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Tony Gibbs
Senior lecturer, module leader & BA Sonic Arts programme leader
Tony used to work on rockets until he realised that watching photographs blow up was more fun. Having specialised in high speed cinematography for the Ministry of Aviation, he moved to research photography at the Ministry of Technology. He studied photography at Ealing Technical College and Medway College of Design and joined Enfield College of Technology in 1971. He created and operated a photographic unit until 1974 when he moved to the Mixed Media Workshop at the former Hornsey College of Art (then Middlesex Polytechnic) specialising in sound/image work, recording and live sound design for premiere productions at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Roundhouse Theatre, London. In 1977, the unit became part of the then School of Music at Trent Park where Tony created a range of resources (including an early all-digital studio), becoming Technical Tutor for the School with special responsibility for audio and music technology facilities and teaching. In addition to this work, he was responsible for the sound design of innumerable theatre productions. In 1995, the music technology area became part of the Centre for Electronic Arts at the Cat Hill campus and, in 1996, Tony was closely involved in its evolution into the Sonic Arts programme. In 2001, he assumed its leadership .
Apart from programme leadership, teaching and administration, his current work includes web authoring and development of teaching programmes to be delivered and operated by electronic means. Other recent activities have included the development of a Sonic Arts degree programme for LaSalle College in Shanghai, China, presentations to the Profile Intermedia 5 conference in Bremen, Germany, a British Council sponsored seminar in Istanbul and other external work on behalf of the Sonic Arts programme and the University. His first book "Fundamentals of Sonic Art & Sound Design" was published in May 2007 by AVA Books.
A fan of Maurice Escher, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Steely Dan and William Gibson, Tony rides a bicycle, is married to a headteacher, has two daughters and a variable number of cats and lives in deepest rural Hertfordshire.