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speaks | Paul Purgas

Spatial and Cultural Sonics

251124 paul purgas
24 November 2025
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Abstract

Paul Purgas presents a selection of compositional and research projects exploring architectural and cultural explorations of sound through synthesis, experimental media and archival histories.

251124 paul purgas

Biography

Paul Purgas is a London-based artist and musician working with sound, performance and installation. Originally trained as an architect he has presented projects with CTM/Transmediale (2023), Kunstverein Gartenhaus (2022), Tramway (2021) and Camden Art Centre (2020) and is a resident of Somerset House Studios. He is the editor of the essay collection Subcontinental Synthesis (Strange Attractor/MIT Press, 2023) and is one half of the electronic music project Emptyset operating in the fields of spatial recording, analogue media, computer music and instrument making. Paul has produced several BBC Radio 3 documentaries covering his research including: Electronic India (2020) documenting the history of India's first electronic music studio; Krishnamurti in England (2023) an exploration of spiritual thought and radical pedagogy; and Recording on the Nomad's Trail (2023) an account of Deben Bhattacharya, the South Asian pioneer of ethnographic field recording.

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