ava imogen grayson

My body of sound works include algorithmic and generative music works, field recordings, chamber music compositions, electronic music of multiple genres, and site-specific installations and performances.

My broad musical and sonic skillset comes from my training as a composer and sound designer and my experience in teaching Master’s-level students how to build sound art works, carry out field recordings, and work with various sound reproduction tools. I am always excited to expand my skills and adapt my working processes to new projects.

Click here to listen to an excerpt.

In the empty oil cistern on the Swedish island of Svanö, Francesco Fabris and Ava Imogen Grayson created a 36’ site-specific audiovisual performance, which was performed at Nonagon festival on 13.8.2022. This work was made possible by the Nordic Lights residency project.

Every place contains traces of events that have occurred over time, like a geographical palimpsest. Around the cistern is the natural fodder for future crude oil (plant and animal matter), below the cistern is the land from which Swedish culture flourished, and far below is stone: the spine of the earth that we tap into to satisfy our societal need for fossil fuels. Etymologically, the word 'petroleum' came into usage in 1546 and translates from Latin to mean 'stone oil'.

Through their collaborative audiovisual work, Fabris and Grayson weave a site-specific narrative of the cisterns of Svanö and their surrounding geography. Deconstructed sounds, field recordings, and footage from the oil tank have been pieced together with live-sung traditional Swedish herding calls ('kulning'). The resonant frequencies of the cistern provide harmony and percussive sounds recorded through the walls and roof of the cistern create rhythmic elements. Data charts of oil consumption and demand have been used to shape the narrative structure of the piece, which depicts the transformation of natural processes of decay into processed materials that have the ability to empower and endanger.

From 2015–2017, myself, yoga practitioner Reeta Partanen, and producer Heta Kaisto began an ongoing series and practice called Äänijooga (sound yoga). Based on the amalgamation of Nāda Yoga, Deep Listening method, and a gestural mapping system, Äänijooga was a study in using listening and movement whereby both embodied experiences would mutually reinforce each other.

Over 100 participants have experienced Äänijooga, and the 2-year series was a way of bringing people together from various local communities in a thoughtful, playful way.

Äänijooga was also developed into Grayson's Master’s thesis at Aalto University, which can be viewed here. For more information about this practice, please visit Äänijooga’s official site.

(Link to book and CD project here.)

I was invited by the Frekvenssi association to participate in CChanges, a three-part project funded by the Alfred Kordelin foundation that ran from autumn of 2019 to early 2021.

This project included a three-part performance organised in the central library of Helsinki in November of 2019, a sound-based group exhibit in January of 2020 at the Vuotalo cultural centre in Helsinki, a CD release of artists’ sound works entitled ‘CChanges’, and a book of essays entitled ‘Sound, Art & Climate Change’.

My contribution to this project was entitled ‘Green Wars’ and focussed on the Pablo Neruda poem A Callarse, a poem stressing the crucial need for stillness and introspection toward our own seemingly endless need to progress at the cost of all else. In this sound work, a fragmented version of this text is accompanied by many meaningful field recordings I have accumulated throughout my travels across North America and Finland.

To my great pleasure, the book also included contributions from Bernie Krause and Chris Watson, both of whom have been an influence in my own work.

(Listen to the installation here.)

From April 2–7 2019, Sound On was an installation placed in the atrium of Ateneum (Finnish National Gallery) with the aim of increasing awareness and discussion around depression. The work was made possible by Janssen Oy, Miltton Oy, the Confederation of Mental Health, and Ateneum. I created the soundscape of the work, and the interactive light installation was built by media artists Alex van Giersbergen and Marloes van Son.

“There is maturity and courage in the ability to accept depression as an experience that we or someone we love may go through one day. We all know someone who has been affected by depression at some point in their lives, whether we realise it or not.

