| EDUCATION | ||
| 2011 | PhD in Critical and Comparative Studies | University of Virginia, McIntire Department of Music |
| 2004 | MA in East Asian Studies | University of Virginia, Department of East Asian Studies |
| 2001 | BA in Music, magna cum laude | Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Arts |
| 2001 | BA in Religious Studies, magna cum laude | Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Humanities and Sciences |
TEACHING | ||
| 2013-present | Adjunct Professor | ArtCenter College of Design, MFA in Media Design Practices |
| 2017-2021 | Adjunct Professor | University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business |
| 2011-2013 | Postdoctoral Fellow | Occidental College, Department of Music, Center for Digital Liberal Arts |
| 2008-2011 | Graduate Instructor | University of Virginia, Department of Music, Department of the Study of Women and Gender |
PROJECTS / EXHIBITIONS | ||
| 2022-2023 | Periodically Queer | Producer, Director, and Host. Podcast with two seasons. Audio documentary episodes on queer history. One Institute |
| 2022 | Together On the Air | Audio documentary collection, part of Together On the Air exhibition, One Gallery |
| 2022 | Archival Intimacies: Queering South/East Asian Diasporas | Composer. Four-channel sound installation, 21 minutes. Bitter Party collaboration with Prima Jalichandra-Sakuntabhai, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries |
| 2021-23 | Youspeak Radio | Co-director. LGBTQ+ youth-led audio storytelling program. One Institute. |
| 2021 | Our Voices & Our Rights | Teaching staff. Workshop series, Providence Student Union, Brown Arts Initiative, Brown University |
| 2020 | XMAP: In Plain Sight | Artist, sound for public art project, with traci kato-kiriyama and Cognate Collective, organized by Devon Tsuno, curated by Rafa Esparza and Cassils |
| 2019 | Ghost Pop: a speculative musical genre | Audio-visual installation. Media Design Practices Faculty Work In Progress Exhibit, Wind Tunnel Gallery, ArtCenter College of Design. |
| 2015-2019 | Promise Zone Arts | Design Strategist. Cultural asset mapping project. City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. |
| 2013-2018 | LA Listens | Founder. Sound project about LA neighborhoods in partnership with MIT Community Innovation Lab. |
| 2013 | Sounds of Learning | Director. Community collaboration between Occidental College and Annandale Elementary School |
| 2012-2014 | Movable Parts | Co-founder. Community maker project. Supported by Metro and Occidental College. |
| 2012-2013 | Paperphone | Creative director. Provoke! Digital Sound Studies Collection. Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University |
SELECTED PERFORMANCES | ||
| 2024 | Daydream Building: A Sound Performance with Umi Hsu | Solo sound performance and temporary installation with cassette and radios, in interaction with ED RUSHA / NOW THEN, LACMA |
| 2022 | Archival Intimacies. An Evening of Song and Poetry | Bitter Party’s performance in collaboration with Prima Jalichandra-Sakuntabhai, ONE Archives at the USC Libraries |
| 2022 | Other Places Art Fair | Bitter Party, curated by KCHUNG Radio |
| 2019 | Bitter Party Performance, Literary Reading, and Gastro-Sonic Collaboration | Bitter Party, Gastro-Sonic Collaboration with Erin O’Brien, Oxy Arts, Occidental College, Los Angeles |
| 2019 | Ghost Pop Album Release | Bitter Party, also feat: The North American Kun Opera Society and Shekhan, Chinese American Citizens Alliance, Los Angeles |
| 2019 | Past Present: Conversations with the Future | Composition and performance with Grace Umali, collaboration with traci kato-kiriyama, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles |
| 2019 | Ghosts: Stories with Bitter Party | Performance and workshop, Bitter Party, 341 FSN, Sustainable Little Tokyo, Los Angeles |
| 2017 | Tuesday Night Cafe, The Home/Away Show | Bitter Party, Union Theatre Courtyard, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles |
