mixing, well done!” - Liz Greene (Dublin City University, Ireland), 11 November 2014.
"Fantastic! Sonic adventure at its best!" - Dixie Treichel (Minneapolis, USA), 13 October 2014.
"Congratulations again for your great work [Sonic Reflections] … Thanks a lot to you for creating such an inspiring work!” - Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, Radio Clásica, Radio Nacional de España, Ars Sonora, 29 December 2016.
"… a unanimous choice as the winner in this category."
"It created a mood and sustained it throughout, with the speech and music adding up to something distinctly more than the sum of their parts."
"...lived up to the claim … that here was a patchwork sonic quilt that can be passed down the generations." - Prix Italia Award’s International Jury Report, Italy, 2003
"wonderful stuff” - Jim Denely (Australia), 9 November 2014
“ ... absolutely beautiful work, very moving work ... “ - Julian Day, New Music Up Late, ABC Classic FM, Australia, 24 May 2008
"Great stuff, Colin. I can but quote Bernard's introduction [Nova, RTÉ lyric fm broadcast 5 October 1014]: 'A piece of radio art to envy.' ... " - Gerald Fiebig (Augsburg, Germany), 13 October 2014.
"It is the human themes and Black's clever composition that bind the stories and music together.” - State of the Arts, “Arts News,” Australia, 1 December 2003
" ... 'In search' [of Captain Cat of Llareggub] is so beautiful and moving" - Meira Asher (Tel Aviv, Israel), 13 October 2014.
"Voices are burned into my auditory memory rendering them unforgettable ... a comprehensive work made of suggestion, mood and voiceprint character studies that gives a tangible, inclusive and unselfconscious impression of Australian-ness and its many voices ... both a celebratory and a melancholic work about the fragility of existence ." - Gail Priest, RealTime magazine, No.52 Australia, December 02/January 03
“The jury of the Prix Italia was right to give you the award. … The way to "think" music as a composition done out of language, noise and instrumental arrangements works perfectly” - Andreas Hagelüken, RBB-Internationale Radiokunst, Berlin/Freiburg, Germany
“... fantastic production valve ... experimental and highly entertaining at the same time.” “... great piece of radio-art!” - Erik Mikael Karlsson, EBU Ars Acustica Coordinator, Editor and Presenter for Swedish Radio P2
"... I feel this is a deep emotion what I´ve been listening to - which has been structured by impressions, but it´s not kind of narration - for me it goes far deeper toward a complex set of emotional polyphony, multilingual story which goes across traditional radio expressions" - Dr. Michal Rataj, Executive Producer, rAdioCUSTICA, Czech Radio , 17th June 2008
“... uses all conceivable means of expression that are presently available in the world of acoustic arts. He lets people’s authentic utterances to be heard only to dissolve them in a sound bath and to let them resonate in special repercussions and atmospheres.” - ÖRF (Austrian Public Radio), Kunstradio website, (accessed 13 July 2009)
“… it’s very much about memory.”
“This convergence of recordings as an audio documentary and at the same time a carrier of music and sonic experimentation … really explores this dual potential for recording.” - David Toop, Author of Ocean of Sound, UK, 11 June 2004,
“…wonderful program, high artistic level of which impressed all editors of our Music Department. … We use it as an educational aid and example of outstanding professionalism and creative seekings. - Valery Krutouz, 16th April 2004, International Relations Dept, National Radio Company of Ukraine
“Colin has an out standing record as a creator of unique radiophonic compositions and has a well earned international reputation which benefits Australian culture as well as reflect his individual achievement. This follows the awarding of the prestigious Prix ltalia for Music in 2003 for The Ears Outside My Listening Room, and he has built a sustained practice and body of work. ” - Robyn Ravlich, Executive Producer Music Unit, ABC Radio National, 18 November 2008
“Black is an expert composer … works of high technical quality and profound cultural engagement.” - Dr Ros Bandt, February 2013.
"What a wonderful programme [In Search of Captain Cat of Llareggub]. Enormously impressed. I'm not surprised you got gold at the New York Festivals for this." - Tim Crook, Professor of Broadcast Journalism, Goldsmiths, University of London and author of Radio Drama and The Sound Handbook (Media Practice).
"… amongst the most significant Australian creative artists of his generation, a composer/sound artist who has created a significant body of important work in a relatively short time, work which spans installation, sound art, fìlm, radiophonic works, and beyond, with many of these works having gained international attention." - John Davis, CEO Australian Music Centre , 25 February 2011
"It’s a gorgeous piece [In Search of Captain Cat of Llareggub]. Stunningly vivid and evocative sounds and voices woven together with real artistry.” - John Biewen (Audio Program Director at Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, USA)
"Colin Black's artistic sensibility is nuanced, considered and indicative of a wide-ranging knowledge of contemporary audio arts. He is forward-looking, engaging, smart and incisive, and produces work of the very highest quality.” - Ed Baxter, CEO Resonance FM, Composer and Associate Lecturer (Sound Arts & Design) London College of Communication.
