Joel Stern

Joel Stern is a organiser, curator, researcher, and artist living and working on Wurundjeri land in Melbourne, Australia.

Stern’s work deals with a range of issues, themes and questions connected with theories and practices of art, collaboration, sound and listening. Specific interests include: sound, power and control; listening and surveillance; polyphony as social practice; experimental music and community ; speech, voice, subjectivity; eavesdropping and ventriloquism; machine listening; pandemic soundscapes; acoustic justice; non- and post-human listening.

Since 2013, Stern has been Artistic Director at Liquid Archi­tec­ture, a leading Aus­tralian organ­i­sa­tion that creates spaces for sonic expe­ri­ence and crit­i­cal listening at the inter­sec­tion of con­tem­po­rary art and exper­i­men­tal music. In this capacity he has been responsible for festivals, symposia, exhibitions, concerts and publications realised in Australia and internationally, with collaborators ranging from major museums and institutions through to community organisations and artist-led initiatives.

In addition to Liquid Architecture, Stern has led independent organisations including: Oth­er­Film, a col­lec­tive working with artists moving image and the legacy of avant-garde cinema; and Instrument Builders Project, a workshop, residency, exhibition series featuring artists, musicians and craftspeople from across Australia and Asia.

In 2018, with critical legal scholar James Parker, Stern curated Eavesdropping, an expansive project connecting Liquid Archi­tec­ture, Mel­bourne Law School, Ian Potter Museum of Art, and City Gallery Wellington, which comprised exhibitions, public pro­grams, work­ing groups, tour­s, and a publication, addressing the ‘pol­i­tics of lis­ten­ing’ through work by artists, researchers, writ­ers, detainees and activists from Aus­tralia and around the world. Stern’s PhD thesis ‘Eavesdropping: The Politics, Ethics, and Art of Listening’ was completed through the Cura­to­r­ial Prac­tice program at Monash University, where he also teaches.

Documentation