| 2017 | Astana x Los Angeles Portal | Biter Party, Connecting with The World Expo at Astana, LA Law Library, Los Angeles |
| 2017 | Origin Stories Workshop – Family with Bitter Party | Bitter Party, collaboration with Nicole Rademacher, 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA |
| 2017 | Subsequent Performances | Bitter Party, curated by John Birtle, on EJ Hill’s A Subsequent Offering, Human Resources, Los Angeles |
| 2016 | Rock Therapy w/ The Kominas | Bitter Party, The Kominas, Doctors and Engineers, Los Globos, Silver Lake, Los Angeles |
| 2014 | Concert and Community Celebration for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month | Bitter Party, organized by Asian American Advancing Justice LA, curated by Neel Agrawal, Ebanos Crossing, Los Angeles |
| 2010 | Center for the Study of the End of Things | Grapefruit Experiment, Inaugural Symposium, free improvisation with Erik Deluca, Charlottesville, VA |
| 2010 | FFMUP (Free_Form_Mash_Up “Between-the-cracks” music series) | Grapefruit Experiment with Caustic Castle, Terrace, organized by Charity Chan, Princeton University, NJ |
| 2010 | Fluxus Performance with Alison Knowles | Ensemble member and workshop participant, led by Alison Knowles, The Bridge PAI, Charlottesville, VA |
| 2010 | Passport to Taiwan Fest | Dzian!, Union Square, New York City, NY |
| 2009 | Queering Sound Festival | Grapefruit Experiment, Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Spring, MD |
| 2008 | Ambient Pancakes | Pinko Communoids, Audio January at The Bridge PAI, organized by HzCollective, Charlottesville, VA |
| 2008 | MegaHz Experimental and Noise Festival | Pinko Communoids, organized by HzCollective, The Bridge PAI, Charlottesville, VA |
| 2008 | Improvisations set | Pink Communoids, Red Room, Baltimore, MD |
| 2008 | COMA Series | Pinko Communoids, ABC No Rio, New York City, NY |
| 2008 | NanoHz 17: Avant Garde Improvisations | Pinko Communoids, Jason Khan and Jon Mueller, organized by HzCollective, UVA Chapel |
| 2008 | Fluxus Performance with Alison Knowles | Ensemble member and workshop assistant, led by Alison Knowles, University of Virginia |
| 2008 | Grapefruit Experiment with Nigel Brown | Improvised set with Nigel Brown, Nanhai Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan |
| 2007 | TechnSonics VII: New and Electronic Music Festival | Pinko Communoids, Live Arts, presented by University of Virginia Department of Music, Charlottesville, VA |
| 2007 | Pinko Communoids, Taiwan tour | Nanhai Gallery, Taipei, TaiwanWith Alice Hui-Sheng Chang, Nells Home, Taichung, TaiwanWombloc Festival, Kaohsiung, Taiwan |
| 2007 | Sonic Circuits: Festival of Experimental Music | Pinko Communoids, Warehouse Next Door, Washington, DC |
SELECTED AUDIO / VIDEO RECORDING | ||
| 2024 | Departures / Arrivals 《出境 / 入境》 | Full-length album, a bilingual experimental audio memoir commissioned by Ting Shuo Hear Say sound studio in Tainan, Post Pandemic Acts: Therapeutic Auditory Tell Tales curated series and Bandcamp |
| 2019 | Ghost Pop | Bitter Party, full-length album, CD and book |
| 2016 | Ear Meal | Bitter Party, full performance video set recorded live at the Ear Meal studio, curated by Alan Nagakawa for LA Art Stream |
| 2010 | Cut | Vital | Connection | Grapefruit Experiment collaboration with Zach Mason, full length album, CD, recorded in Belmont in Charlottesville, VA. |
| 2010 | Ecosono: Agents Against Agency | Pinko Communoids, improvisation at Long Pond in Southwest Harbor, Maine, DVD, curated by Ecosono Institute and Matthew Burtner |
| 2009 | Watchworks | Film score. Short experimental film, 4 minutes, directed by Kevin Jerome Everson |
| 2007 | Volume One | Pinko Communoids, full-length album, CD, recorded in Charlottesville, VA |
| 2004 | The Last Home Video | Film score. Documentary feature directed by David Williams. Premiered at Virginia Film Festival |
| 2003 | Long Art | Film score. Documentary feature directed by David Williams. Premiered at Virginia Film Festival |
SELECTED LECTURES / WORKSHOPS | ||
| 2024 | Narrative Podcast Clinics | Audio project advisor. Hoping Lab, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. April-May |
