ABOUT

Kayla Elrod is an American-born, Berlin-based sound artist working with the body as an instrument for sonic inquiry. Through constructed props, wearable instruments, and performance-driven research, her work investigates how desire, labor, and waste circulate through acts of touch, movement, and listening. She holds an MA in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts from UdK Berlin and co-founded the Sonic Curiosities and LODE collectives supporting experimental FLINTA* artists. Her practice unfolds as durational performances, installations, and site-specific interventions where sound becomes a method of playful and political transformation.

STATEMENT

Living on a tight budget naturally leads to reflections on value. This is a central theme in my practice: an ongoing exploration into the politics of value; how objects, gestures, and bodies are rendered useful, desirable, or expendable. Working through sound and performance, I employ strategies of repurposing, wearability, and repetitive action to reveal the labor embedded in everyday movement. Drawing from feminist critiques of labor and pleasure activism, I explore how intimacy and exertion are co-opted into economies of productivity and spectacle. By amplifying unstable gestures the work foregrounds precarity as a lived condition and a basis for composition. Listening becomes critical methodology, attuned to the negotiations between body and environment that shape survival and desire. My performances and installations attempt to create spaces where joy emerges as a subversive response to constraint.

CV

EDUCATION

2022 Master of Arts, Sound Studies and Sonic Arts, UdK Berlin
2020 TWIS Fall Intensive Vocal Workshop
2015 Studio Production Certification, RVTV, Southern Oregon University
2014 Bachelor of Science, English and Writing, Southern Oregon University, Magna Cum Laude
2011 Associates of Arts, Arts and Humanities, Los Rios Community College

DISCOGRAPHY

2026 Gong, Fingernails, "Regenbogenfabrik" (Album), recorded and released by New Gravity
2025 Fingernails, Percussion, "BULL" (Album) by Hand, recorded and released by New Gravity
2025 Vocals, Lyrics, "Damp Camp" (Single) by Cum Stick

PERFORMANCES

2025 A Limitless Thought at the Construction Site, Yellow Solo, Berlin, DE
2025 Channel 4 "Zapping", Makeup Project Space, Berlin, DE
2025 Head Bangs, Makeup Project Space, Berlin, DE
2025 Nails Drums, Yellow Solo, Berlin, DE
2025 CumStick, Block1, Berlin, DE
2025 NaVerKehr a bike choir, ZKU, Berlin, DE
2025 CumStick, 48Stunden Neukölln, Gong Room, Berlin, DE
2025 2XL, Richten25, Berlin, DE
2025 PLZ KRUSH Fashion Slow, TRAFO, Szczecin, PL
2025 Das Gift, AADK, Blanca, ES
2025 CLiTBAiT’s Drag Show Biscuits & Glory!, Tipsy Bear, Berlin, DE
2025 Therapy Dog, Schloss Wiepersdorf, DE
2025 Hunger Moon, Nails XL & Alexxx, Kunstraum, Berlin, DE
2025 Local Traffic - 2 Angels & 7 liters of blood, Haus der Statistik, Berlin, DE
2024 Dwellers, nu:sub Adventures in sound, Potsdam, DE
2024 Hold for Three, 90 mil, Berlin, DE
2024 Hold for Three, Kleine Orangerie, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, DE
2024 Gong Performance @ exhibition series 8ight, Frei Raum, Berlin, DE
2024 K+K, Centro Párraga, Murcia, ES
2024 LODE Lemonade, Dinero, Murcia, ES
2023 Hold for Three, Hošek Contemporary, Berlin, DE
2023 K+K, Probensall UdK, Berlin, DE
2023 Cum Stick Boys Bathroom Concert, Berlin, DE
2023 Dwellers, CHB Berlin, DE
2023 K+K, Trixxxter Berlin, DE
2022 Cum Stick, Petersberg Art Space (PAS), Berlin, DE
2022 Cum Stick, Loophole, Berlin, DE
2021 Bald Eve, Countdown Grabowsee Residency, Brandenburg, DE
2021 Strand Straße, Public Performance, Berlin, DE
2020 Within the Shell, Public Performance, Sassnitz, DE
2020 Cymbal Improvisation No. 1, SoundSAbout, Berlin, DE
2020 Temple Mall, Public Performance, Berlin, DE
2020 Space Leaks, Berlin, DE
2019 Maniac, Sonic Curiosities II, Berlin, DE
2019 Partition Composition I: Seen in Parts, Voice in Performative Settings, Berlin, DE
2019 The Red Ink Ones, SoundsAbout, Berlin, DE

EXHIBITIONS

SOLO
2021 In the likeness of, Schöneberger Art Week, Berlin, DE
2021 In the likeness of, Kulturhaus Schwartzsche Villa, Berlin, DE
2020 Exploration in Parts: Part Legs, Aperto Raum, Berlin, DE
2020 Space Leaks, SoundSAbout Gallery, Berlin, DE

