Eric Leonardson

Eric Leonardson, a Chicago-based audio artist, serves as the President of the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, and Vice-president of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (formerly, as president 2012-23). He is Associate Professor, Adjunct in the Department of Art & Technology / Sound Practices (AT/SP) at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and serves on the advisory board of the World Listening Project, a nonprofit organization founded in 2008 devoted to fostering understanding of the world and its natural environment, societies and cultures through the practices of listening and field recording. As a performer, composer, and sound designer, Leonardson created sound for the physical theater company Plasticene (1995-2012). Leonardson performs internationally with the Springboard, an electroacoustic instrument invention, made in 1994 to explore the sonic potential of amplified coil springs and other readily available materials. He often presents on acoustic ecology to new audiences through soundwalking, workshops, and live performances.

With Professor Sabine Breitsameter, Leonardson co-edited Ways of Listening, Figures of Thought: A Festschrift for R. Murray Schafer On the Occasion of His 80th Birthday (2013). Additional articles appear in The Journal of Radio and Audio Media, Volume 22, Number 1, The Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, Volume 2, Numbers 1-2, The Conrad Grebel Review, Volume 33, Number 2, and Acoustic Ecology Review.

Leonardson earned a Master of Fine Arts (Time Arts) degree at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1983, and his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (Visual Art) at Northern Illinois University in 1980. He is a recipient of two Illinois Arts Council Media Arts Fellowships (2002 and 2006), and was a 2013 Copeland Fellow at Amherst College.

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Website: ericleonardson.com