Radio art
Encyclopedia
Radio art refers to the use of radio
for art
. "Radio Art implies that the artist
who works in, and with, radio is not necessarily a trained DJ, programmer, producer, engineer, or personality, but one who uses sound to make art and seeks ways to transit it through radio as art. The act and process suggests that the radio medium can be used in an alternative way (even shaped as a material), in relation to its familiar use."
In that sense, the way the message is transmitted and received by an audience is as important as the message itself. "As an aural art form it reaffirms that it's not just what we say, but the way we say it." In Victoria Fenner's words, "Radio art is art which is specifically composed for the medium of radio and is uniquely suited to be transmitted via the airwaves."
Artists use radio technology (i.e. radio transmission
, airwaves...) to communicate artistic compositions for interpretation – exposing their audience to alternate means to experiencing their art through sound
verses visualization. Radio Art contributes to new media art - a digitally driven art movement growing in response to the informative technological revolution we live in. “From the artist's point of view radio is an environment to be entered into and acted upon, a site for various cultural voices to meet, converse, and merge in. These artists cross disciplines, raid all genres and recontextualize them into hybrids.”
Radio Art projects can be collaborative including various professional sources, unifying an audio
broadcast with science, experimentation, geography, entertainment, etc." Some have approached radio as an architectural space to be constructed sonically and linguistically; or as the site of an event, an arena, or stage. Some used it as a gathering place, or a conduit, a means to create community. Other artists have employed the media
landscape itself as the narrative, while others looked into the body as the site and the source; the voicebox, the larynx become medium and metaphor."
Radio Art media:
Radio Waves
, Satellites, Synthesized Speech, Human Vocals, Radio Telescopes, Computers, World Wide Web
, Sound Equipment
Traditional genres of Radio Art include:
radio documentary
, radio drama
, soundscape
, sound art
, electroacoustic music
, sound poetry
, performance
, open source
, translation
, interviews
, audio galleries, soundscape
, sound art
, electroacoustic music
, sound poetry
intended for the radio, spoken word
, concerts, experimental narratives, sonic geographies, pseudo documentaries, radio cinema, conceptual and multimedia
performances intended for the radio.
, there are few lasting experiences in the underground or community side such as London's ResonanceFM which intend to make radio with art and promote the art of listening.
Also, radio had renewed itself through the Internet
. The audio streaming technique had replaced the analogue transmitting system and artists can experiment on radio outside the legal constraints of an FM license for example.
Among the webradios which are dedicated to radio art, some broadcast pieces like traditional radios. Some others directly experiment with the medium in the more concrete sense. Radio Astronomy broadcast
sounds taken from outer space in real time. Le Poulpe is a networking experimental radio that mix several "spaces" processed and streamed through the Internet.
Besides, podcasting
can be considered as a new way of broadcasting
, thus a new way of bringing radio art to listeners. Of the on-demand kind, SilenceRadio.org is a website which publish sound
pieces which explore the different genres of radio art or intend to question the manners of making radio art today. The Ràdio Web MACBA Curatorial series also experiments with the radio art format.
"The origins of radio are deeply rooted in a very idealistic socialist potential to provide the communication necessary to connect people across space and time. At the beginning of the 20th century, radio was the equivalent to the Internet today in terms of its social as well as political possibilities. However, its development into a highly hierarchical system with expensive licensing fees and severe punishments for violations of these laws in order to protect certain industries has resulted in radio space being controlled by guardians of commerce. Radio licensing laws are concerned with the protection of copyrighted material. Radio has the potential to be a completely liberated, mobile and inhabited mass media
."
By: Jacques Foschia and Tetsuo Kogawa
A streaming and networked feedback performance between Jacques Foschia (Brussels) and Tetsuo Kogawa (Tokyo).
Free Radio Linux
By: Radioqualia
Free Radio Linux was an open source, performance and sound project. A kind of spoken-word performance, where a programmed “speech.bot” (software that converts text into a synthesized human voice) was to recite all 4,141,432 lines of the source code of the kernel, or core, of the Linux operating system.
LINES OF SIGHT #7. Radio Incarné. Yasunao Tone and Tetsuo Kogawa
By: Barbara Held and Pilar Subirà
A collaboration by the philosopher and pioneer of mini FM radio, Tetsuo Kogawa (Tokyo), and sound artist and exFluxus Yasunao Tone (New York), based on an email exchange on radioart.
Radio-System - audio without shores. Art and Production: Ruben Marino Tolosa. San Justo - Santa Fe - Argentina.