As with many other difficult life situations, communication, empathy, and support are the only ways that we can transcend an affliction like depression, transforming it into a source of learning, connection, and meaningfulness.” - Ava Grayson

‘Why Do We Do the Things We Do?’ was a large-scale sound installation created by a working group with artist Ariel Bustamante (who was Aalto University’s Artist in Residence from 2014–2015). I was a member of this working group for nearly two years during my MA degree. Alongside Bustamante and fellow artist Ari-Pekka Leinonen, we carried out nearly every facet of this project, from hands-on building to interviews to the subsequent book publication.

The project itself was built on the practice of dialogue, questioning meaning-making and personal motivations within the context of conversation.

Inside, the sound installation was a space to dialogue and listen with those who came to share their time with us. Outside, the installation acted as a large speaker that projected excerpts of these dialogues into the public space.

This installation facilitated over 100 conversations with visitors and members of the local community during its one-month run in Kampintori, Helsinki, and resulted in a book publication through Aalto Books. The installation can still be viewed on the grounds of Helsinki University.

Since 2015, I have been running workshops and events within Helsinki focussing on embodied listening and sounding practices.

Coming from a varied background, I have a history of involvement in experimental in soundscape studies, musical composition, and sonic design and installation.

I have led many community-based events: graphic scoring workshops, soundwalks in both Canada and Finland, and many workshops with playful and experimental aims.

My current teaching is broad. Within my permanent lectureship at the University of the Arts Helsinki, I teach both lecture-based and hands-on courses. Examples include: introductory courses to sound and listening, MA-level courses on how to plan and create sound art exhibits, and a comprehensive lecture course on the history and aesthetics of sound art as a field. Other favourite teaching topics include sound poetry, approaches to non-heard sound, and the sonic aspects of ritual.

My pedagogical approach is always focussed on a solid grounding in relevant theory with a healthy dose of playful exercises and practical methods.

You can read a small article here about one of my regular courses at Uniarts (in Finnish).

The Lifts and Wakes of Flying Snakes

The Lifts and Wakes of Flying Snakes was a piece commissioned by electronic composer Norah Lorway as a means of promoting female artists. All proceeds from this compilation are donated to Birmingham and Solihull Women's Shelter.

The track itself was premiered at miniBeast, an annual concert held at the University of Birmingham. The setup was for 100 speakers, and the entire piece was programmed to be a self-running live performance. The programming was composed entirely in MAX 6.

From January to June of 2017, I ran the event series 'Magic Mondays: Electric Sound Meditation' within the Helsinki spaces Temporary (Kallio) and Oranssi (Suvilahti). These playful sound meditations were hosted by a different sound artist or experimental musician each time, and were a non-conventional guided sonic/musical meditation put together for the purpose of redefining the meaning of listening and meditating. All members of the Helsinki community were able to participate, and artists who hosted the sessions came from a very broad range of backgrounds.

Visit Magic Mondays: Electric Sound Meditation's Facebook page.

Passio Musicae Open Source was an interactive audio installation and sonification of the Sibelius Monument exhibited in Ateneum, Helsinki from January-March of 2015. The sounds created used the physical dimensions of the monument's 569 steel tubes. By moving around in the gallery space, visitors would trigger the tubes, thus playing the installation with their bodies.

As well as being exhibited at Ateneum, the project was displayed as a demo at ISEA2015 in Vancouver, Canada.

Along with fellow sound designer Jairo Acosta Lara, we created the sound of the instrument and elements of sonic interaction.

Credits: Lukas Kühne, Matti Niinimäki, Jairo Acosta Lara, Ava Grayson, Karina Jensen, Narim Lee, Sébastien Piquemal, Taavi Varm, Pirkka Åman.

A short video commissioned by the University of Oulu. The visual designers are BeigeHarmaa, for whom I am often hired as sound designer.

The visual logo was redesigned and unveiled in January of 2016. This video was premiered at the unveiling ceremony.

Working as sound and interaction designer with artist Timo Wright and programmer Matti Niinimäki, we implemented a permanent installation mimicking a virtual forest inside an elementary school hallway in Aurinkolahti, Helsinki.

The 6-speaker installation reacts to human presence over time, shifting through seasons and different kinds of weather. The installation encourages children to interact and focus by revealing more magical layers of sounds the longer their presence is detected.