WOMANPRODUCER: a multi-dimensional archive of sonic innovators

Concept, art direction, copywriting

WOMANPRODUCER is a multi-dimensional archive of sonic innovators. I came up with the idea of wanting something like this to exist after spending a few years co-producing music with Melissa Dyne and seeing no representation of other women producers anywhere in the media. I was sitting around with the term “WOMANPRODUCER” in my head kind of like a rain dance, hoping that by holding the word in my head I might somehow find a community of people producing music who were women, or trans, or basically not just the crew of dudes that is what is imagined when someone says “music producer.” One special evening on a particularly fortuituous internet surf, I discovered that there is in fact a teeming history of femme and transgender people who have made huge contributions to the history of recording and sound production innovation. I came across more and more images of women working with pieces of production and electronic composition gear, going all the way back into the ‘40s and ‘50s: there were pics and it really did happen. The name had found its purpose, and the WOMANPRODUCER archive was born.

WOMANPRODUCER exists as a website, an Instagram account, and in 2016 it expanded into a series of live events held at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, New York. The series brought together artists from across genres and eras for conversations and performances, including Neko Case, Zola Jesus, Pauline Oliveros, Suzi Analogue, Miho Hatori, Yuka C. Honda, Mirah, Val Inc, and The Blow. We made audio segments about the project with MTV, and CBC Radio, and there was a feature in a beloved downtown paper that no longer exists.