Artist page

Joel Stern is a researcher, curator, and artist based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. With a background in experimental music and sonic art, his work examines how sound and listening practices shape contemporary society. In 2020, he co-founded Machine Listening with fellow artist-researchers Sean Dockray and James Parker, a platform dedicated to collaborative research and artistic experimentation focused on the political and aesthetic aspects of sound and speech computation. Machine Listening engages in various media and production modes, producing research, writing, artworks, an expanded curriculum for collective learning, an online library, an interview series, and numerous events, performances, and a browser-based instrument for audio and video composition via text. This initiative grew from Stern's earlier project, Eavesdropping, developed with James Parker, which addressed the capture and control of sonic environments and strategies of resistance. Eavesdropping included a touring exhibition, public programs, reading groups, and a publication, collaborating with artists, researchers, writers, and activists globally. This project also formed the basis of Stern’s PhD thesis, 'Eavesdropping: The Politics, Ethics, and Art of Listening,' completed in 2020 at Monash University. In 2024, Stern, alongside Dockray, curated "This Hideous Replica," a significant exhibition and public program that features Australian and international artists exploring themes of reproduction and contemporary technologies' social and political impacts. From 2013 to 2022, he served as the Artistic Director