Sound + Synthesis Advanced Study

Monthly Subscription: $750 (3-month minimum)
Upcoming period: October 2024 – December 2024

I offer creative, academic, and professional mentorship to undergraduate and graduate level art / film students through an ‘Advanced Study’ platform, which takes place remotely, as well as in-person when possible. The platform extends from the teaching dynamics of my undergraduate course and film production intensive, Sound + Synthesis, which won the faculty-wide Dean’s Teaching Fellow Award from Queen’s University in 2023 for “enriching student learning with high-impact activities and curriculum design.” As is the case with the original course, the Advanced Study platform is meant to activate individual artistic production while nurturing commitment to one’s own artistic practice. This is done through providing frequent prompts and in-depth feedback, which enhance the development of technical skills and conceptual thinking in students.

Different from the undergraduate course, the increased level of one-on-one interaction in the Advanced Study platform means that student artists and filmmakers are able to more capably customize their learning and production goals. Over the course of a minimum 3-month period, the student and I will identify clear aims for our time together – whether that is the completion of an artwork or film, the development of their artistic portfolio, pursuing a professional opportunity, making a public presentation of their project, etc. – and find ways that we can reach those goals together. The mentorship platform is not affiliated with Queen’s University and does not result in course credits or a certificate.

Mentorship Style | My teaching and mentorship style is highly engaged, communicative, and generous. I apply my sensibilities and background as an artist, filmmaker, curator, organizer, and educator to build and sustain energizing environments of intellectual and creative support with students, in ways that always seek to place their own uniqueness at the centre. Students have described me as a compassionate and collaborative teacher, and have expressed finding great joy in the learning environments that I create.

Group Engagement | When I am mentoring more than one student through the Advanced Study platform, I will also coordinate regular group meetings and workshops with the group as a whole, in addition to conducting my individual work with students. These peer environments provide a context for students to share their work and knowledge with one another, and create an expanded community of support. To ensure my dedication to individual student goals, I will take on up to three students per three-month period.

The monthly subscription of $750 covers:

  • weekly one-hour meetings (online, or in person when possible);
  • unlimited email communication and feedback on projects;
  • when it is relevant to the student’s goals, originally designed production assignments, customized specifically for the student and including detailed feedback;
  • tutorials and workshops on technical and conceptual skills relevant to student goals, such as audio and video editing, exhibition design, writing an artist statement, assembling an artistic portfolio, applying to a production grant, etc.;
  • assistance in researching opportunities related to student’s goals, such as academic programs, exhibition / presentation opportunities, artist residency programs, etc.
  • access to digital content from the Sound + Synthesis Open Educational Resource (to be published by Queen’s University Library in Winter 2025), such as tutorials notes, production prompts, and audio recordings.

To inquire, please contact me at neven.lochhead@gmail.com and arrange for a free initial meeting.

Mentor Bio | Dr. Neven Lochhead is an artist, filmmaker, curator, and educator from Kingston, Ontario. He received his PhD from Queen’s University in May 2024 for his book-length dissertation and portfolio, An Artist’s Almanac to Research, Organization, Education, and Bookings, which was subsequently nominated for the the Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal by the Department of Film and Media. From 2016-2020, he was Director of Programming at SAW Video Media Art Centre in Ottawa, where he launched and operated the immersive exhibition venue Knot Project Space, and mounted a city-wide urban video projection exhibition, Imagining Publics. His co-curated exhibition at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, a guest + a host = a ghost, won exhibition of the year at the 2022 GOG Awards. In 2023, he received the faculty-wide Dean’s Teaching Fellow Award at Queen’s, acknowledging the “exceptional commitment to teaching” in his original undergraduate course, Sound + Synthesis. He is currently a fellow in University of British Columbia’s School of Music, where he has been commissioned to make a feature length documentary and related exhibition examining the carceral logics of museum collections and the repatriation of Indigenous cultural belongings and ancestors to their communities of origin. His solo and collaborative artistic and film work has been shown across North America and Europe and he has attended international residencies such as Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Maine, 2015) and the Fondazione Antonio Ratti (Lake Como, 2014).