Jesse Austin-Stewart

Jesse Austin-Stewart (he/him) is a sound artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. He is a composer, sound artist, producer, and academic and is currently a lecturer at Massey University in the School of Music and Creative Media Production Te Rewa o Puanga. He was born in Warkworth and spent most of his life growing up in Pirongia, in the rural Waikato, before moving to Te Whanganui-a-Tara. His PhD focused on accessibility in spatial audio, looking particularly at barriers of finance, education, and disability and hearing.

As a sound artist, Jesse creates works that explore ways to make the field of spatial audio more inclusive. This creative practice often explores the intersection of spatial audio and disability and hearing, while also acknowledging barriers of finance and education. He has written works for contemporary dance and film and composed and curated performance art works and sound installations, among other works which have been exhibited in Aotearoa New Zealand, Japan, Australia, Czech Republic, Greece, Sweden, and France.

As a producer and audio engineer, he has recorded work for short films, orchestra, solo artists and bands, small ensemble, opera, and various other configurations. Jesse’s songwriting and production work has received over 1,00,000 streams online and has been award nominated.

As a person with a disability, accessibility is core to Jesse’s work and his artistic curation. In 2022 Jesse recieved an Arts Foundation Springboard Award which included mentorship by Pelenakeke Brown.