Dr Thembi Soddell (b.1980) is a sound artist, electroacoustic composer and practice-based researcher whose work is focused on representing and understanding the felt mental impact of trauma, emotional distress and so-called mental illness through the intensity of abstract, acousmatic sound. Their 2018 album Love Songs is streaming at Self-Titled Magazine and an audio paper discussing the concepts behind its making is on Liquid Architecture’s online journal Disclaimer. They completed their PhD, titled ‘A Dense Mass of Indecipherable Fear: The Experiential (Non)Narration of Trauma and Madness through Acousmatic Sound’ at RMIT University in 2019, and a paper discussing their practice-based research methods has been published in Organised Sound.

Thembi is non-binary, using they/them/theirs pronouns, of European (Polish and Anglo-Celtic) descent, born and living on Dja Dja Wurrung Country, ‘Australia’, for which sovereignty was never ceded. In 2020 they received a Regional Arts Victoria Fellowship to research access, sustaining arts practice, and present their work with sound and mental health to their local community. Interviews conducted for this research and more can be found on this website. Their work has been shown at galleries such as Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), among others.