| 2024 | GHOST: If We Can Hear the Spaces | Artist Talk, School of Cinematic Arts, Media Arts + Practice, University of Southern California. March 5 |
| 2023 | Listening Party: Periodically Queer | Featured speaker. Listening event, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan |
| 2023 | Ghost Pop | Artist talk. National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan |
| 2022 | Confluence and Collision: At the Intersection of Performance and Policy Practices | Panelist. Music Ecosystem Conference, Music Policy Forum, Georgetown University |
| 2022 | Invisible Archive Vol. LA Issue 7 Book Launch | Panel moderator. The Invisible Archive journal, launch event. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries |
| 2021 | Public Listening and Public Hearing: Ethnography for New Civic Possibilities | Colloquium talk. Department of Music. UC Berkeley |
| 2021 | What to do with all this stuff: archive-based content strategy in the attention economy | Colloquium talk. Center for Archival Futures Speaker Series, University of Maryland, College Park |
| 2021 | Locating self, locating community | Artist talk. Department of Fine Art. University of Iowa |
| 2020 | Point of Access: Audio | Panelist. Art + Practice in collaboration with California African American Museum |
| 2020 | ARCHIVE MACHINES: Archives and Relating Today Talk | Panelist. Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery |
| 2020 | Mobilized by Memories: Countering Incarceration Culture | Panel moderator. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries. |
| 2019 | Public Listening and Public Hearing: Ethnography for New Civic Possibilities | Keynote speaker. Society of Ethnomusicology Southern California and Hawaii Chapter conference, UC Santa Barbara, March 2-3 |
| 2019 | Engaging Communities Through Artist-Led Data Projects | Panelist, panel discussion led by Yvonne Lee, with Hailey Loman, Tatiana Vahan, and Umi Hsu, Art in the Park, organized by Tatiana Vahan, LA Artist Census |
| 2019 | Socioaesthetics and Audio Stories | Workshop with MFA students. Department of Media Design Practices. ArtCenter College of Design |
| 2018 | Sounded Field | Sounded Self: notating acoustic territory” | Workshop with MFA students. Department of Media Design Practices. ArtCenter College of Design |
| 2017 | Sound Field, Sounded Self | Artist talk. Voice Arts Forum, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) |
| 2017 | Opening Panel: Listening for Community Change? | Moderator. Plenary panel on city sounds organized by MIT School of Architecture and Planning |
| 2017 | Remixing the City | Workshop on urban sound participatory action-based research. Organized by MIT School of Architecture and Planning. |
| 2016 | Public Resonance of Listening to the Streets: Ethnography for New Civic Possibilities | Artist talk. CTM Festival, Berlin, Germany, February 1 |
| 2016 | From Roots to Routes: How to Research, Document, and Mediate Music Today | Panelist. CTM Festival, Berlin, Germany, February 2 |
| 2016 | Shida Soundwalk | Artist workshop with MA students. Department of Mass Media. National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. |
| 2016 | Sound Ethnography | Field recording workshop. Department of Mass Media. National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. |
| 2015 | LA Listens:(re-)interpretations of sonic periodicity, rhythm, and neighborhood vibrancy in Los Angeles | Co-authored paper presentation with Steven Kemper and Jessica Blickley, Sound, Images, and Data conference, NYU, July 24 |
| 2015 | Listening Through Sensory and Civic Data to the Streets of Los Angeles: LA Listens | Co-authored paper presentation with Steven Kemper and Jessica Blickley, Inertia Conference on Sound, Media, and Digital Humanities, UCLA, April 30 |
| 2015 | Bitter Party: From Ethnomusicology to Ghost Pop | Master class. Department of Music and Recording Technology. CSU Monterey Bay |
