Biography
Jane Ulman is a multi-award-winning audio program maker and sound artist,
formerly with the ABC. Her work is respected internationally and includes more than
3 decades recording wildlife, environmental sounds and voices across Australia and
elsewhere, creating a huge documentary archive and releasing several CDs of her
environmental work.
Her radio productions have been broadcast in many countries including the UK, the
USA, Germany, Austria, France, Poland, Finland, Hungary and Croatia. She has led
international forums on acoustic art & docu/drama in Amsterdam, Bled and Hvar and
taught Creative Writing at the University of Wollongong, Culture and Sound at The
University of Technology, Sydney and Audio Production and Podcasting at
Varuna Writers’ Centre. She’s presented papers on 3 occasions at the University of
Sydney conferences on Animals in the Anthropocene for HARNE and gave a
presentation at Bundanon on Birds and Field recording. She is on the Board of the
online critical magazine RadioDoc Review and some of her audio work is collected
in the Australian Music Centre Archive.
Jane has collaborated with numerous visual artists and performers and she’s created
sound tracks for film and theatre pieces. She’s produced installations for public
spaces including works on Cockatoo Island, The Museum of Beijing & The Museum
of Melbourne (Trepang with Marcia Langton, Johnny Bulun Bulun & Zhou Xioping)
The Rocks Windmill, Sydney and Habitat, a permanent sound installation at Darling
Harbour (in collaboration with artist Janet Laurence).
In the last couple of years she produced documentaries Living Water for the BBC
World Service and Billy sees inside the Sea – a soundscape for the ABC, On Track:
Walking the Bundian Way- a documentary for ABC RN’s Awaye, scripted the audio
tour text for Seven Sisters Songlines with Margo Neale for The Australian National
Museum, Canberra, and produced the sound for Sculpture by the Sea exhibit Les
St.Hill and the Tin Canoe which received the major award at Jindabyne Lake Light
Sculpture, 2018.
Most recent work:
2019 February to June – sound for After Nature – a collection of works past and new
by Janet Laurence at the MCA, Sydney
2019 March 16 - Healing Our Rivers, a documentary for Awaye, ABC RN
2019 April 16 – Mother Danced with Göring, a documentary for The History Listen
2019 Currently working on a casual basis for the University of Sydney to produce
podcasts on the subject Cultures of Extinction
2019 Currently producing Sing Up Sweet Water for broadcast in Earshot during
NAIDOC week
Recent publications include: Not Quite Cricket for RadioDocReview and Changing
the Record – radio work of Jon Rose for the Contemporary Music Review.
Professional Honours and Distinctions:
2015 PRIX MARULIC, documentary award winner Wheelwork of Nature: Tesla &
the 21 st century
2012 Howl – a documentary montage by Jane Ulman, shortlisted in the VOICELESS
Media Awards
2012 NEW YORK RADIO FESTIVAL AWARDS Among Animals – a documentary
by Jane Ulman with final sound mix by Phillip Ulman, shortlisted
2011 NEW YORK RADIO FSTIVAL AWARDS, music Reflections & Voices: The
Music of Yothu Yindi
2010 NEW YORK RADIO FESTIVAL AWARDS, drama award winner The Little
Black
2010 GRAND PRIX MARULIC, documentary award winner The Devil in Music
2010 PRIX ITALIA, music feature award winner The Devil in Music
2007 PRIX MARULIC Drama Special Category, drama Darwin’s Wings transposed
for radio by Jane Ulman from a stage work by Mette Jakobsen, directed by Jane
Ulman, shortlisted
2005 PRIX ITALIA, music composition award winner Sandakan Threnody
2004 GRAND PRIX MARULIC, documentary award winner In Studio: Dreaming
Transportation
2004 Third Coast International Audio Festival/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation
Competition, Chicago; docu-drama Shocking Pink nominated for two prizes and
shortlisted from 214 entries broadcast in Re:sound on Chicago Public Radio
2003 Third Coast International Audio Festival/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation
Competition, Chicago; documentary Shadow of a Doubt, shortlisted & broadcast
in the Re:sound program on Chicago Public Radio
2003 PHONERGIA NOVA France, award for Radiomix This Can’t Be Love,
shortlisted
2001 PRIX MARULIC, documentary award winner The Siren South
1995 PRIX FUTURA Berlin, Drama The History of Water by Noelle Janaczewska,
produced & directed by Jane Ulman, shortlisted
1994 PRIX ITALIA, fiction award winner The Lights of Jericho
1993 PRIX ITALIA, documentary Swim, Swim, Swan Song, shortlisted
1990 PRIX ITALIA, fiction award winner Summer of the Aliens
1989 PRIX ITALIA, documentary award winner Beyond Settled Districts