Portrait of T. Brandon Evans

T. Brandon Evans

Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies

T. Brandon Evans is a PhD candidate whose work revolves around sound studies as an interdisciplinary field involving anthropology, film studies, media studies, religion, architecture, (sound) art, and acoustic ecology. His CMP capstone project Suni-ai Dukkh Paap ka Naas: By Listening, Pain and Sin are Eradicated is an exhibit featuring audio installation, performance, and archival works on paper.  His dissertation project, Listening to the (in)finite: The Ends of Sound in Sikh Audiovisual Media, focuses on practices of listening and the audiovisual media landscape used by the global Sikh diaspora to foster the lived experience of sangat (community, congregation).  In particular, the project focuses on Sikh-oriented media practices and the vernacular media theories that undergird them, often informed by particular sets of theological and sociocultural values, in spaces as varied as museums, religious sites, movie theaters, and social media.  More broadly, he also is interested in the implications of “sonic thinking” and the nature of auditory experience for media theory and the philosophy of history. He is also interested in the implications of artistic practice for broadening forms of scholarship and uses audio field recording as an aesthetic practice toward that end. Brandon holds an MA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BA in Linguistics and Interdisciplinary Studies in Art/Semiotics from Georgetown University.  He enjoys spending time with his dogs, playing harmonium and lap-steel guitar (shabad kirtan and non-kirtan), and studying languages that begin with the letter P  (Punjabi and Portuguese).