“A haunting evocation of Australia” - BBC Radio 3, UK 11th June 2004
"Strongly recommend Colin Black's lustrous audio work! Homage to Under Milk Wood: evocative and affecting.” - Siobhan McHugh (University of Wollongong, Australia), 3 December 2014
"I loved this piece [In Search of Captain Cat of Llareggub]. I played it to my class this morning and they really got into it, which is a major success! Nice recording and mixing, well done!” - Liz Greene (Dublin City University, Ireland), 11 November 2014.
"Fantastic! Sonic adventure at its best!" - Dixie Treichel (Minneapolis, USA), 13 October 2014.
"Congratulations again for your great work [Sonic Reflections] … Thanks a lot to you for creating such an inspiring work!” - Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, Radio Clásica, Radio Nacional de España, Ars Sonora, 29 December 2016.
"… a unanimous choice as the winner in this category."
"It created a mood and sustained it throughout, with the speech and music adding up to something distinctly more than the sum of their parts."
"...lived up to the claim … that here was a patchwork sonic quilt that can be passed down the generations." - Prix Italia Award’s International Jury Report, Italy, 2003
"wonderful stuff” - Jim Denely (Australia), 9 November 2014
“ ... absolutely beautiful work, very moving work ... “ - Julian Day, New Music Up Late, ABC Classic FM, Australia, 24 May 2008
"Great stuff, Colin. I can but quote Bernard's introduction [Nova, RTÉ lyric fm broadcast 5 October 1014]: 'A piece of radio art to envy.' ... " - Gerald Fiebig (Augsburg, Germany), 13 October 2014.
"It is the human themes and Black's clever composition that bind the stories and music together.” - State of the Arts, “Arts News,” Australia, 1 December 2003
" ... 'In search' [of Captain Cat of Llareggub] is so beautiful and moving" - Meira Asher (Tel Aviv, Israel), 13 October 2014.
"Voices are burned into my auditory memory rendering them unforgettable ... a comprehensive work made of suggestion, mood and voiceprint character studies that gives a tangible, inclusive and unselfconscious impression of Australian-ness and its many voices ... both a celebratory and a melancholic work about the fragility of existence ." - Gail Priest, RealTime magazine, No.52 Australia, December 02/January 03
“The jury of the Prix Italia was right to give you the award. … The way to "think" music as a composition done out of language, noise and instrumental arrangements works perfectly” - Andreas Hagelüken, RBB-Internationale Radiokunst, Berlin/Freiburg, Germany
“... fantastic production valve ... experimental and highly entertaining at the same time.” “... great piece of radio-art!” - Erik Mikael Karlsson, EBU Ars Acustica Coordinator, Editor and Presenter for Swedish Radio P2
"... I feel this is a deep emotion what I´ve been listening to - which has been structured by impressions, but it´s not kind of narration - for me it goes far deeper toward a complex set of emotional polyphony, multilingual story which goes across traditional radio expressions" - Dr. Michal Rataj, Executive Producer, rAdioCUSTICA, Czech Radio , 17th June 2008
“... uses all conceivable means of expression that are presently available in the world of acoustic arts. He lets people’s authentic utterances to be heard only to dissolve them in a sound bath and to let them resonate in special repercussions and atmospheres.” - ÖRF (Austrian Public Radio), Kunstradio website, (accessed 13 July 2009)
“… it’s very much about memory.”
“This convergence of recordings as an audio documentary and at the same time a carrier of music and sonic experimentation … really explores this dual potential for recording.” - David Toop, Author of Ocean of Sound, UK, 11 June 2004,
“…wonderful program, high artistic level of which impressed all editors of our Music Department. … We use it as an educational aid and example of outstanding professionalism and creative seekings. - Valery Krutouz, 16th April 2004, International Relations Dept, National Radio Company of Ukraine
“Colin has an out standing record as a creator of unique radiophonic compositions and has a well earned international reputation which benefits Australian culture as well as reflect his individual achievement. This follows the awarding of the prestigious Prix ltalia for Music in 2003 for The Ears Outside My Listening Room, and he has built a sustained practice and body of work. ” - Robyn Ravlich, Executive Producer Music Unit, ABC Radio National, 18 November 2008
Colin Black (Dr Black) #thissoniclife
