Joel Stern is a researcher, curator, and artist living in Naarm / Melbourne, Australia, and currently holds the position of Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in DSC|School – Media & Communication, RMIT. With a background in experimental music, Stern’s work focuses on practices of sound and listening and how these shape our contemporary worlds.

Between 2013 and 2019 Stern was co-Artistic Director of Liquid Architecture with Danni Zuvela, before continuing as sole Artistic Director from 2019-22. During this time he lead the organisation in developing artistic research projects such as Eavesdropping, Machine Listening, Polyphonic Social, Why Listen?, Instrument Builders Project, and Ritual Community Music.

In 2018, with James Parker of Melbourne Law School, Stern curated Eavesdropping, an exhibition, public program, and publication, at Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, and City Gallery, Wellington. Stern’s PhD ‘Eavesdropping: The Politics, Ethics, and Art of Listening’ was completed in 2020 in the Curatorial Practice program at Monash University.

In 2020, with Parker and artist Sean Dockray, Stern founded Machine Listening, a platform for collaborative study, experimentation and resistance in the form of an expanded curriculum focused on the techno-politics of sound and big data.

In addition to these curatorial and research activities, Stern has composed and performed experimental music and sonic art over many years, in a solo capacity and in groups including Sky Needle, Soft Power, Greg Boring, Sunshine Has Blown, Stern/Guerra and more.