Dr. Jo Burzynska
Wine Writer, Sound Artist, and Researcher
Dr Jo Burzynska is a wine writer, sound artist and researcher whose work in these areas has increasingly converged in projects that combine sound, aroma and flavour. This includes a recent PhD investigating the influence of sound on the perception of wine, and the creation of multisensory art and immersive experiences, such the establishment of the world’s first wine and sound bar. She writes on wine for general and specialist publications internationally and is the author of Wine Class (Random House). As an artist she has exhibited, performed and released her work around the world.
Recent years have seen her work on numerous projects that blend her two-decade wine experience with multisensory art and science, involving research with leading figures in the fields of experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience and sensory science. She was awarded a PhD for her interdisciplinary thesis, Tuning Sensory Terroir that investigated sensory and aesthetic interactions between sound and wine aroma/flavour and their creative application.
Her art installations and performances regularly combine her specialisations of sound, taste and olfaction. These often involve wine, such her recent Risonanze di Vino project, in which she worked with winegrowers in Southern Italy in the creation of a series wine and sound compositions and the publication of a book of the same name (Interferenze Publications). Prior to this she established the world’s first dedicated wine and sound bar at the Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she curated a wine list, in which wines were matched to the current exhibition and the music playlist she made for the space.
As a writer, she is actively involved with communicating about wine, and music/sound. She has edited a number of wine magazines (most recently WineNZ); was wine editor at the New Zealand Herald for nine years; and continues to write on wine for publications worldwide. She is also a senior judge and panel chair at a number of local and international wine competitions. In the area of music, she is the co-editor of Writing Around Sound, contributes to the likes of the UK’s Wire magazine and wrote a chapter in the book Erewhon Calling: experimental sound in New Zealand.
She is currently based in Lyttelton, New Zealand.
