Dr Nikki Sheth

Courses taught:

• Audio & Music Technology (Undergraduate)
• Music Performance (Undergraduate)
• Music Production (Undergraduate)
• Music and Sound Production (Undergraduate)

Nikki is an internationally recognised sound artist and composer. Her expertise involves field recording, soundscape composition, electroacoustic composition and sound art and she teaches composition, sound design, audio for games and music production.

[email protected]

View Nikki's portfolio site

Background

Nikki Sheth is an internationally recognised sound artist and composer. Her practice involves field recording, soundscape composition, multimedia installations, sound mapping and soundwalking.

Her work uses multichannel and ambisonic spatial practices to create immersive listening experiences and engage with audiences. She uses sound as a medium to bring a voice to the environment and encourage a wider awareness of the natural world.

Nikki recently completed a PhD in Musical Composition at The University of Birmingham titled ‘Blurring the Lines Between Field Recording, Soundscape Composition and Acousmatic Music’. The practice-led research project investigated the relationship between field recordings and the genres of pure field recording composition, soundscape composition and acousmatic composition in her own practice and reflected upon how this relates to practitioners in the field, acquired through a series of interviews.

She has received international recognition for the quality of her field recordings and soundscape compositions. In 2020 she was awarded a Sound and Music award, nominated for the Phonurgia Nova Awards in the ‘Field Recording: Soundscape’ category and was an Honourable Mention for the Sound of the Year Awards in the ‘Composed with Sound’ category. In 2021 she was nominated for an Ivor Novello Composer Award in the Sound Art Category. Her debut album Sounds of Mmabolela received an excellent review in The Wire Magazine.

Her work has been presented internationally including at BEAST FEAST (UK), Sonic Territories (Germany), Pitea Performing Arts Biennial (Sweden), KMH (Stockholm), MANTIS (UK), Spektra Festival (Columbia), Ecoacoustic Congress (Brisbane), Barber Institute of Fine Arts (UK), The Global Composition (Germany), DLR Lexicon (Dublin), Perspectives on Listening (Brisbane), Balance Unbalance (UK), Sound + Environment (UK), Sound Thought (Glasgow) and more. She has been featured on Framework Radio, Clydebuilt Radio, Resonance FM and BBC Radio 3 and her work has been published with a variety of labels.

Recent commissions include Ambient Soundscapes (live set), Sound Explorers (global soundmap), Connections Through Culture, UK - South East Asia (British Council funded project), We’re All Bats (Binaural Soundscapes series), Land Lines (soundscape composition), Ten Acres of Sound (sound walk) and Artefact Projects (multimedia installation).

Research interests

• Electroacoustic Composition
• Field Recording
• Soundscape Composition
• Sound Art
• Site specific works
• Installation work
• Multichannel and 3D audio
• Sound Walking and Sound Maps
• Environmental Sound
• Acoustic Ecology

Teaching

Nikki currently teaches on the following modules:

• Audio for Games
• Electronic Sound Design
• Game and Film Soundtracks
• Portfolio

Qualifications

• PhD Musical Composition, University of Birmingham
• MMus Electroacoustic Composition, University of Manchester
• BA (Hons) Music, Oxford Brookes University
• BA Music (exchange semester), Queensland University of Technology

Memberships, editorial boards

• Fellow of UK Higher Education Academy

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

• Sound and Music Seed Award, 2022
• ACE DYCP ‘The IKO Speaker and Environmental Sound’ project with The University of Greenwich, 2021-2
• AHRC ‘Exploring Cultural Diversity in Experimental Sound’ project as selected artist, 2021-2
• Sound and Music Covid 19 Award, 2020

Selected recent publications

Sheth, Nikki. Paddabolela in The Global Composition 2018, edited by Sabine Breitsameter and Cansu Karakiz, 470 – 473. Hochschule Darmstadt.

Recent presentations and conferences

2022. A&E Labs WFS Concert. Performance of Amphibian Vocalisations. Sonic Cartography Conference, University of Kent.

2022. Ars Electronica Festival. Performance of Windmills of Lapua. Immersive Sounds – External Worlds, Anton Bruckner University.

2022. ICMC. Aulus Les Bains included in the ISSTA River Shannon Soundwalk.

2022. BEAST FEaST. Performance of Windmills of Lapua. University of Birmingham.

2022. Spatial Audio Conference. Performance of Mmabolela. University of Gloucestershire.

2022. Diverse Frequencies - Loudspeaker Orchestra Concert. Performance of Windmills of Lapua and Pemberton Gardens. Iklectik.

2022. Rethinking the History of Technology based Music conference. Women in Spatial sound – Working with the IKO Loudspeaker. talk with Angela McArthur, Emma Margetson and Brona Martin. The University of Huddersfield.

2022. The Space to Come. Binaural Soundscapes installation. Wellcome Collection.

2022. Constructs – Loudspeaker Orchestra Concert. Performance of Windmills of Lapua. St Alfege Church.

2022. Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Multichannel Sound Design for Faye McCalman’s Invisible Real installation.

2022. The Air We Breathe. Birmingham Soundwalk. University of Birmingham.

2022. Composing with the IKO, guest talk with Angela McArthur, Trinity Laban Conservatoire.

2022. Composer in Residence at University of Greenwich, Sound/Image Research Group.