Stuart Buchanan is a cultural programmer, music curator and occasional artist.

Born and raised in Scotland, he now lives in the Blue Mountains, on the lands of the Darug people.

Stuart works as Head of Screen for Sydney Opera House and runs the experimental music label New Weird Australia and its companion series, New Editions. He previously founded and curated the Provenance and Wood And Wire record labels, and has programmed many music events across Sydney.

As a broadcaster, Stuart has presented the New Weird Australia podcast, as well as programs on ABC Double J, FBi Radio and UK station Resonance FM, and was the recipient of a National Community Broadcasting Award for ‘Excellence In Music Programming’. He was formerly Chair of Underbelly Arts and General Manager of FBi Radio.

As an artist, he has staged performance works and interventions in London and Glasgow, released a number of albums and soundtracks, and published outsider manifestos, tracts and essays.

In 2010 Stuart co-founded The Nest, an award-winning creative agency for the arts and creative industries, which was acquired by Frost in 2014. He has led web and digital projects for artists such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Depeche Mode and Goldfrapp, winning an MTV Europe Web Award in 2003.

Although Scottish, he is not the Scottish visual artist Stuart Buchanan, nor has he written books about lighthouses, nor was he a voice actor for Disney. But those Stuart Buchanans are most likely great.

Contact: mail at stuartbuchanan dot com.


Photo by Daniel Boud.


Selected Work:

Sydney Opera House, Commissions for Screen & Stage

  • Music of the Sails, UNSW & Uncanny Valley, 2023

  • Sonic Mutations, Kopi Su with Salvage & Alexis Weaver, 2023
  • Body Pipelines, Harrison Hall, 2023

  • Shortwave – New Digital Commissions, Brad Darkson, Nasim Patel, JD Reforma, Claudia Nicholson, Riana Head-Toussaint, Feras Shaheen, 2023
  • DOKU – The Binary World, Lu Yang with Exhibitionist & Metaobjects, 2022
  • Traces, Kamsani Bin Salleh & Kirli Saunders, with Magabala & Google Creative Lab, 2022
  • Apotheosis, Serwah Attafuah x Soft Centre, 2021
  • R+J RMX, Omelia, 2021

Sydney Opera House, Seasons & Series

  • 50/50 – 50th Birthday Archival Season, 2023
  • Outlines Digital Performance Season, Lu Yang, Claire L Evans, Harrison Hall, Queer Powerpoint, Christian Ramilo, Ana Tiquia, Tiyan Baker and Matt Cornell, 2023
  • Up Next, Jazz Money, Ashli, Liz Kingsman, Ziggy Ramo, Rainbow Chan, Michael Mohammed Ahmad, 2022-2023
  • In Session, The Necks, HTRK, Brodsky Quartet, 2022-2023

  • 
Piano Day, Andrea Lam, Amanda Palmer, Ian Munro, Vatche Jambazian & Zubin Kanga, 2022
  • Side By Side, Angela Goh, Corin, Steven Oliver, Ensemble Offspring, 2021-2022
  • UK/AU Digital Season, 2021-2022

  • Liminal: A Music Film Series, Ninajirachi, Blessed, Egoism, Chris Abrahams, 2021
  • Outlines Digital Performance Season, Royal Shakespeare Company, Korean National Contemporary Dance Company, Serwah Attafuah, Soft Centre, Omelia, 2021

  • From Our House To Yours, 2020
  • Piano Day, Nils Frahm, Jon Hopkins, Joep Beving, Margaret Leng Tan, 2020

Experimental Music, Catalogued & Compiled

Broadcast, Narrowcast, Podcast

  • New Weird Australia Podcast, 2009-2021
  • Freak Wave Podcast, 2019
  • Fat Planet ABC Double J, 2017-2018
  • Out From Under Resonance FM, 2016, 2019
  • Repercussions FBi Radio, 2014
  • New Weird Australia FBi Radio, 2009-2012
  • Slang Tang Podcast, 2009
  • Disorient FBi Radio, 2008-2009
  • The Prototype Community Radio Network, 2005
  • Fat Planet FBi Radio, 2003-2008

