I work on the cultural history of listening. I am especially interested in how we listen and interact with the sonic milieu we are part of. For this, I study field recording, its history, philosophy and material culture. My PhD dissertation, that I did at the University of York, had an important focus on the amateur practice of field recording, mainly in France and the United Kingdom. Mostly forgotten today, a vivid practice of sound recording existed from the 1950s, with clubs, dedicated radio programmes, a specialised press, and contests – national and international. The thesis, available here, investigate the material culture, technology, history, organisation, and aesthetics of sound hunters.
I continue this work as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie / Bienvenüe fellow at the Université Rennes-2, and as a research fellow at the Cinémathèque de Bretagne. The aim of the fellowship is to write a manual for the restoration of the sound of amateur films.
I am also a musicologist, specialised in the music of Giacinto Scelsi, Morton Feldman, John Cage, La Monte Young, drone music, field recording, but also black metal and death metal.