| 2014 | Researching Performance / Performing Research? | Artist talk. Department of Music, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia |
| 2014 | Digital Ethnography Design Workshop | Workshop, Digital Ethnography Research Center, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Australia |
SELECTED PRESS / MEDIA | ||
| 2024 | Where Can a PhD Take You? | Career profile in an article published by the Mellon Foundation |
| 2023 | Inside the growing movement to digitize LGBTQ+ stories: ‘We’re reverse-engineering new memories’ of the past. | Article featuring Periodically Queer podcast, LA Times |
| 2023 | Podcast Episode 6: Our Role as Storytellers (w/ Dr. Umi Hsu) | Episode long interview, ethics of storytelling, Dscout podcast |
| 2023 | ONE Archives Foundation and dublab present Together On the Air | Radio broadcast of Together On the Air program, dublab |
| 2023 | Radio QGLLU – Featuring Umi Hsu and Ángel Labarthe del Solar | Guest on Radio QGLLU, The Out Agenda, KPFK |
| 2022 | Explore queer design history through Days of Rage, a new online exhibition documenting LGBTQIA+ activist posters | Article featuring design strategy for Days of Rage web exhibit, It’s Nice That |
| 2021 | Sound Study | Radio show hosted by Xandão and guest Jennifer Hsieh, featuring recordings, dublab |
| 2021 | BAI, Providence Student Union unveil youth-created billboard series highlighting Student Bill of Rights | Article on Providence Student Union’s public art project, Brown Daily Herald |
| 2020 | Let’s Not Be Afraid of Each Other | Reflection on What Does A COVID-19 Doula Do? zine, Co-authored with Theodore Kerr, MARCH |
| 2018 | A Conversation Between Umi Hsu and Judy Toretti: the story behind making an arts data tool | Interview discussing the design strategy behind Neighborhood Arts Profile, Designmatters blog |
| 2018 | Mapping the Unmapped: Umi Hsu on making culture meaningful and equitable | Interview on equity-driven arts strategy, Dscout |
| 2018 | In USC Price course, students create cultural treasure maps of Los Angeles | Article on Promise Zone Arts initiative, in collaboration with USC Price School of Public Policy |
| 2017 | Listening to the City: Amplifying voices, shaping sonic infrastructure | Article featuring LA Listens, and Listening to the City collaboration with MIT Colab, MIT Arts |
| 2017 | Transonics Taiwan music on radio | Guest DJ set, dublab |
| 2014 | Taiwanese street music on radio | Guest DJ set, KCHUNG Radio |
| 2013 | Ghost Pop: Haunting Boyle Heights with Sounds of an Asian Diaspora | Article on Bitter Party with interview, PBS KCET |
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS | ||
| 2019 | “Umi Hsu (Taipei, Taiwan)” | Profiled in a book chapter, Living ethnomusicology: paths and practices, University of Illinois Press, Urban-Champaign, IL |
| 2018 | “Reprogramming Sounds of Learning: Pedagogical Experiments with Critical Making and Community Ethnography” | Book chapter, Digital Sound Studies, Duke University Press |
| 2018 | Listening to the City: Community Research and Actions through Sound and Stories | Contributor and Advisor, handbook, produced by MIT Colab, published by MIT School of Architecture and Planning |
| 2017 | “Taqwacore: Punk Polyculturalism” | Academic essay, Norient Academic Journal |
| 2017 | “A Performative Digital Ethnography: Interface, Database, and Speculation” | Book chapter, The Routledge companion to digital ethnography, Routledge, New York |
| 2017 | “Auditory Choreography in Taiwan” | Invited essay contribution to Rubin Museum’s Spiral publication, The Sound Issue, in association with The World Is Sound exhibition. |
| 2016 | “How We Relisten to a Changing City: Engaging the Senses, Community, and Data through ‘LA Listens’” | Project profile, Noise and Silence, Issues 2, Urban/Rural |
| 2016 | “Lessons on Public Humanities from the Civic Sphere” | Book chapter, Debates in Digital Humanities, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN |
| 2014 | “Digital Ethnography Toward Augmented Empiricism: A New Methodological Framework” | Academic essay, Journal of Digital Humanities, Vol. 3, No. 1 |
