Following graduation in July, I will be moving to New York City to work in audio post production for film. Alongside working within a rigid studio environment, I will maintain my own practice and personal artistic development through personal projects as well as collaboration with friends I will be living with in Brooklyn.

The draw to New York came from visiting friends consistently throughout the last four years I have been in London, and from this draw I was able to develop additional connections and relationships with new people in the field of audio post production for film. On my most recent visit in March 2025, I had spent the previous two months reaching out to various film sound studios, composers, ADR mixers and recordists, and sound designers to eventually build a list of people to meet with throughout my six day trip. People I met with included Mark Kaplan, the executive vice president of Goldcrest Films New York, Jesse Ehdret, former sound designer and current director of technical operations at the Formosa Group, and Marcello Dubaz, who is a freelance sound designer and dialogue editor who is affiliated with multiple post studios in New York and Los Angeles. I also got to tour studios A and B at Goldcrest while I was there, as well as the Formosa Group space in Tribeca in Manhattan. I learned a lot and received some very great advice through these meetings, the most reoccurring advice emphasizing the importance of network and connections. I received a promising assistant dialogue editor position that will most likely open up by September this year. Financial planning from the last six months has allowed me to save up enough funds for rent / living expenses for the worst case scenario which assumes I will be unemployed for six months, however, it will hopefully only be a month of unemployment.

Personal practice is equally as important to me as professional development, and with my network of friends in New York I will be able to maintain my practice in composition for short films, installations, fashion shows, and live sound practices. For the past year I have been working with the JB Sound Company run by Joe Barker who specializing in live sound and lighting around the UK. Through this experience I have not only had the means to make enough money for additional savings as well as living expenses in London, however, I have also been able to learn a variety of consoles and PA systems, deal with stressful environments and problem solving under public and performative pressure, and apart from engineering I have been able to have a few jobs as a stage manager providing me with irreplaceable experiences dealing with artists and other managers. This is all experience very subjective to the live sound world, and I can carry these skills and personal developments not only through my personal practice, however, I believe they will also help my technical and social ability in studio environments. For my degree portfolio I have focused on composition in music and visual music, and will continue building my library of compositions for personal and commercial use.

Listening in personal and live contexts have shaped my personal practice, most notably this year I have been influenced by visual music dating back to the 1920s through the 1960s including works from Len Lye, Jordan Belson, Viking Egeling, and Stan Brakhage. Musical artist influence has still predominantly stayed within the bounds of jazz, acid rock, and a lot of r&b from the 1950s through the 1960s. Sam Gendel, Sam Wilkes, and Blake Mills have been extremely influential in my improvisational practices and mixing/production. Following my move to New York I hope to continue recording as well as performative practices, scheduling conflicts with work and university have limited my ability to perform live in London during the past three years, and I am hoping that when my schedule opens up by August I will have more time to organize events and perform at different venues my friends are associated with.