Academic Service
Peer Reviewer, Journal of Creative Research Methods (Policy Press / Bristol University Press)
Publications
Journal Article – Helmi, X. (2026). Hospital Noises: Sonic Autobiography and the Embodied Experience of Autistic Auditory Perception – A Transdisciplinary Arts-Practice Inquiry. Journal of Creative Research Methods, 2(1), May 2026. Policy Press / Bristol University Press. Editor’s Choice. https://doi.org/10.1332/30502969Y2026D000000014
Poem – Helmi, X. (2025). To Be Unmade. Indelible Literary and Arts Journal, Issue 9 (Theme: Awakening). London Arts-Based Research Centre. View HERE
Conference Presentations
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2026 (October 17–18). Hospital Noises: Sonic autobiography and the embodied experience of autistic auditory perception Science and Sensibility: Method Meets Art 2026, London Arts-Based Research Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
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2026 (May 16–17). The Numinous Ear: Autistic Listening and Aural Diversity as Sacred Art. Sacred Arts Conference, London Arts-Based Research Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
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2025 (September 5). The Numinous Ear: Autistic Listening and Aural Diversity as a Gateway to the Divine and Sublime. Aural Diversity Annual Conference, MediaCity, Manchester, UK.
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2025 (June 11). The Numinous Ear: Autistic Listening and Aural Diversity as a Gateway to the Divine and Sublime. University of Salford Research Day, Manchester, UK.
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2025 (May 10-11). The Numinous Ear: Autistic Listening and Aural Diversity as a Gateway to the Divine and Sublime. Sacred Arts Conference, London Arts-Based Research Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Academic Distinctions and Scholarships
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Visiting Student, Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge, Lent 2027
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Visiting Student, Cambridge Digital Humanities, University of Cambridge, Michaelmas 2026
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PhD Scholarship The Leverhulme Trust Aural Diversity Doctoral Research (LAURA)
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BAFTA Scholarship- MA Filmmaking (Screen Documentaries) Goldsmiths, University of London.
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Honorary MA Radio Student, granted by Professor Tim Crook, Goldsmiths, University of London.
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Editors' Choice, Journal of Creative Research Methods, Bristol University Press, for the article Hospital Noises (2026)
Research Areas
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Aural diversity and autistic auditory experience
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Transdisciplinary arts-based practice research and creative research methodologies
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Music phenomenology, improvisation, embodiment, and sensory experience
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Multimodal artistic practice: music, film, and poetic inquiry
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Sonic autobiography and hospital machine sounds through music phenomenology
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Numinous and transcendent dimensions of autistic sonic experience
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Sonic agency, affect, and relational experience
About
My PhD sits at the intersection of aural diversity, autistic auditory experience, music, film, poetic inquiry, and phenomenology. My research challenges disembodied models of knowledge by positioning sensory experience as a legitimate site of inquiry. Rather than treating sound as a fixed object of analysis, I approach it as a relational phenomenon emerging through interactions between perception, embodiment, memory, and environment. Through transdisciplinary arts practice, I develop creative and conceptual approaches for articulating auditory experiences that exceed the limits of verbal language.
My academic background spans music, broadcasting, sociology, documentary film, education, and psychotherapeutic counselling. My research employs transdisciplinary arts-based practice research, heuristic inquiry, autoethnographic reflexivity, poetic inquiry, and composition as creative methodologies for investigating alternative modes of listening, perception, and knowledge production
Supervisory Team
Co-Supervisor- Dr. Pavel Prokopič, University of Salford
Experimental film, expanded cinema, film phenomenology, affect theory, poetic film-based practice-as-research
External Advisors
Prof. John Drever Director, LAURA, Cambridge Digital Humanities, University of Cambridge
Soundscape studies, acoustics, sonic arts, listening practices, sound art, and acoustic ecology.
Assoc. Prof. Jon Robson, Department of Philosophy, University of Nottingham
Advisor for The Numinous Ear. Aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion
Dr. Helen Kara, Independent Researcher and Author
Creative research methods, qualitative and participatory inquiry, research ethics, and neurodiversity-affirming research.
Dr. Roula-Marie Dib, Founding Director of London Arts-Based Research Centre, Transdisciplinary arts-based research methodologies, poetic inquiry, creative writing, literature, and Jungian arts and psychology.
Current Research Projects
The Numinous Ear: Autistic Listening and Aural Diversity as a Gateway to the Divine and Sublime — Exploring Sonic Consciousness through Phenomenology, Panpsychism, and Process Philosophy
This project explores how autistic auditory experience may give rise to intense encounters with the numinous — Rudolf Otto’s mysterium tremendum et fascinans — through experiences of awe, terror, mystery, and sublimity. Drawing on Otto’s concept of the numinous and Carl Jung’s later engagement with it through archetypes and individuation, the project explores how autistic relationships with sound may generate transcendental and affective experiences of consciousness.
Autistic listening can involve heightened attunement to sonic textures, patterns, intensities, and sensory details. These experiences resonate with Otto’s dimensions of the numinous: overwhelming power (tremendum), profound mystery (mysterium), and compelling fascination (fascinans). The simultaneous experience of attraction and overwhelm reflects the paradoxical nature of numinous encounters, where sound can become both immersive and transformative.
By positioning autistic auditory experience as a form of embodied knowledge rather than deficit, this project investigates how sound mediates relationships between perception, consciousness, and reality. Informed by Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of embodiment, Ihde’s phenomenology of listening, Nancy’s theories of resonance and process philosophy, the research asks how sound participates in the formation of lived experience: is sound merely perceived, or does it actively shape the realities through which we encounter the world?
Hospital Noises: The Hidden Orchestra of Hospital Machines — Sonic Autobiography and Autistic Listening: A Transdisciplinary Arts-Based Research Inquiry
This project explores autistic auditory experience within hospital environments through a phenomenological, transdisciplinary arts-based research framework, contributing to aural diversity. It combines ward-based field recordings of hospital machine sounds, autoethnographic narrative and intuitive music improvisation informed by Husserl’s epoché and Merleau-Ponty’s embodied perception.
The project proposes hospital machine sounds as carriers of memory, emotion, and sensory meaning and how they can be transformed into compositions and multimodal creative work that convey sensory states shaped by noise pollution. By privileging the body as a site of knowledge, the inquiry considers hospital machine sounds as complex sensory and affective agents.
Education
University of Salford (2024–2028)
PhD in Music/Arts
Leverhulme Trust Aural Diversity Research Doctoral Hub (LAURA)
University of Greenwich (2022–2024)
PGCE (FE, QTLS), Level 7
Goldsmiths, University of London (2018–2020)
MA Filmmaking (Screen Documentary) – BAFTA Reuben Scholar
Honorary MA Radio Student (granted by Professor Tim Crook)
University of Cambridge (2016–2017)
PGCert Child & Adolescent Psychotherapeutic Counselling
Goldsmiths, University of London (2009–2012)
BA Sociology
Teaching and Pedagogic Practice
I have over six years’ experience teaching across secondary, alternative provision, and further education, delivering courses in music, media, social sciences, humanities, and the creative arts.
I hold a PGCE, my teaching is informed by constructivist and humanistic approaches, with a focus on student-centred learning, critical thinking, and inclusive practice. I have extensive experience supporting neurodivergent learners and students with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD), developing adaptive approaches that foster responsive and equitable learning environments.
I have worked as Course Lead, Programme Manager, and lecturer across a range of Level 3 programmes, including Access to Psychology, Access to Social Sciences, Access to Teaching, the RSL Vocal Diploma, and UAL Diplomas in Creative and Performing Arts, with a particular focus on supporting progression to higher education.
