Phil Dadson

Phil Dadson is a sound and intermedia artist. His practice includes solo music performances, exhibitions, inventing and making experimental instruments and sonic objects, video/sound installation, music composition and improvisation.

Born in Napier in 1946 he start studying at Elam School of Fine Arts in the late 1960s but went overseas before completing his studies, returning to graduate with a Dip FA(Hons) in sculpture and performance in 1971.

From 1968 -69 he was a member of the foundation group for The Scratch Orchestra in London. In 1970 he founded Scratch Orchestra (NZ), and in 1974 founded the sound-performance group From Scratch (1974 – 2002), known acclaimed for it’s rhythmic and distinctive performances on original instruments.

He has also worked as a moving image maker (SeeHear films), co-founded Alternative Cinema (Auckland) and was a lecturer at Elam, retiring as head of Intermedia in 2001 to concentrate fulltime on his own projects.

Dadson co-authored “The From Scratch Rhythm Workbook” (1995) with Don McGlashan, and “Slap Tubes and Other Plosive Aerophones” (2007) with Bart Hopkin. He has released numerous CDs and collaborated with numerous musicians and artists, both nationally and internationally.

He has received numerous awards and commissions including an Arts Foundation Artist Laureate in 2001, an Artist to Antarctica fellowship in 2003, and the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2004. He was also a nominee for the 2006 Walters Prize.

Dadson lives and works in Auckland.