Academic biography

Andreas Rauh is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communications at Dublin City University. His research addresses core issues and debates regarding audio and music production, media and the cultural industries, and digital technologies used in the production, circulation, and consumption of media. He teaches in a range of modules related to media studies, audio production, and multimedia. During his doctoral research, he investigated how grassroots electronic musicians navigate the opportunities and challenges that arise from a musical landscape undergoing important changes. The work focused on key aspects of musicians’ experiences and practices, including motivations and working conditions, learning processes and success demands, as well as how musicians have adapted to the rise of online platforms as key players in music circulation, consumption, and promotion. To investigate this complex scenario he combined a micro-level analysis of musician’s everyday practices with macro-level views of the music industries and online platforms for music, thus drawing from theoretical approaches from the traditional fields of cultural studies, sociology of culture, and political economy, as well as the growing production studies and platform analysis. His work has been published in the journals Social Media + Society and Dancecult. More recent research delves into generative AI tools for visual production by artists from indigenous communities from South America. The project aims to investigate how visual artists and other members of indigenous communities use digital technologies in their creative practices and how they adapt it according to the principles of 'buen vivir', which include a foundational sense of community, sustainability, respect of all living beings and natural life cycles that provide a critical view of colonialism and capitalism. The project has been funded by the ESRC (via the Digital Good Network, University of Sheffield) and the ERC (via University of Leeds). Alongside his academic work, Andreas Rauh is a practicing musician, sound designer, and live performer operating largely in the worlds of electronic and dance music. His most recent practice-based project was Sincronia Sonora, a series of co-created audio and visual recordings of soundscapes experienced with the Emboré indigenous community in Cachimbo, Bahia, Brazil. The project was funded by the British Council and Oi Futuro Foundation.