In 1977, Brophy formed the experimental group → ↑ → more often written as Tsk Tsk Tsk or Tch Tch Tch, with Ralph Traviato, Alan Gaunt and Leigh Parkhill. Sometimes compared to Andy Warhol's Factory, the group produced experimental music, films, videos, and live theatrical performances exploring Brophy's aesthetic and cultural interests, often on a minimal budget. Over the ten years of the group's operation it involved over sixty of Brophy's friends and acquaintances including musician David Chesworth, and visual artistsMaria Kozic and Jayne Stevenson. They performed in a wide range of Australian venues including pubs, galleries, university campuses and the Clifton Hill Community Music Centre. They also performed or exhibited in Europe, including London's ICA. Brophy dissolved the group in the late 1980s, issuing a retrospective book "Made by → ↑ →", but continued to work with Kozic for some time. In 1980, he founded the Innocent Records label with fellow Melbourne musician David Chesworth. Throughout the early 1980s, Brophy wrote numerous compositions and multi-media pieces. In the late 1990s, Brophy founded the Sound Punch label, and released both solo works, and collaborations with Maria Kozic, Bill McDonald, and fellow RMIT academic Philip Samartzis.
Film
After the dissolution of → ↑ →, with whom Brophy had made numerous collaborative film and video works, he set his ambitions on making higher budget films, and became more involved in sound design. In 1988 he made an experimental short filmSalt, Saliva, Sperm and Sweat. His first feature film, Body Melt, was released in 1993, and was funded by the Australian Film Commission and Film Victoria. Two short films were produced in 2004, The Sound Of Milk and Words In My Mouth - Voices In My Head.
Academia
Brophy has had works published in journals such as Virgin Press, Art & Text and Fast Forward and has presented papers at various film conferences since the early 1980s. He began teaching sound and media at the Phillip Institute of Technology in 1982. He began teaching cinema studies at RMIT in 1986.
Other activities
Between 1985 and 2002 he co-presented, with Bruce Milne, the irreverent cultural theory and music radio show Eeek!, on Melbourne radio station3RRR. At the time it was the most popular show on the station. Brophy has regularly written for The Wire magazine about film soundtracks, also Film Comment. He was the director of the Cinesonic International Conference on Film Scores & Sound Design, and has edited three journals from the conference. He has had two books published by the British Film Institute, including 100 Anime, exploring Japanese animation. Philip Brophy has also exhibited his artworks in Art Galleries for exhibitions such as 'Vox' and the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne.