"AIR / EAR" is the assembly of a radio transmission in a / a space / cultural hall of a small town in rural Argentina. Over the years my relationship with the radio, I was penetrating into the ambient sound of space around me constantly, in everyday life and transmission of these devices, like having a pair of headphones built all the time. This combination made in time I discovered the term radio art and began to investigate.
"AIR / EAR" joins two English terms related to the transmission and listening to together form a Spanish word, meaning fresh, oxygenation and giving to know one thing.
"AIR / EAR is through sound show the different ways in which the radio art grows, so by means of a call over the Internet are invited to participate in this event, transforming it into a sample collectively.
"AIR / EAR" arises to make known a new art form, the radio art through sound public places and means of communication.
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
for art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
. "Radio Art implies that the artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
who works in, and with, radio is not necessarily a trained DJ, programmer, producer, engineer, or personality, but one who uses sound to make art and seeks ways to transit it through radio as art. The act and process suggests that the radio medium can be used in an alternative way (even shaped as a material), in relation to its familiar use."
In that sense, the way the message is transmitted and received by an audience is as important as the message itself. "As an aural art form it reaffirms that it's not just what we say, but the way we say it." In Victoria Fenner's words, "Radio art is art which is specifically composed for the medium of radio and is uniquely suited to be transmitted via the airwaves."
Artists use radio technology (i.e. radio transmission
Transmission (telecommunications)
Transmission, in telecommunications, is the process of sending, propagating and receiving an analogue or digital information signal over a physical point-to-point or point-to-multipoint transmission medium, either wired, optical fiber or wireless...
, airwaves...) to communicate artistic compositions for interpretation – exposing their audience to alternate means to experiencing their art through sound
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
verses visualization. Radio Art contributes to new media art - a digitally driven art movement growing in response to the informative technological revolution we live in. “From the artist's point of view radio is an environment to be entered into and acted upon, a site for various cultural voices to meet, converse, and merge in. These artists cross disciplines, raid all genres and recontextualize them into hybrids.”
Radio Art projects can be collaborative including various professional sources, unifying an audio
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
broadcast with science, experimentation, geography, entertainment, etc." Some have approached radio as an architectural space to be constructed sonically and linguistically; or as the site of an event, an arena, or stage. Some used it as a gathering place, or a conduit, a means to create community. Other artists have employed the media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
landscape itself as the narrative, while others looked into the body as the site and the source; the voicebox, the larynx become medium and metaphor."
Origins
- RadioRadioRadio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
- ArtArtArt is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
- New Media ArtNew media artNew media art is a genre that encompasses artworks created with new media technologies, including digital art, computer graphics, computer animation, virtual art, Internet art, interactive art, computer robotics, and art as biotechnology...
- Digital ArtDigital artDigital art is a general term for a range of artistic works and practices that use digital technology as an essential part of the creative and/or presentation process...
- Sound ArtSound artSound art is a diverse group of art practices that considers wide notions of sound, listening and hearing as its predominant focus. There are often distinct relationships forged between the visual and aural domains of art and perception by sound artists....
- Electronic ArtElectronic artElectronic art is a form of art that makes use of electronic media or, more broadly, refers to technology and/or electronic media. It is related to information art, new media art, video art, digital art, interactive art, internet art, and electronic music...
- FuturismFuturismFuturism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
- Rudolf Arnheim
- Antonin ArtaudAntonin ArtaudAntoine Marie Joseph Artaud, more well-known as Antonin Artaud was a French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director...
- Pierre SchaefferPierre SchaefferPierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician of the 20th century. His innovative work in both the sciences —particularly communications and acoustics— and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end...
- Bertolt BrechtBertolt BrechtBertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
- Tetsuo Kogawa
Medium
This list is a summary of the examples found in the references accompanying this article.Radio Art media:
Radio Waves
Radio Waves
Radio Waves may refer to:* Radio waves, not to be confused with radio frequency, a separate article on the behaviour of radio waves in space etc.* Radio Frequency, ie, radio waves of the Electromagnetic spectrum...
, Satellites, Synthesized Speech, Human Vocals, Radio Telescopes, Computers, World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
, Sound Equipment
Styles/Genres
This list is a summary of the examples found in the references accompanying this article.Traditional genres of Radio Art include:
radio documentary
Radio documentary
A radio documentary or feature is a purely acoustic performance devoted to covering a particular topic in some depth, usually with a mixture of commentary and sound pictures. It is broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD...
, radio drama
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
, soundscape
Soundscape
A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology...
