Last year, writer Jo Dobson and electroacoustic composer Julia Schauerman went on a road trip from Windsor in Berkshire to Wild Haweswater in Cumbria, visiting eight significant oak trees on the way. In this masterclass, illustrated with sound
recordings, they will talk about the ‘acousmatic story’ they’re composing about the trip, why collaborating outside your discipline is brilliant for creativity, and how the collaborative acousmatic story works as an important response to environmental crisis.

Dr Joanna Clare Dobson is a researcher and a writer of creative nonfiction working with the intersections of trauma studies and the environmental arts and humanities. She is also a keen allotment gardener.

Julia Schauerman is in her fourth year of an AHRC-funded, practice-led PhD at the University of the Arts London, where she is researching acousmatic storytelling as a method of collaborative creative practice with which to tell complex, entangled stories about contemporary issues. Her interests include composing ecologically themed works and exploring the use of electroacoustic techniques within community arts practice. Her compositions have been presented internationally, including in Mexico, Canada, Italy and Chile.