Dr Michael Mc Loughlin

I make soundwork, drawings, video, sculptural objects and have been doing so since the mid 1990’s. Over this time, I have developed an audio-cartographic process that examines the inter-relationships between the aesthetic, the ethical and the relational.

At the core of this artwork is an interest in conversational form, in the phenomenological sense, and the methods of aesthetic representation of talk, and social interaction. It is a practice rooted in observation, and representation of observable through mapping, drawing and sound-based works. It is an ethnomethodological approach to art making that examines how ‘making sense’ occurs. I have been increasing looking at mapmaking as a subjective and intersubjective act. It can invoke acts of coercion, control and division, or acts shared understanding and community. Boundaries, Borders, and Belonging, all share a complicated logic in today society, and I aim to make artwork that enables me to understand these spaces better. 

I have created soundworks, drawings, videos, and sculptural installations since the mid 1990’s. Much of this artwork has sociological inquiry at its core and frequently examines the mechanisms of social interaction and the infrastructures that support them. My work has been commissioned and purchased by many public and private institutions and collections. I hold a BA in Fine Art (LSAD 1994) and a PhD in Sociology (UCD, 2022). 

I have made site-specific work in Limerick (Cumann: An Audio Map of Limerick, Limerick City Gallery of Art), Drogheda (Cumann, Droichead Arts Centre; Beyond the Pale, Highlanes), and Dublin (Rest Here, UCD Sutherland School of Law; Ocean Wonder, Resort Revelations, Portrane). I was the inaugural UCD College of Social Science & Law Artist-in-Residence (2015) and Artist-in-Residence with Dublin City Council 2017/18; Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia (2019); Rūcka, Cēsis, Latvia (2019/20); PRAKSIS Oslo, Norway (2018). I was Artist in Residence in Draíocht Arts Centre, Blanchardstown (2017-2019) and presented civic soundworks in Cēsis, Latvia (2021) and Ennistymon (2023) in the public realm.

I am currently commissioned artist on EUROBORDERWALKS, a University College Cork, Europe-wide sociological project (PI Prof. Maggie O’Neill) funded by Research Ireland. In 2026, I am also developing work on two islands on opposite sides of the Atlantic border: at Áras Éanna, the EU’s most westerly arts centre, on Inis OÍrr, and in the US on Governors Island, New York.