, sound art
Sound art
Sound art is a diverse group of art practices that considers wide notions of sound, listening and hearing as its predominant focus. There are often distinct relationships forged between the visual and aural domains of art and perception by sound artists....
, electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
, sound poetry
Sound poetry
Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging between literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words"...
, performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
, open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
, translation
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
, interviews
Interviews
Interviews is:# the plural form of "interview"# a compilation album by Bob Marley & the Wailers, see Interviews # a C++ toolkit for the X Window System, see InterViews...
, audio galleries, soundscape
Soundscape
A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology...
, sound art
Sound art
Sound art is a diverse group of art practices that considers wide notions of sound, listening and hearing as its predominant focus. There are often distinct relationships forged between the visual and aural domains of art and perception by sound artists....
, electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music
Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...
, sound poetry
Sound poetry
Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging between literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words"...
intended for the radio, spoken word
Spoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
, concerts, experimental narratives, sonic geographies, pseudo documentaries, radio cinema, conceptual and multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
performances intended for the radio.
Art radio and webradio
An art radio is a radio station that would dedicate every second of its transmission time to radio art. Although this kind of project can seem utopian in the traditional state of radioRadio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, there are few lasting experiences in the underground or community side such as London's ResonanceFM which intend to make radio with art and promote the art of listening.
Also, radio had renewed itself through the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. The audio streaming technique had replaced the analogue transmitting system and artists can experiment on radio outside the legal constraints of an FM license for example.
Among the webradios which are dedicated to radio art, some broadcast pieces like traditional radios. Some others directly experiment with the medium in the more concrete sense. Radio Astronomy broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast or Broadcasting may refer to:* Broadcasting, the transmission of audio and video signals* Broadcast, an individual television program or radio program* Broadcast , an English electronic music band...
sounds taken from outer space in real time. Le Poulpe is a networking experimental radio that mix several "spaces" processed and streamed through the Internet.
Besides, podcasting
Podcasting
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
can be considered as a new way of broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
, thus a new way of bringing radio art to listeners. Of the on-demand kind, SilenceRadio.org is a website which publish sound
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
pieces which explore the different genres of radio art or intend to question the manners of making radio art today. The Ràdio Web MACBA Curatorial series also experiments with the radio art format.
"The origins of radio are deeply rooted in a very idealistic socialist potential to provide the communication necessary to connect people across space and time. At the beginning of the 20th century, radio was the equivalent to the Internet today in terms of its social as well as political possibilities. However, its development into a highly hierarchical system with expensive licensing fees and severe punishments for violations of these laws in order to protect certain industries has resulted in radio space being controlled by guardians of commerce. Radio licensing laws are concerned with the protection of copyrighted material. Radio has the potential to be a completely liberated, mobile and inhabited mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
."
Radio Art Experiments and Project Examples
Transversal PerformanceBy: Jacques Foschia and Tetsuo Kogawa
A streaming and networked feedback performance between Jacques Foschia (Brussels) and Tetsuo Kogawa (Tokyo).
Free Radio Linux
By: Radioqualia
Free Radio Linux was an open source, performance and sound project. A kind of spoken-word performance, where a programmed “speech.bot” (software that converts text into a synthesized human voice) was to recite all 4,141,432 lines of the source code of the kernel, or core, of the Linux operating system.
LINES OF SIGHT #7. Radio Incarné. Yasunao Tone and Tetsuo Kogawa
By: Barbara Held and Pilar Subirà
A collaboration by the philosopher and pioneer of mini FM radio, Tetsuo Kogawa (Tokyo), and sound artist and exFluxus Yasunao Tone (New York), based on an email exchange on radioart.
Radio art programs
A few examples of radio art regular programs.- Ars Sonora is a Spanish weekly radio-art show on Radio ClásicaRNE Radio ClásicaRadio Clásica is a Spanish radio station, owned and operated by Radio Nacional de España, formerly known as Radio 2. Broadcast Classical music 24 hours a day.-External links:*...
(Radio Nacional de EspañaRadio Nacional de Españais Spain's national public radio service. Since 1973 it has formed, together with , a part of , the corporation responsible for managing national public-service broadcasting in Spain.-Origins of RNE:...
) since 1985, directed by Miguel Álvarez-FernándezMiguel Álvarez-FernándezMiguel Álvarez-Fernández is a sound artist, composer, theorist and curator based between Madrid and Berlin, where he has taught at the Electronic Music Studio of the Technical University of Berlin...
.
