Jacek Smolicki

Biography

Working independently and in collaboration with international institutions, Smolicki has developed projects that foreground the significance of attentive listening to our natural and built environments, their histories, and the diverse actors that shape them. His work takes the form of soundwalks, soundscape compositions, sound archives, and audio-visual installations, and has been presented internationally at venues and events such as Ars Electronica, Sonorities, and In-Sonora. Smolicki's public-facing projects have engaged with soundscapes across a wide range of geographies, including the Canadian Pacific Coast, the Arctic Circle, the Walden Pond area, and the Canaveral National Seashore. Smolicki has published extensively on topics related to soundscapes, listening, voice, and audio technologies in academic, popular science and other outlets. His edited volume Soundwalking: Through Time, Space and Technologies was published by Routledge in 2023. From 2020 to 2023, he was an international postdoctoral fellow funded by the Swedish Research Council, and in 2022–2023, he served as a Fulbright visiting scholar at Harvard University. In 2019, he co-founded the Walking Festival of Sound, which he has co-directed ever since. The event brings together artists, scholars, activists, and the general public to explore public spaces through diverse approaches to walking and listening.