RITCS masterclass sound art with Janek Schaefer (free showing)

During the annual sound art masterclass, Master’s students from the Radio and Sound Design programmes at RITCS are introduced to the work of Janek Schaefer. At the invitation of sound artist and RITCS lecturer Jeroen Vandesande, Schaefer will spend a week inspiring the students with themes, concepts and techniques from his artistic practice. The students will work towards a showcase event in which they will experiment with these ideas and incorporate them into their own practice. The showcase is free and open to everyone.

Artist, composer, entertainer, and visiting professor, Janek Schaefer was born in England to Polish and Canadian parents in 1970. While studying Architecture at the Royal College of Art, he recorded the fragmented noises of a sound activated dictaphone travelling overnight through the Post Office. That work, titled ‘Recorded Delivery’ was made for the ‘Self Storage’ exhibition [Time Out critics choice] with Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson and Artangel. 

Since then the multiple aspects of sound became his focus, resulting in many site-specific installations, sonic sculptures, exhibition & dance soundtracks, albums, and immersive performances, using his self built devices with manipulated foundsound collage, exploring new realms of sound, space, and place.. with well over 30 albums to date.

He has exhibited, lectured, and performed in 30 countries, for over 30 years throughout Europe [Sonar, Tate Modern, ICA, Strasbourg Museum of Modern & Contemporary Art], USA/Canada, [Walker Art Center, Mutek, Princeton, XI], Japan, and Australia [Sydney Opera House]. His concerts and installations explore the spatial and architectural aspect that sound can evoke and the twisting of old and new technology. The context of each idea is central to its development and resolution, often exploring themes of appropriation, accident, & alteration.

In 2008, he won a Paul Hamlyn Award and the ‘British Composer of the Year’ award in the Sonic Art category. The Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool organized a retrospective of his career up to that point in 2009. Winner of the title ‘Best Mobile DJ’ in the United Kingdom at the Event Entertainment Awards 2020, he is a guest lecturer in sound art and won the title ‘Creative Consultant of the Year’ in 2025. Lives and works in Narnia, Walton-on-Thames.