About

The Artist

Dr Nigel Helyer

Nigel Helyer (a.k.a. DrSonique) is an independent Anglo-Australian sculptor and sound-artist. He is the director of a small multi-disciplinary team “Sonic Objects; Sonic Architecture” with an international reputation for large scale sound-sculpture installations, environmental public art-works, museum inter-actives and new media projects.

His practice is strongly inter-disciplinary, linking a broad platform of creative practice with scientific Research and Development in both Academic and Industrial contexts, and he maintains an active interest in critical and theoretical debates.

His activities include; the development of a powerful virtual audio reality mapping system, “Sonic Landscapes” in collaboration with Lake Technology (now Dolby Australia) and he is the Artistic Director of the AudioNomad Research Group developing location sensitive environmental audio at the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales.

Nigel is an honorary faculty member in Architectural Acoustics at the University of Sydney and is a Professorial Visiting Fellow at the school of Computer Science and Engineering at UNSW.  He has held positions as Visiting Professor at Stanford University, Artist in Residence at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland and at the Tropical Marine Science Institute of the National University of Singapore.

He was the Radiophonic Fellow for ABC Radio during 2008 and maintains active links with The Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco, and the SymbioticA biotechnology lab at the University of Western.

Nigel is a co-founder and commissioner of the SoundCulture organisation; was a fellow of the Australia Council for 2002/3, the winner of the Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award 2002 and curator of Sonic Differences part of the Biennale of Electronic Arts Perth 2004.   He is currently developing the Wireless House, project, a major commission for the City of Sydney and a solar powered digital audio sculpture for Macquarie University.

Nigel’s website can be visited here.