SAM TOPLEY

Biography:

Sam Topley is a sound artist, musician and educator based in Shropshire (England, UK). She primarily works with textiles to create handmade electronic musical instruments, participatory sound art projects and large-scale interactive installations, including giant pompom musical instruments, knitted or 'yarnbombed' loudspeakers and many soft, brightly coloured, 'craftivist' musical instruments with e-textile interfaces.

As a multidisciplinary sound artist, she explores new ways of making sound and music through innovative creative processes, involving ideas from many disciplines and often in participatory settings. Sam's projects are designed to be playful, engaging and accessible, considering how DIY crafts and technologies can be used to engage audiences with alternative and experimental ideas in music making.

Topley shares her work internationally through performances, exhibitions, workshops and presentations. She has recently presented at the Royal College of Music (London, UK), Birmingham Symphony Hall (Birmingham, UK), Iklectik (London, UK), The Wassaic Project (New York, USA), Dubai Maker Faire (Dubai, UAE), Dome of Visions (Stockholm, SE) and Punctum (Prague, CZ). Her work has received recognition and awards: AHRC Cultural Engagement Award 2019; BBC micro:bit Featured Artist 2019; Dubai Maker Faire Featured Project Award 2019; Best Paper and Best Workshop prizes at New Interfaces for Musical Expression 2016 and 2020; and features in Nicolas Collins' Handmade Electronic Music (3rd Edition).

Sam is a doctoral candidate at the Music, Technology and Innovation - Institute for Sonic Creativity (MTI2), De Montfort University, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership). She is also an experienced educator, lecturing and leading workshops internationally. Sam has worked with many schools, universities, arts and cultural organisations, libraries, makerspaces and community groups, including De Montfort University (Leicester, UK), Goldsmiths University of London (London, UK), Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (Birmingham, UK), Queen Mary University of London (London, UK), University of Manchester (Manchester, UK), Ohio University (Ohio, USA), soundLINCS (Lincoln, UK), Music Hackspace (London, UK), Willie Mae Rock Camp (New York, USA) and the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance (Dubai, UAE). Sam is also a multi-instrumentalist, specialising in woodwind (saxophones and clarinet) and keyboards (piano, organ and synths). She has been involved in the DIY punk and ska scene for many years, regularly touring the UK and performing at major festivals and events, such as Download Festival, Boomtown Festival and Rebellion Punk Festival.

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Education:

PhD

Thesis: Craft-Focused Electronic Musical Instrument Building

Supervisors: Prof Leigh Landy, Dr Anna Xambó (2022 - present), Dr John Richards (2017 - 2022)

De Montfort University, Leicester UK 

Oct 2017 - present (part-time)

Funded by Midlands3Cities/Arts and Humanities Research Council

MA by Research

Thesis: Sound Art and Craft: Making and Playing Textile-Based Musical Instruments.

Supervisors: Dr John Richards & Dr Peter Batchelor

De Montfort University, Leicester UK

Oct 2014 - Sept 2017 (part-time)

BA (Hons) Music, Technology and Performance

De Montfort University, Leicester UK

June 2014: 1st Class

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Employment:

Freelance Creative Practitioner

Since 2012, Sam has worked with:

Always the Sun Festival, Bearded Kitten, Beta X, Bradford Sound Womxn Network, City of Leicester College, Countesthorpe Scout Group, De Montfort University, Erika, Goldsmiths University of London, Hackoustic, Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance, LCB Depot, LOROS, Museum of Digital Art (Zurich), Music Hackspace, Ohio University, Phoenix Arts Centre, Queen Mary University of London, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Sense TouchBase Pears, Shropshire Music Service, soundLINCS, Staffordshire Arts and Libraries, Supersonic Festival, TEDxLeicester, University of Manchester, University of Nottingham, Willie Mae Rock Camp, Woking Library

Plus many primary, secondary and SEND schools across the UK.

Lecturer

Music, Technology and Innovation - Institute for Sonic Creativity

De Montfort University, Leicester UK

Modules: Creating with Technology; Performing with Technology; Electronic Instrument Building; Music, Media and Community Arts

Oct 2015 - Nov 2022 (part-time)

Lecturer

Goldsmiths Creative Computing Summer School

Goldsmiths, University of London UK

Course: Interactive Sound Art and e-Textiles

August 2019 (short course)

Education Co-ordinator/Public Programmes Co-ordinator

National Space Centre, Leicester UK

Oct 2004 - April 2015

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Awards:

New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2020) - Best Workshop Prize

Winner of 'Featured Project Award' - Dubai Maker Faire 2019

Winner of Midlands4Cities AHRC Cultural Engagement Award 2019

BBC micro:bit Featured Artist 2019

New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2016) - Best Paper Prize

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Features, Interviews, Presentations and Publications:

(This section is currently being updated)

BIG NOISE FROM A 555 AND A LITTLE EMBROIDERY by Lee Wilkins (Hackaday) - https://hackaday.com/2022/09/14/big-noise-from-a-555-and-a-little-embroidery/

Crafting sound and embroidering circuits with Sam Topley by Robin Vincent (GearNews) - https://www.gearnews.com/crafting-sound-and-embroidering-circuits-with-sam-topley/

"Pompompots" in Nicolas Collins' Handmade Electronic Music (3rd Edition), Chapter 16. Soft Circuitry: An Introduction to E-Textile Interfaces (Lara and Sarah Grant)

Pom Pom Magazine (UK) - Pomcast! Episode 68 - https://pompommag.com/blogs/podcast/episode-68-sam-topley

Hackspace Magazine (UK) - Issue 49 - https://store.rpipress.cc/products/hackspace-magazine-49

Inner Freq (USA) - Podcast Episode 15 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xUiqZDO8H0

Hello World Magazine (UK) - Issue 9 - https://helloworld.raspberrypi.org/issues/9

Supersonic Festival Kids Gigs Announcement - https://supersonicfestival.com/2022/01/25/samtopley-workshops/

Augmented Instruments Lab Interview and Online Concert -http://instrumentslab.org/news/events/2021/11/23/lab-concert-november-2021.html

Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) - 2021 Digital Conference - Online Concert and Panel Discussion - https://seamusonline.org/seamus2021digitalconference/

Crafting Change Symposium - Oberlin Conservatory (USA) - Online Concert and Panel Discussion

WoNoMute DIY Video Series for International Women's Day 2021 - https://wonomute.no/post/2021/03/08/IWD2021-DIY-Video-Series.html

One Knob To Rule Them All: Reductionist Interfaces for Expansionist Research (author list) https://www.nime.org/proceedings/2016/nime2016_paper0085.pdf

Play Make Believe: Exploring Design Fiction and Absurd Making for Critical NIME Design (author list) http://instrumentslab.org/data/giacomo/NIME2020Workshop.pdf

The 10,000 Instruments Workshop - (Im)practical Research for Critical Speculation - (upcoming)

TEDxLeicester Salon: https://www.ted.com/tedx/events/33309

University of California San Diego - Sonic Fluidities Conference - March 2019 - https://music-intranet.ucsd.edu/arch/concert_programs/2017-18/Winter%202018/20180302-SFConf0.pdf

University of Malta - Hybrid Practices Conference - March 2019

Queen Mary University of London -  January 2020

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Residencies:

eTextile Spring Break 2019 - New York, USA

eTextile Spring Break 2018 - New York, USA

The Academy of Performing Arts (HAMU), Prague, Czech Republic 2017

Royal College of Music, Stockholm, Sweden 2016

Royal College of Music, Stockholm, Sweden 2014