Performance, Music, Words

  • Esoferric, Dreams of Baiknour, 2022 – music E.P.
  • Unfinished Music No.4: Three Phase Peace, An Imaginary Record by Yoko Ono with Delia Derbyshire and Else Marie Pade, 2018 – text with artwork by Ben Tankard
  • Indefinite Article, 2020 – music compilation; a collection of audio works recorded in Glasgow, London and Sydney between 1992 and 2006
  • Brute Canon, Help Me Remember You, 2017 – music E.P.
  • Soundtrack For An Imaginary Australia, 2010 – audio collage for Sunday Night At The Movies, FBi Radio
  • Kollaps, Fractured, 2008 – music album
  • Dead Format, Symbiotic System, 2006 – soundtrack for Symbiotic System installation by Robyn Buchanan – a geodesic dome constructed of telephone handsets, presented at Sydney College of Fine Arts COFA Annual 2007
  • Dead Format, The Dead Planet (Redux), 2006 – audio commission for Sunday Night At The Movies, FBi Radio
  • Music For Dogs, 2002 – music compilation; a collection of audio works recorded in London & Brighton between 1999 and 2002
  • Kollaps, Traumatic Acid, 2002 – music album
  • The Foundation For Art In Zero Gravity, Lying In The Gutters, Looking At The Stars, 2000 – performance / lecture at Space Art Forum, London
  • Done & Dusted, 1999 – text / installation, East India Docks, London
  • Scrubber, 1999 – short fiction & prose poetry collection, published by The Foundation Imprint
  • The Foundation For Art In Zero Gravity, Year Zero / Polaroid Haiku, 1999 – text / performance / photography, Central College St. Martins, London
  • The Foundation For Art In Zero Gravity, This Is My Confession, 1999 – performance / text / installation, Strike, London
  • Nomad Association of Autonomous Astronauts, Escape From Dimensionality , 1998 – performance / lecture at Clerkenwell Literary Festival, Farringdon, London

Live Music Programming

  • Filthy Children At The Sydney Fringe Sydney, 2012
  • Vagrant #1-8, Sydney, Brisbane, Newcastle, Perth, Adelaide, 2012
  • Unpopular Music, Scattered Order, Thomas William Vs Scissor Lock, Strange Forces, Zeahorse, Secret Birds, Sydney, 2011
  • New Weird Australia Live Rites Wild, Black Vanilla & Pimmon, Sydney, 2011
  • New Weird Australia at FBi Social, Underlapper, Domeyko/gonzales, Savages, Shoeb Ahmad, Edwin Montgomery, Sydney, 2011
  • Axxonn National Tour Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Devonport, Toowoomba, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne , 2011
  • Unpopular Music Scattered Order, Stitched Vision, Mere Women, Tantrums, Sydney, 2010
  • Sound Series Tailings, Aemon Webb, Dual Uzis, Lucia Draft, Blake Freele, Kim Ono, Sydney, 2010
  • New Weird Australia Live Erasers, Anonymeye, Ambrose Chapel, Sydney, 2010
  • Refraction (w Emily McDaniel) Tom Hall, Horse Macgyver, Kusum Normoyle, Sydney, 2010

  • New Weird Australia Paint Your Golden Face, Alps, Caught Ship, Karoshi, Sydney, 2010
  • Unpopular Music Red Rattler, with Pimmon & Jeff Burch, Kyu, Anna Chase, Anon, Scissor Lock, Sydney, 2009
  • New Weird Australia At Sound Summit Holy Balm, Kyu, Moonmilk, Castings, Blastcorp, Newcastle, 2009

Digital Production, Selected

  • Stream, Sydney Opera House, 2020-Present
  • Digital Strategy Masterclass The Guardian, 2015-2017
  • Identity & Strategy, MTNS MADE, 2015-2016
  • Mobile Strategy, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2015
  • Summer of the Seventeenth Doll Digital Publication, Currency Press, 2014
  • 
Anne Landa Award Digital Catalogue, Art Gallery of NSW, 2014
  • 
Indigenous Tablet App, Art Gallery of NSW, 2014
  • Cuttings – Digital Journal of New Writing Editor, 2013-2014
  • 
Websites, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi-Gras, 2013-2014

  • Website & Creative Strategy, Underbelly Arts, 2013-2014

  • Website, Sydney Dance Company, 2013
  • 13 Rooms Website, Kaldor Public Art Projects, 2013
  • Contemporary Tablet App, Art Gallery of NSW, 2013
  • Mobile Apps, MONA FOMA Festival, 2012-2013
  • Websites, Sydney Writers Festival, 2011-2012
  • Websites & Mobile Apps, Sydney Festival, 2010-2014
  • Website, 17th Biennale of Sydney, 2010
  • Aphrodite Website, Kylie Minogue 2010

  • Head First Website, Goldfrapp, 2010
  • Stadium Arcadium Website, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, 2006
  • Supernature Website, Goldfrapp, 2005-2006 
Remixes 81:04
  • Website, Depeche Mode, 2004 

  • Website, Gronland Records, 2003-2004 

  • Black Cherry Website, Goldfrapp, 2003-2004

  • Website, Siobhan Davies Dance Company, 2002-2003