Jenny Barnes (born Adelaide, Australia, 1981) is a vocalist, performer and video maker based in Melbourne. Barnes achieved a Masters Degree in Applied Linguistics and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance and has studied under the tutelage of predominant vocalists in New York City, Lisboa, Berlin and Oslo. Barnes has travelled extensively throughout rural Australia, Western Europe and Scandinavia gathering fuel for her work into the musicality of language and she is currently undertaking formal study of AUSLAN. Jennyʼs work has featured alongside that of Meredith Monk (USA), Jaap Blonk (Netherlands), Fatima Miranda (Spain) and Amanda Stewart (Australia) among others, in ‘Vocal Folds’ an exhibition at Melbourneʼs prestigious Gertrude Contemporary.

Barnes examines and mimics field recordings of Arctic mammals and domestic pets to achieve an extensive and diverse vocal capacity. Barnes then studies the rhythmic cadences and pitch modulations of human languages and applies her findings to an improvisatory musical context.