Julian Weaver is an artist and researcher who works primarily with sound. His work is currently focussed on matter, substance and sensing in scientific and ecological imaginaries and fictions.
Water is a regular component of his practice which ranges from bubble acoustics and seaweed's extractive economies to the charting of hydrogen isotopes in nuclear fusion, from remaking the cold water cures of Hydropathy to exploring the English Channel as a site of nausea.
His recent work includes the Acoustic Commons installation Nearly Present (Full of Noises, 2022), project partner on Listening Across Disciplines (AHRC, 2019-22), and Creative Director / Commissioning Curator for the Euratom fusion energy exhibition: Power to the People (EUROfusion, 2018-31).
He is also director of Finetuned, a company focusing on interdisciplinary research and curated projects that also provides consultative and technical services to artists and galleries, universities and industry.
Finetuned's clients in the arts include Semiconductor, Cabinet Gallery & CRiSAP (Creative Research into Sound Art Practice), University of the Arts, London. Finetuned has commissioned over 60 works from international artists and writers including Graham Harman, Suzy Treister, Ed Osborn, Yelena Popova, and Angus Carlyle.
2024
Nearly Present (installation), Birley Studios, Preston, UK
Voluntary Encounters (AR audio commission), Echoes in the Park, SOUND/IMAGE Research Centre, Greenwich University
Bar de Agua (installation/residency), Binaural Nodar, Portugal
Being-at-work in the field (paper), In the Field 2 Conference, CRiSAP, UAL, London
Acoustic Light (talk), Listen Club, Brighton, UK
2023
Foresight (bathymetric fieldwork residency), Åland Cultural Delegation, Åland Islands
Direction Earth/Space (AR web app), European Space Agency, European Youth Capital exhibition, Lublin, Poland
Mean Sea Level (performance), Zero Parameters Festival, Huddersfield, UK
Tooing & Froing (performance), Adhuman, Brighton, UK
The Sound of Adventure (commission), Cities & Memory, Oxford, UK
2022
Protocols of Listening (co-authored paper, invited contribution), Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture
Future Audition (paper), Sonorities Festival, Belfast, Ireland
2020-22
Nearly Present (installation), Aix-en-Provence, Acoustic Commons (EU Small Cooperation Project) commission.
Fusion, Power to the People (exhibition), Commissioning Curator, (Artworks) & Interactive Art Director, EUROfusion
2019-22
Listening Across Disciplines II (co-applicant & project partner), AHRC research project, CRiSAP, University of the Arts, London, UK
2019
Future Audition (paper), RE:SOUND, Conference on the Histories of Media Arts, Aalborg, Denmark
Viriditas (lecture-performance w/ Jol Thomson), Raven Row, UK
Rocantin for Colonel Gouraud (perf.), Colour Out of Space, UK
2018-19
In the Future Perfect, Creating Earth Futures (w/ Jol Thomson), GeoHumanities research commission, Royal Holloway, UK
2018
Outwork (installation), Fort Process commission, Newhaven, UK
Wet Sensing: Three waterings for mouth, hand, ear (exhibition), Water Bodies, Whitstable Biennale, UK
Halo (software), Semiconductor, Audemars Piguet/CERN commission, Art Basel, Switzerland
Je T'aime Moi No Plus: entrelacé, Vinyl Art Project, London , UK
The Closing in of the Water (lecture), LOMA Conference, London, UK
2017
Sound Little Island (installation), Zero1, La Rochelle, France
Fixed Air for Two Senses, Lapsody Festival, Helsinki, Finland
I even felt uneasy, Framework Radio
Against the Grain, Resonance FM
Impractical Hydropathy, Station to Station, Transartis, NL
Rumori Bianco, Cities & Memory, Oxford, UK
2016
Reading the Water (public installation), Sonophilia, Lincoln, UK
Three or More Bodies of Water (lecture), Points of Listening, London, UK
Watery Notions (residency, performance), The Guesthouse, Cork, Ireland
2015
On the Night Air, Bicrophonics Research Lab, London, UK
2014
The Last Walks of George Boole (Soundwalk), Boole200 festival, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
Cosmos (software), Semiconductor, Jerwood Open Forest
Catching the Light (software), Semiconductor, ArtScience Museum, Singapore
2011-12
Not for Human Consumption (Curator), CRiSAP, London, UK
2010
Certain Irregularities, Playing with Words CD, Gruenrekorder
2009
Join the Dots (text), Playing with Words, Cornerhouse Books
2007
Relay (Curator, exhibition), Brighton, UK, Finetuned
Signal (Curator, longform net-radio exhibition, Double CD), Finetuned
2005
Pilot (Curator, exhibition), Eta Project Space, Hove, UK, Finetuned
Lighter than Air, Placard Headphone Festival, London
2004
Respirer (keynote exhibition), ISEA 2004, Tallinn, Estonia
Sonic Inc. (software), Semiconductor
La Chute (text), Straight to Hell, Creation Books
2003
Je T’aime Moi Non Plus; a Maintes Reprises, documentary for Valentine’s Day, Resonance FM
Respirer (live), Dorkbot, Ghent, Belgium
Private Views, Out of the Blue, ResonanceFM
2002
Respirer (installation), HOSPITAL festival, Brighton, UK
Respirer (live), Placard Headphone Festival, Paris, France.
2000
Weybridge Film Heritage (permanent exhibit), Weybridge Museum
1999
Preset Softwar (game/software), Photo ’98, York, UK
1998
Psychostasia (public art), Photo ’98, York, UK
The Lure of Necromancy (public art), Photo ’98 York, UK
1997
The Word Beyond Speech II (screenwork w/ Jeff Instone), Transmediale Festival, Berlin
The Word Beyond Speech II (w/ Jeff Instone), Commission & Residency: Camerawork Gallery, London.
1996
Die Lieber Rausch No.1, (documentary on Live Art), Arts Council England
The Arrival of Cinema (software), Centenary of Cinema exhibition, South East Film & Video Archive, Brighton University Gallery
Transmutations (Tech. Director), Live Art festival, Brighton, UK
Breadman (videographer), Tatsumi Orimoto, Underwood Gallery, London and other venues.
Terry Mirrors (software), Terry Atkinson, Jeffrey Charles Gallery, London, UK and other venues
1995
The Word Beyond Speech (software, w/ Jeff Instone), exhibited Parole, Vienna & Mediopolis, Berlin & Pandemonium, ICA, UK