Biography
Jon Wozencroft started Touch in 1981/2. The intention was to extend the scope of a record label by combining music publishing with the level of curation afforded to fine art, producing a series of audiovisual productions, and the chance to collaborate with New Order, Wire, Joseph Beuys, Cabaret Voltaire, Chris Watson, Mika Vainio, and Fennesz amongst many others.
In the 80s and 90s, Wozencroft worked with Neville Brody on book and exhibition projects, leading to FUSE, one of the first magazines to critically engage with digital culture. In 2012, Taschen published a full documentation of the project, From Invention to Antimatter.
His photography and design work has appeared in publications including Fax Art, Merz to Émigré and Beyond, Shapeshifters, and Cover Art By. He was the publisher of Vagabond (magazine co–edited with Jon Savage, 1992), and the editor/designer of Joy Division's Heart and Soul box set in 1997. In 2005–2007, he co–curated the re-releases of Joy Division's back catalogue and participated in Grant Gee's documentary film on the group’s enduring impact.
Since 2007 he has been art director for Wire, whose 17th LP Mind Hive was released in 2020.
A book of his work, Touch & Fuse, was published in 1999 by the University of Porto, and in 2017, Touch Movements documented his photography and curation of Touch. Liquid Music, a collaboration with Christian Fennesz is one example of moving image work that has been showcased at the BFI, Tate Britain, Sonar, Transmediale, Avanti, and numerous other festivals.
He taught at the Royal College of Art from 1994–2019, specialising in the impact of sound and moving image on design practice. His research with Paul Devereux investigates the power of sound in prehistory with the focus on Preseli, Wales, source of the Stonehenge bluestones: www.landscape-perception.org