COMPOSER | SOUND DESIGNER | ARTIST

LIVING AND WORKING IN MELBOURNE (UNCEEDED WURUNDJERI LAND)

Amy McNickle (right) speaking at “Can we talk about this” exhibition at Correspondence Gallery (2023) with fellow artist and exhibitor, Sarah Walker (left).

Amy McNickle is a composer, sound designer, multidisciplinary artist, and creative director interested in the intersection between art and tech. Amy holds a Masters in Fine Arts (RMIT) and a Bachelors in music composition (VCA/UNI MELB), with her practice predominantly focused on interactivity and storytelling. This can be seen in her award winning self produced and directed interactive film ‘Worldline Corporations’.

Working within the video game and interactive media sectors, Amy creates unique compositions. She specialises in employing techniques to disrupt expectation of a piece to evoke empathy, longing, or create uneasiness. Additionally, Amy has experience in custom sound design, most notably for ‘Worldline Corporations’, and is currently working as the sound designer for “Kinder World” game.

Amy’s artistic practice seeks to unfurl the intricacies of human emotion. Her work is driven by unique approaches to audience engagement, using methodologies of humour and storytelling to examine the dynamics of our relationships with others, and query our societal views on intimacy, communication, and connection. Her masters research project at the Royal Melbourne Institute for Technology (2021) employed tactics of language disruption, alongside a multifaceted approach to audience interactivity and engagement in order to evoke specific empathic responses. Amy uses ideas found in mirror neural research to viscerally mimic emotional states.

In 2023, Amy completed a residency at SEVENTH Gallery to undertake research for a new mobile game, “Planet B”. Building upon both her artistic exploration of the human condition, and her audio experience in interactive film and games, this ambitions project seeks to combine her experience to date.

Some notable achievements include performing original music at The Forum Theatre Melbourne as part of MIFF’s “meet the composers” program (2018). Her self produced, and directed interactive film “Worldline Corporations” was nominated for “Best Experimental” at Melbourne Fringe Festival (2019), and won the BankSA “Best Interactive” award at Adelaide Fringe (2019), and her music for the short animation “The Lost Sound” has screened internationally including at the Atlanta Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), and Palm Springs ShortFest.