Jessica’s research has woven together spatial audio for neuroscience research, collaborative creativity in musical improvisation, filmmaking, large scale experimental theatre, composing for global orchestras, performance art, presenting academic research in embedding EDI in creative education and musical performance for archiving and educating about Glasgow’s radical history.
This has had notable social, economic and cultural impact, as this creative practice has nurtured and platformed a huge global network of intergenerational and diverse knowledges communities in celebrated venues such as the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, the Museum of Old
and New Arts, Tasmania, with Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra and Australian Art Orchestra.
Equality Diversity and Inclusion is a core part of Jessica’s identity (as neuro/queer femme in music and sound) - this positioning is becoming more emergent feature in her recent creative practice recordings and conference outputs (such as the Radical Film Network Archives of Radical Cinema Conference) as Jessica makes music that explores gender/gestures and psycho-affective properties and cultural genealogy of a theremin and cello processed through vintage effects processors. Blurring boundaries of acoustic and synthesised instrumentation,
Jessica Evelyn Argo is a theremin player and a cellist in Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, hosting core orchestra rehearsals, curating GIOglobal weekly online sessions and assisting with public GIOdynamics and GIObabies workshops. Jessica has published research in GSA evaluating physical and emotional responses to ambisonic soundscapes, telematic music making, and immersive museum exhibits. She is also a Programme Leader of BDes Sound for Moving Image at Glasgow School of Art, where she teaches students deep listening to capture, transform and create sounds for art installations, film, video games or live performance.
Dr Jessica Argo is a 3D sound designer, installation artist and educator both for early years and higher education. Her PhD consisted of composing immersive Ambisonic soundscapes to temporarily induce anxiety in exposure therapy, to encourage both physical desensitisation and mental catharsis for anxiety sufferers. These ambisonic soundscapes were designed to advance psychiatric exposure therapy beyond the established Virtual Reality visualisation, real-life and talking techniques.
She has facilitated and analysed bespoke user testing sessions for ISO Design and the V&A Dundee.
Argo creates mesmeric, immersive sound and visuals to be performed live, tailored to the socio-cultural setting. She pans sound across spatial arrays, projects video onto translucent mesh for the audience to play with in nightclubs, installs ambient white cube installations, and stages site-specific performances in unique acoustic environments (such as the Devil’s Mountain Listening Domes in Berlin). All performances are focused on transforming the mental and physical state of the audience. Argo bridges the gap between art and science as she records these induced affects with a physiological monitoring system (evaluating the fluctuations in a participant’s heart rate, sweat secretion and respiration rate).
From childhood Argo has danced and played music, focused mainly in Ballet and Cello. As she expanded her dance repertoire to include Contemporary, Hip Hop, and even Japanese Butoh, equally, she began to go beyond symphonic classical music, improvising with unfamiliar sound textures; she now uses sound and visual art in a symbiotic relationship. Argo plays cello in the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra.
Jessica’s research has woven together spatial audio for neuroscience research, collaborative creativity in musical improvisation, filmmaking, large scale experimental theatre, composing for global orchestras, performance art, presenting academic research in embedding EDI in creative education
Global Excellence Initiative Fund for PhD
Creative Scotland and Australian Government funded Australian Art Orchestra Creative Music Intensive in Tasmanian Highlands.
Creative Scotland for Tenementals Doors Open Day Performance
Glasgow School of Art COVID Response Projects
Glasgow School of Art Research Development Funding (multiple)
Dr. Jessica Argo is the Programme Leader for the BDes Sound for Moving Image course, in Glasgow School of Art's School of Simulation and Visualisation.
Her subject specialisms include Critical Studies in Sound for Moving Image, teaching students about how historic world events (wars, protests and technological innovations) provoked art movements, musical cultures and cinematic forms. She is profoundly influenced by the politics and sounds of Japanese Horror, which has stemmed from the textures of Geza orchestras in Kabuki Theatre, Noh Plays, and contemporary Butoh dance.
