Maddi Baird (they/them) is a Portland-based composer, sound artist, and dj utilizing a performance and installation-based practice that embraces empirical forms of research to explore the intersecting modes of kinship between humans and their habitats. They are actively examining the connective spectra between tone, timbre, and psychoacoustics as a means of sonifying the liminal space of environments via their field recording practice. ‍

‍Their work is enhanced through their role as a dj, which illuminates the intimate connections humans have with their physical bodies through sound. Working with archives of extinct and endangered sounds, they create immersive, textured ecoscapes that use the evocative power of sounds to elicit “mood,” an experience that they distinguish from emotion because it is shared by both human and non-human agents. ‍

They hold an MFA in Experimental Composition & Sound Practices with an emphasis in Integrated Media from California Institute of the Arts where they studied under Sarah Davachi, Mattie Barbier, and Tom Leeser. They currently teach Music Technology and Music Composition at Clackamas Community College.