Projects such as the trees have something to say (2024) and it listens, it moves (2025) explore resonance as a form of dialogue between performer and place, using feedback, amplification, and gesture to build improvisational exchanges. Works like cycle form (2024) blur the lines between animate and inanimate through sculpture-performance and durational practice, encouraging a sonic empathy that challenges human-centered perspectives.
His process often begins with long-form field recordings made along a spectrum that runs from quiet, unobtrusive listening—preserving the temporal and spatial integrity of an environment—to more interventionist “field performings,” where he becomes part of a soundscape’s fabric. In practice, these modes often overlap, with listening and acting folding into each other. The resulting recordings are later shaped into fixed soundscape compositions—aural scores—designed both for immersive listening and for activation in live performance as responsive, inductive environments.
In improvised live performances, Crean engages directly with foraged natural materials, using experimental techniques, contact microphones, and subtle audio processing to balance human intention with the agency of the natural world. The result is co-created—an evolving meeting point between human and non-human forces.
He has presented work across Ireland, Denmark, and beyond, including the NCF in Mayo, The Boole Library and The Guesthouse in Cork, and Static Festival in Copenhagen. Crean holds an MA in Experimental Sound Practice from University College Cork and has been supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Mayo County Council.