Goblin Market
Goblin Market ran twice, once at the Allan Gardens Children’s Conservatory in
March 2025, and again at GU, Montreal in April 2025.
“At Goblin Market, artists don’t just show their work—they make memories with strangers, barter with bones and jokes, and dare to be unhinged with love. This isn’t just about art—it’s about organizing care, claiming space, and learning to gift again.” – Luisa Ji, Goblin Market co-creator and Studio Director at UKAI Projects.
Learn more about Goblin Market’s initial intentions here.
Choose a project
Sonic Memories
I offered Sonic Memories as emailed gifts to loved ones. Two microphones were set up in the general marketplace to sonify the energy of the room. I added live effects to the sounds and fed them back into the space as a way to offer a joyful reflection of the acoustic experience to attendees. I also had two vocal microphones set up, one for myself and one for participants. My prompt to compelled participants was to consider a message to a being, past-present-future, and to speak-whisper-sing that message into their microphone. While they did that, I improvised with their message using effects on their voice, playing with synthesizers and my voice. I recorded the shared moment, including the room microphones, and sent that sonic keepsake to their recipient of choice via email.
I received feedback that the messages were exciting and moving to express and receive, sometimes giving participants the opportunity to reconnect with someone they hadn’t felt able to reach out to for some time. The goal of these sonic memories was to open up those pathways for connection through sound, play and personal expression. It was a tender project!
A short example of a sonic memory
Goblin Deck
As part of the Montreal iteration of Goblin Market, I created a deck of sonic experiences based on resonant and relevant Market themes.
Goblin Flock
I created three soundscapes for the Goblin Flock dancers to move to. Working with Abbey Richens of Meaningful Movement, I was asked to follow this score: solo reflection, duo connections, and group movement, opening up to a participatory dance with all attendees. The soundscapes incorporated goblin themes, as well as field recordings shared by another collaborating artist of the Goblin Market, Tricia Enns. Below is the audio for the duo connections movement, followed by moments of the other soundscapes on video.
Goblin Karaoke
In careful collaboration with the Croonify app, I hosted Goblin Karaoke as a parody to hypercapitalist cultures of music-making. Goblin-ifying both the sounds (screeches) and lyrics of 25 pop hits, I was most excited by the laughs and looks of confusion. Even Goblin Pop can bring joy…try one out for yourself!
