Josh Ottum
Josh Ottum holds an MFA in Integrated Composition Improvisation and Technology from UC Irvine and is currently a PhD student at Ohio University in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts. His research considers the role of functional music as it works to construct (un)natural environments. Josh recently published an article entitled “Sounds Like Garbage: Paddling through an Imaginary Island of Trash toward a New Sonic Ecology” in a special issue of Social Alternatives concerning music, the environment, and politics. He also creates sound installations that explore emphatically static postures in mobilized zones, aiming to sonically stretch the temporal constraints of spaces like lobbies stairways, and waiting rooms. In addition to an active career as a singer-songwriter, Josh composes music you hear but don’t necessarily listen to for a variety of multimedia contexts.