Patty Preece
Associate Lecturer - Music & Theatre TechnologySchool of Education and the Arts
Patty Preece is an Associate Lecturer in Music at the Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music, CQUniversity, Australia. Over the past 20 years, they have taught music technology across community, VET, and higher education sectors. Patty has written, delivers, and coordinates the Music Technology minor within the Bachelor of Music, specialising in recording, mixing, mastering, electronic music production, and sound art. As an Ableton Live Certified Trainer, they teach primarily online to regional and remote students and are passionate about equitable access to quality creative education.
As an award-winning sound artist, electronic music producer, and member of the collaborative band The Ironing Maidens, Patty produces multi-artform performance works and installations (Horizon Festival, Cairns Festival, Woodford Festival, NorthSite Contemporary, Fusion Festival). Their creative practice spans live performance, installation, electronic music production, mixing and instrument design. In 2023, their interactive installation and paper received two awards at the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) conference (Mexico City) for innovation in creative practice.
Patty holds a Master of Research and was awarded the 2023 Outstanding Thesis Award at CQUniversity. Their project explored creative practice methodologies through the design and performance of interactive sound works using hacked domestic objects, investigating the intersections of labour, gender and technology, through the lens of sonic cyberfeminisms. They are currently undertaking a creative practice PhD at the University of Queensland with supervisors Associate Professor Eve Klein and Dr Emma Cole. Their project, Hot & Heavy, investigates immersive and interactive audio practices through a posthuman feminisms lens.
Current projects include Binalmalmal – Listening and Learning – Skills for Theatre, a First Nations theatre micro-credential program developed with JUTE Theatre Company. Supported by a Queensland Government Department of Training, Education and Trade (DTET) grant, the program addresses Arts and Cultural Priorities (ACF) by supporting skills development and pathways for First Nations peoples in theatre.
Background
I began my music career as a drummer in an all-female queer funk reggae band, Bertha Control. It was a political band that played at student rallies, Reclaim the Night marches and refugee fundraisers. We had a certain riot grrrl, do it yourself (DIY) ethos, making zines and our own line of screen-printed merchandise from recycled clothing. Bertha Control also aimed to encourage women’s participation in all aspects of music production and performance, from the graphic design to live sound engineering. When it came to the recording studio, however, in the early 2000s in Southeast Queensland, Australia, in the community I was living in, it was difficult to find any women occupying the role of studio sound engineer. This is where I began my career in music technology. I learnt the basics of studio recording and set up a home studio where I played on and recorded Bertha Control’s album, Songs of Sedition.
I have now been a music producer for over twenty years, recording studio albums for artists, producing electronic music and, most recently, creating digital instruments. For the past ten years, I have been collaborating with Melania Jack in a project called The Ironing Maidens. This project explores the parallels between the forgotten career of electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram and the stereotypical 1950s housewife. The Ironing Maidens stage show has toured extensively throughout Australia and Europe, in both laundromats and festivals, including Woodford Folk Festival (2018), Wide Open Spaces (2021), Valley Fiesta (2018), Arts Ablaze (2019) and Fusion Festival (Germany 2014). The laundromat version of the show successfully secured funding from the Australia Council for the Arts, Create NSW, and Arts Queensland through its Playing QLD fund. It also received significant recognition, winning the Innovation Award at the 2019 and 2020 Adelaide Fringe Festival, as well as media appearances on ABC RN (Patrick 2018), and the Today Show (2018).
My latest project Hot & Heavy is an immersive, interactive live show that is part installation, part performance and part banging dance party. Featuring gliding washing machines, a swinging hills hoist, an ironing board electronic band and banging beats. Hot & Heavy is the search for multiple new futures, yearning to find utopia within the banging beat of a broken down washing machine. This project has been commissioned through the Local Giants Program, a partnership between Regional Arts Australia, PAC and Performing Lines, and Cairns Regional Council. Development funded by Australia Council for the Arts. Community engagement funded by Cairns Regional Council through the RADF Major Round.
Universities Studied At
- University of Queensland - PhD - current
- CQUniversity - Master of Research
- CQUniversity - Graduate Certificate in Tertiary and Adult Education
- SAE Byron Bay - Bachelor of Audio Production
- University of Queensland - Bachelor of Occupational Therapy
Universities Worked At
- SAE Byron Bay - 2012 - 2017
Awards
- Pamela Z award for Innovation - The International conference for New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) 2023
- Best Installation - The International conference for New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) 2023
- John Chattaway award for Innovation - Adelaide Fringe Festival 2019 & 2020
Media Citations
- Rhianna Patrick - ABC Radio National - How to make electronic music with an ironing board
- Purple Sneakers - You need to hear The Ironing Maidens EP
- CQUni News - Art Installation Earns International Awards
- CQUni News - Maestro makes music memories across Western QLD
Previous teaching
- Diploma of Audio Production SAE Byron Bay - 2015 - 2017
Professional Experience
- Ableton Live Certified Trainer, July 2021 – present
- Project Manager, Savannah Way Arts Trail. July 2021 – November 2022
- Associate Lecturer. CQ University. September 2017 - present.
Key Achievements
Sound Designer. The Trees. September 2020 - present
Collaboration with Victor Steffenson, resonance artists Natalia Mann and Merindi Schreiber. 5.1 channel audio and video work for the National Museum.
Computer Software
- Ableton Live
- Pro Tools
- Native Instruments
- Izotope
- Qlab
- Pure Data
Heart of our Identity: Whitsunday Arts, Cultural and Heritage Plan (WACH Plan)
Grant: Contract Research (Category 2: Other Public Sector)
Funding Schemes: Contract Research - Whitsunday Arts, Culture and Heritage Plan
Total Funding: $69,500.00
Regional Arts Services Network (RASN) (2022-2025) (ACT22/416)
Grant: Government Tender (Category 2: Other Public Sector)
Funding Schemes: Regional Arts Services 2022-2025, including regional touring Ref No: AF/6611
Total Funding: $992,350.00
The Savannah Way Arts Trail
Grant: Competitive Grant (Category 2: Other Public Sector)
Funding Schemes: Arts Queensland - Queensland Arts Showcase Program
Total Funding: $314,000.00
Regional Arts Services Network (AQ ACT18/2188)
Grant: Competitive Grant (Category 2: Other Public Sector)
Funding Schemes: Department of Environment and Science; Arts Queensland
Total Funding: $900,000.00
Music - Music technology and recording
