Philip Dadson

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title: "Philip Dadson" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1946-births", "elam-art-school-alumni", "musicians-from-auckland", "living-people", "new-zealand-male-songwriters", "visual-music-artists", "new-zealand-contemporary-artists", "new-zealand-experimental-filmmakers", "experimental-composers", "officers-of-the-new-zealand-order-of-merit", "inventors-of-musical-instruments", "new-zealand-musical-instrument-makers", "20th-century-new-zealand-artists", "20th-century-new-zealand-male-artists", "21st-century-new-zealand-artists", "21st-century-new-zealand-male-artists", "20th-century-new-zealand-male-musicians"] description: "New Zealand musician and artist" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Dadson" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary New Zealand musician and artist ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist "]

Field	Value
name	Philip Dadson
background	solo_singer
birth_place	Napier, New Zealand
birth_date	1946
years_active	1968–present
label	Atoll Records, Rattle Records, Flying Nun Records
associated_acts	From Scratch, Scratch Orchestra, Vitamin S
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| name = Philip Dadson | background = solo_singer | birth_place = Napier, New Zealand | birth_date = 1946 | years_active = 1968–present | label = Atoll Records, Rattle Records, Flying Nun Records | associated_acts = From Scratch, Scratch Orchestra, Vitamin S

Philip Dadson (born 1946 in Napier, New Zealand) is a New Zealand musician and artist, who was in the foundation group for the Scratch Orchestra and founder of From Scratch. He lectured at the Elam School of Fine Arts, part of the University of Auckland from 1977, leaving in 2001 to take up full-time art practice.

He co-authored the 2007 book Slap Tubes and other Plosive Aerophones with fellow instrument inventor Bart Hopkin, whose 1998 CD/book Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones had also featured Dadson's group From Scratch.

In 2010 the Wellington Sculpture Trust commissioned Akau Tangi, a wind powered sculpture installed on Cobham Drive, Wellington. The eight poles, some partly submerged in the sea, are each topped with a rotating cone that produce a low level musical note. The rotating cones also have an internal light source powered by the wind driven rotating cones.

In 2015, a feature film documentary titled Sonicsfromscratch (dir. by Simon Ogston and Orlando Stewart), documenting Dadson's career, was premiered at the New Zealand International Film Festival.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Akau_Tangi_by_Phil_Dadson_Wellington_New_Zealand-01.png" caption="''Aku Tangi'' , Phil Dadson, Cobam Drive, Wellington"] ::

Education

Dadson is a Fine Arts graduate in sculpture from the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland. He also obtained a Master of Arts with honours from Nepean, West Sydney University.

Awards and honours

Dadson has received the following awards and honours

• 2001 Arts Foundation Laureate
• 2002-2003 New Zealand Antarctic Artist Fellowship
• 2005 New Zealand Order of Merit for services to art
• 2006 Fulbright-Wallace Arts Trust Award

References

References

1. "Trish Clark Gallery".
2. Hopkin, Bart, 1952-. (2007). "Slap tubes and other plosive aerophones : the greatest music-kaing idea that most people have never heard of". Experimental Musical Instruments.
3. "Akau Tangi".
4. "PHILIP DADSON: SONICS FROM SCRATCH, a doco by SIMON OGSTON and ORLANDO STEWART".
5. "Phil Dadson {{!}} Arts Foundation Laureate".
6. "New Zealand Antarctic Arts Fellows".
7. "The Queen's Birthday Honours List 2005".
8. "Phil Dadson – Fulbright-Wallace Arts Trust Award".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::