Is There Really a Place on Radio for Experimentation?
Radio, as a heterogeneous mix of technological progress and aestheticised desire, goes far beyond being merely a medium of communication. This series of podcasts aims to highlight this fact, offering a selection within the wide variety of topics currently being explored, most notably the confluences and limits and the possibilities of dissemination and the presence of silenced histories.
Depending on the chosen historical and theoretical paradigm, multiple and even contradictory histories of radiophony can be constructed. Therefore, research starts from a general corpus of concepts which explore, along with a fascination with the medium, a utopian and unconventional treatment: the "Radio-Eye" and the Radio-Pravda manifesto of Dziga Vertov; the public interaction and communication of Bertolt Brecht; William Burroughs' cut-ups and communicative disruption; Velimir Khlebnikov's "The Radio of the Future"; and the concept "Radio Mind" by psychologist Upton Sinclair. As media theorist Allen S. Weiss states: “Radio is not a singular entity but rather a multitude of radios” and "radiophonia is a heterogeneous field encompassing diverse apparatus, practices, forms, and utopias”.
Opposite the canonisation of the field and radiophonic methods, there are people and collectives that opt to keep margins fluid and encourage participation, reflection and interaction through experimental approaches and applications. To invent and reinvent radio is to approach radiophonic space as a creative space. Thus, the series seeks to establish an open and fragmented dialogue with media artists, creators and thinkers on the relationship between radio, society, technology and experimentation through singular and idiosyncratic radio pieces.
Agnès Pe, collage made from images of projects by Shortwave Collective, 2023
Agnès Pe, collage made from images of projects by Christof Migone, 2023
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- Date:
- 14/09/2023
- Production:
- Agnès Pe
- Acknowledgements:
To José Luis Espejo for his careful listening
- License:
- Creative Commons by-nc-nd 4.0
Additional Material
Audio quotes
SevenSixOne-FourEightFourOne by Christof Migone on Telephone pieces (A2 Engineering sound)
- Christof Migone. “SevenSixOne-FourEightFourOne” (1994) in Sound Voice Perform. Errant Bodies Press, Museet For Samtidskunst and Ground Fault Recordings (2005)
- “Entertainment Thru Pain” in Saturday wackedness courtesy CKUT Thru Pain - Dj Gary Worsley radioshow. Available online
- Christof Migone. “Muscle Soléaire 2” in Hole in the Head. Avatar / OHM éditions (1996)
- Christof Migone. “Kipiki” in Hole in the Head. Avatar / OHM éditions (1996)
- Gregory Whitehead and Dan Lander. “Here Comes Everybody” in Various - Resonance Radio Issue. London Musicians’ Collective (1997)
- Gregory Whitehead. “If a Voice Like, Then What?” in Tellus #11 - The Sound of Radio. Tellus cassette (1984)
- Christof Migone. “Mary Maclane” in Hole in the Head. Avatar / OHM éditions (1996)
- Christof Migone. “Danger 1” in Hole in the Head. Avatar / OHM éditions (1996)
- Chantal Dumas. “Les Chantal Dumas” (1994-96) in Various - Rappel: L’Art Téléphonique. Avatar / OHM éditions (1996)
- Christof Migone. “Confession Me, Call 2” in Hole in the Head. Avatar / OHM éditions (1996)
- Christof Migone. “Henri Müller” in Hole in the Head. Avatar / OHM éditions (1996)
- Christof Migone. “Le temps compas 8” in Hole in the Head. Avatar / OHM éditions (1996)
Open Wave-Receiver by Shortwave Collective on Amateur Radio (D2 Radiophonic Data Miming)
- Shortwave Collective. "Open Wave-Receiver" (2021, work developed during Buinho Creative Hub residency)
- Shortwave Collective. "Constellation of Listening" in Radio Art Zone (2022)
- Tetsuo Kagawa. "Natural Radia", performance developed in Vienna and Vancouver (2002)
- Shortwave Collective. "Receive-Transmit-Receive" in Radiophrenia (2020)
- Shortwave Collective. "Foxhole radios and Fencetennas" in Soundcamp (2021)
- Shortwave Collective. "Repetitive Music" in Piksel Fest Bergen (2022)