| 2014 | “A Wider and More Transparent Ethnographic Feedback Circle” | Ethnomusicology Review, Vol. 19 |
| 2013 | “Troubling genre, ethnicity and geopolitics in Taiwanese American independent rock music” | Academic essay, Popular Music, Vol. 32, Special Issue 01, January |
| 2013 | “Mapping The Kominas’ Sociomusical Transnation: Punk, Diaspora, and Digital Media” | Academic essay, Asian Journal of Communication, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 386-402. |
| 2012 | “Performance Art at the (Virginia) Margins: Anthony Restivo’s Far Off and All Aflame” | Review of Anthony Restivo’s performance art work, co-authored with Rachel Thompson and Jacob Sargent, The Drama Review (TDR) |
| 2007 | “Review: Alvin Lucier Festival @ UVa” | Concert Review, Journal of Society for Electro-Acoustic Music, Summer |
CURATORIAL / PROGRAMMING | ||
| 2023 | Together On the Air x Unidad: Film Screening and Panel | Programmer and Panel Moderator. Closing program for Together On the Air exhibit. ONE Gallery, West Hollywood |
| 2022 | Together On the Air: LIVE on Radio | Programmer. Evening of live radio recording featuring members of Radio GLLU, ONE Gallery, West Hollywood, dublab broadcast |
| 2020 | It’s Not Over | Co-curator. Month-long public art installation, Day With(out) Art, World AIDS Day, One Gallery/West Hollywood |
| 2019-2023 | One Institute | Director of Content Strategy. Overseeing exhibitions, programs, and creatives, community partner to ONE Archives at the USC Libraries |
| 2019 | Ghost Pop | Programmer and performer. Gastro-Sonic Collaboration featuring Bitter Party and Erin O’Brien, Curator, panel discussion moderated by Elizabeth Lindau, Oxy Arts, Occidental College, Los Angeles |
| 2019 | Ghost Pop Album Release | Programmer. Genre-crossing AAPI performance featuring Bitter Party, The North American Kun Opera Society, and Shekhan, Curator, Chinese American Citizens Alliance, Los Angeles Chinatown |
| 2008-2010 | Audio January | Co-curator. Month long audio themed exhibition and programs, The Bridge PAI, Charlottesville, VA |
RESIDENCY | ||
| 2023-present | Artist Residency | 聽說 Ting Shuo Hear Say, experimental and sound art space, two year commission, Tainan, Taiwan. (November 2023, April 2024) |
| 2019 | Artist Micro-Residency | Performance and story workshop with Bitter Party, 341 FSN, Sustainable Little Tokyo, Downtown LA (November 15-22) |
| 2016 | Artist-and-Scholar Residency | Workshop series, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan (March 1-15) |
AFFILIATIONS | ||
| 2022-present | Community Board Member | Digital Transgender Archive |
| 2022-present | Member | Transgender Inclusion Taskforce, LGBTQ+ Alliance. American Alliance of Museums |
| 2022 | Mentor | Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles |
| 2021-present | Advisory Board Member | The Invisible Archive, an art journal |
| 2017-2019 | Community Partner | RAP (Race, Arts, and Place), Arts and Racial Equity Initiative, Spatial Analysis Lab, USC Price School of Public Policy |
| 2015-2017 | Steering Committee Member | Cultural Research Network |
| 2015-2016 | Advisory Committee Member | Arts For LA |
SELECTED AWARDS | ||
| 2022 | Awwwards | Honorable Mention Design Award, Days of Rage web exhibit |
| 2019 | IDC SmartCities North America Award | Finalist for Neighborhood Arts Profile project |
| 2016-2018 | NEA Design Grant | Partner with MIT Community Innovators Lab, National Endowments of the Arts |
| 2015-2016 | Flash Grant | Shuttleworth Foundation |
| 2013-2015 | Mellon / ACLS Public Fellow | Two year fellowship in public humanities for PhDs |
| 2011-2013 | Mellon Digital Scholarship Postdoctoral Fellow | Occidental College, Center for Digital Learning and Research |
| 2010 | Graduate Fellowship in Digital Humanities | Scholars’ Lab, University of Virginia |
| 2004-2009 | Presidential Fellow | Graduate School for Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia |
| 1996-2000 | Presidential Scholar | School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University |