- Radio Art http://www.radioart.gr is a non-profit internet music station, broadcasting live from Athens, playing Jazz, World, Poetry, Classical and Greek Art music. The music played is carefully chosen with basic criteria the quality, the poetic verse and the meticulous stream, since 2006, directed by Lambros Mitropoulos.
- RadiaRadiaStarted in April 2005, the Radia network is an international informal network of community radio stations that have a common interest in producing and sharing art works for the radio. In 2010, the network gathers 17 radio stations from 15 cities across 11 countries, speaking 7 different languages....
is an international network of community radio stations that share a common interest in radio art. As a regular project it commissions a weekly radio art program and also participates and promote radio art related events.
- Kunstradio is an Austrian weekly radio-art show on ÖRFORFORF may refer to:* ORF , the Austrian public service broadcaster.* Open reading frame, a portion of the genome.* The IATA airport code for Norfolk International Airport in Norfolk, Virginia.* ORF format , Olympus raw image file format....
since 1987. See also this page for a long list of international radio-artists.
- Atelier de création radiophonique is a French weekly radio-art show on France CultureFrance CultureFrance Culture is a French public radio channel and part of Radio France. Its programming encompasses a wide variety of features on historical, philosophical, sociopolitical, and scientific themes , as well as literary readings, radio plays, and experimental productions...
since 1969.
- Something Else is a weekly 4 hour program of Radio Art, Sound Art and Experimental music hosted by Philip von Zweck on WLUWWLUWWLUW is a college radio station owned and operated by Loyola University Chicago, serving Chicago, Illinois and its northern suburbs. WLUW was founded by Jim Wagner and Michael Russo in the 1970s and they ran the station until Loyola University offered more funding and support...
in Chicago since 1995.
- Radio-System is a work of art by and for the radio (since 2009), in the context of radio art coined as ... radio art as a medium and tool in the construction and expression of the daily realities. The System Radio-study, workshop, home, context of the artist to the radio in a podcast, genre spreading through soundscapes, sound poetry, audio galleries, etc ... and rock culture's aesthetic experimentation in musical genres such as ambient, noise, drone, experimental, minimalism, low-fi, shoegaze ...
Radio-System - audio without shores. Art and Production: Ruben Marino Tolosa. San Justo - Santa Fe - Argentina.
Radio Art events
- Radiophonic Art Radio festival happening in Brussels (BE)
- RadiaLx International Radio Art Festival happening every two years in Lisboa(PT)
- Arts Birthday Annual Art Radio event happening in several stations worldwide.
- Reinventing The Dial : Explorations In Experimental Radio Practice Radio art symposium at Canterbury Christ Church University
- AIR / EAR – Radio Installation. June-July – 2011. First collective installation of radio art and sound art, San Justo, Santa Fe, Argentina. About "AIR / EAR" installation. Art & production: Radio-System.
"AIR / EAR" is the assembly of a radio transmission in a / a space / cultural hall of a small town in rural Argentina. Over the years my relationship with the radio, I was penetrating into the ambient sound of space around me constantly, in everyday life and transmission of these devices, like having a pair of headphones built all the time. This combination made in time I discovered the term radio art and began to investigate.
"AIR / EAR" joins two English terms related to the transmission and listening to together form a Spanish word, meaning fresh, oxygenation and giving to know one thing.
"AIR / EAR is through sound show the different ways in which the radio art grows, so by means of a call over the Internet are invited to participate in this event, transforming it into a sample collectively.
"AIR / EAR" arises to make known a new art form, the radio art through sound public places and means of communication.
External links
- http://www.ubu.com/sound/tellus_11.htmlweb archive of radio art at Tellus Audio Cassette MagazineTellus Audio Cassette MagazineLaunched from the Lower East Side, Manhattan, in 1983 as a subscription only bimonthly publication, the Tellus cassette series took full advantage of the popular cassette medium to promote cutting-edge downtown music, documenting the New York scene and advancing experimental composers of the time...
at UbuwebUbuWebUbuWeb is a large web-based educational resource for avant-garde material available on the internet, founded in 1996 by poet Kenneth Goldsmith. It offers visual, concrete and sound poetry, expanding to include film and sound art mp3 archives.-Philosophy:...
] - Radia network web archive
- http://www.radioart.net
- http://live.radioartemobile.it
- http://www.kunstradio.at
- http://radio.jupitter-larsen.com
- http://www.radio-arte.com
- http://www.radiosystem.com.ar
- http://www.romaradioartfair.it
- Reinventing The Dial audio podcast and abstracts from Radio Art symposium