audio alchemist

Onen is an undeniable pathbreaker in her sonic cultural practice. Having honed her unique sensitivity to the world into a broad, burgeoning career, she’s already tried her hand at (nearly) everything sonic – professional installations, compositions, soundtracks, multi-valent production, technical recording, theatre. 
 

As the first black feminine body student to receive a BMus degree specialising in Music Technology from the University of Cape Town, she is now on track to surpass herself by earning a Masters from the same department specialising in graphic scoring and analysis.
 

In the meantime, she’s been in demand. Short films and documentaries for which she has crafted sound designs have played to diverse plaudits at festivals in Durban, Cape Town, Cairo, Dakar, Nyon and even at Sundance in Salt Lake City, Utah. Likewise, her collaborative sound art and design have stood out at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda whilst her compositions have been performed in New York, drawn eyes and ears at Cape Town’s (Un)Infecting the City, and in Berlin via the Oscillations project and group exhibition. In 2022, she even drew the prestigious attention of the International Oram Award for feminine-bodied innovators in sound, music and associated technology, who added her to their annual shortlist. In 2023, she was selected for a short residency as a Media and Arts Fellow with the DAAD, Berlin.

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The particular standards of intensity, eclecticism and immersiveness which so characterise her work so far stem from her vision of music-making as a kind of audio alchemy.