GROUP
2025 Młode Wilki 2025, TRAFO, Szczecin, PL
2023 Touch Me LOUD, LODED BODIES, Errant Sound, Berlin, DE
2022 Failed Escape, SPEICHERn, Potsdam, DE
2022 PLZ KRUSH, UdK Masters Thesis Exhibition, Berlin, DE
2022 1,000 Years, HUMP! Film Festival, USA
2021 Windows in two parts, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, Berlin, DE
2020 Alone Time: An Exercise in Self Voyeurism, SoundsAbout Short Streaming Film Festival
2020 Wheel of Fortune, SoundSAbout Gallery, Berlin, DE
2019 Get Me Here, Water~Sound~City SoundSAbout Gallery, Berlin, DE
2019 Happy Birthday, A Hi-Fi Wasteland, Berlin, DE
2019 Underwater Trabi Safari, Tropez Gallery Berlin Art Week, Berlin, DE
2019 1,000 Years, Pussy Power, Brooklyn, NYC, USA
2019 Othello, OSF Audio Theater, Ashland, Oregon, USA
2019 ORDER #113-9681496-3969028, HFBK Installation, Hamburg, DE / Digital Soup, Boston, MA, USA
2019 ORDER #113-9681496-3969028, Digital Soup, Boston, MA, USA
2019 Experiment 2039475t982, UdK Final Art Practice Exhibition, Berlin, DE
2018 Detour, Public Sound Installation, Berlin, DE
2018 You’re Cool, ARGH Show, Berlin, DE
2018 CAST, b4sex.org Exhibition, Brooklyn, NY, USA
2016 Square Struggles, Thorndike Gallery, Ashland, OR, USA
2016 Love Affair With Square II, Oregon Fringe Festival, Ashland, OR, USA
2016 Love Affair With Square, Flixx Festival, Ashland, OR, USA
2016 Map Unaided, Blackfish Gallery, Portland, OR, USA

CURATION

2025 A Limitless Thought at the Construction Site, Coreographer, Performer
2024 Night of Performances @ Centro Párraga, LODE Collective, Collective Member
2023 LODED BODIES, LODE Collective, Collective Member
2021 Sonic Curiosities VI, Sonic Curiosities Collective, Collective Member
2021 Sonic Curiosities VI Workshop, Sonic Curiosities Collective, Collective Member
2020 SoundsAbout, Exhibition Series, Committee Member
2020 Sonic Curiosities V, Sonic Curiosities Collective, Collective Member
2020 SoundsAbout, Exhibition Series, Committee Member
2020 Sonic Curiosities III, Sonic Curiosities Collective, Collective Member
2019 A HIFI WASTELAND, Group Show
2019 SoundsAbout, Exhibition Series, Committee Member
2019 Sonic Curiosities II, Sonic Curiosities Collective, Collective Member
2019 Sonic Curiosities I, Sonic Curiosities Collective, Collective Member
2018 THE ARGH SHOW, Group Show

RESIDENCIES

2025 Młode Wilki / Tekhné Sound Session, Szczecin, PL
2025 AADK, Blanca, ES
2025 Sound Art Lab, Struer, DK
2025 Schloss Wiepersdorf, DE
2025 Movement Space Pankow, DE
2024 AADK Centro Negra, Blanca, ES
2021 Countdown Grabowsee, Brandenburg, DE
2020 DIY Residency, Island of Rügen, DE

PUBLICATIONS

2023 SPEICHERN, Katalog anlässlich der Ausstellung, Kunstraum Potsdam
2021 PASCAL, Universität der Künste Berlin
2020 water≈sound≈city, Francisco Petrucci

INTERVIEWS

2025 Glissando Magazine for Tekhné Sound Session '25
2025 High Pitch Magazine Interview by Bec Gallo for “Hold for Three”
2024 Conversation with LODE mediated by Aurora Rodriguez @ Dinero, ES
2021 Podcast Schwartzsche Villa Folge 05

WORKSHOPS

2025 Take Your Shirt Off! Workshop, 48Stunden Neukölln, Berlin, DE
2021 Deep Digital Space Listening, UdK, Berlin, DE

PRODUCTION EXPERIENCE

2020–Present Talkbox Productions, Audio Specialist
2018–Present Freelance Engineer / Sound Designer
2018 Spoke Media, Post Production
2016–2017 Relative Being Productions, Founder
2015–2016 PodcastOne Thrilling Tales, Recording Engineer, Sound Designer
2016–Present Freelance Artist
2014–2018 Blackstone Audio Ink, Recording Engineer
2014–2018 KSKQ Community Radio, DJ, Co-Host, Music Director

AWARDS

2024 Goethe Institute Culture Moves Europe Mobility Grant
2023 Initiative für Neue Musik (INM), Project funding, Berlin
2023 EDIII Scholarship for Theatrical Intimacy Education
2022 Kultur Räume Berlin, Funded Project Space
2021 Music Board Berlin Grant Recipient
2021 Communicator Awards for Storytelling for Podcasts
2020 MARCOM Gold Award for Individual Episode
2019 Voice Arts Award, Sound Design, Othello
2018 Voice Arts Award, Best Narrator, Nobody Knows My Name
2016 AudioFile Earphones Award, Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone
2015 Voice Art Award, Outstanding Audio Engineering, The Tempest