Dr John Willsteed
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Creative Arts
Biography
Background John Willsteed remembers most of a long and varied career as a musician, travelling the world and leaving a legacy of hummable bass-lines. He has performed with many iconic Australian acts including The Go-Betweens, The Apartments, The Riptides and Ed Kuepper. He has been a guitarist in award winning Brisbane band Halfway since 2010. He is a graduate of the AFTRS, Griffith University and QUT, and has an abiding interest in the musical history of his hometown (Brisbane) and the ways in which it might be told. As a sound editor and composer he has received national and international awards including three AFI Awards for sound. Willsteed also embodies a deep commitment to the wider concept and reality of the creative industries. He has acted on the board of QPIX and was state representative of the Australian Screen Sound Guild. He has been president of Feral Arts management committee since 2005, and currently serves on the board of the Queensland Music Festival. Career History He has been a teacher at private film schools, TAFE and universities since 2000 and his current role at QUT is Senior Lecturer in the School of Creative Practice.Personal details
Positions
- Adjunct Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Creative Arts
Keywords
punk, Brisbane, subculture, music
Research field
Performing arts, Cultural studies, Heritage, archive and museum studies
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
- Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (Griffith University)
Publications
Filter publications:
A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/j.willsteed
Awards
- Type
- Award or Prize
- Reference year
- 2016
- Details
- State Library of Queensland. Inaugural recipient of the Letty Katts Award, one of the 2016 Queensland Memory Awards.
- Type
- Creative Achievement
- Reference year
- 2015
- Details
- International Songwriting Competition. One of the co-writers of Dulcify. From the Halfway album and ERA output Any Old Love, Dulcify is a finalist in the Americana section of the 2015 International Songwriting Competition.
- Type
- Creative Achievement
- Reference year
- 2014
- Details
- Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane| One of the curators in Seen + Heard, an exhibition of 12" cover art.
- Type
- Funding Award/Project
- Reference year
- 2014
- Details
- Australia Council| Recipient of a $20,000 Australia Council Grant (Music - New Work - Writing and Recording).
A collaboration between Halfway and Kamileroi elder Bob Weatherall to create a major new work.
- Type
- Keynote or Plenary Speaker
- Reference year
- 2010
- Details
- Transforming Cultures Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney| Keynote speech for Auricle Sound Symposium.
Supervision
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
Completed supervisions (Masters by Research)
- Addressing subjectivity: Pedagogical strategies for teaching and assessing sound design (2022)
- Come Together: Creating a Cross-Genre Musical Community of Practice (2021)
- Surf, Sun, and Sound: The Role of Surf Music in the Development of Australian Popular Culture. An Investigation of the Iconic Surf Film, Morning of The Earth, as a Medium (2020)
- INTO THE ARCHIVE: A Cultural History Through the Yorke Collection (2018)
- The Immense Amplificaton of the Silent Valley. A Soundscape Project (2018)
- The Role of the Album in Popular Music Production (2018)
- Learning and Teaching the Art of Sound Design: An analysis into determining best practices (2017)
The supervisions listed above are only a selection.