Over the last 100 years, no medium has influenced and shaped listening more than radio - worldwide. Therefore, the complexity and influence of this medium can only be revealed by taking a look at the world.

How can maps of transcultural listening be drawn? How does listening overcome geopolitical borders to create new spaces? In order to investigate the power of radio in its ability to network, Nathalie Singer and her team at the Experimental Radio Department of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar collected international projects, initiatives and audiovisual content on the subject of radio and listening. As radio waves transcend territorial borders, these projects are often networked with each other.

The result of this research is the “Transcultural Listening Map” - an interactive knowledge platform that invites visitors to playfully explore the conditions of (radio) listening in their transcultural diversity and interconnectedness with a view to the future of acoustic media. This makes it possible to identify parallels and differences in the radio histories and listening cultures of different regions of the world.

The material was gathered as part of the two-year umbrella project “Listening to the World - 100 Years of Radio”, which was initiated by Experimental Radio on the occasion of 100 years of radio (art) together with the Goethe-Institut and implemented together with Deutschlandfunk Kultur and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) between 2022 and 2024.

During the PAD Festival in Wiesbaden, as well as the event “Listening to the World - 100 Years of Radio Art. Parts 1 & 2” at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, the results of three Bauhaus.listening.Workshops in South America (Montevideo), Southeast Asia (Sagada/Manila) and Southern Africa (Johannesburg) as well as other international projects were presented on exhibition interfaces. Since its launch in October 2024, the “Transcultural Listening Map” has been accessible worldwide at listeningmap.de. In the spirit of a “living archive”, this unique collection of material will continue to invite the radio and listening community to upload their artistic and scientific projects and thus further expand the international network.

The Transcultural Listening Map is a project of the Chair of Experimental Radio at the Faculty of Art and Design and was financed by the Creative Fund of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

Listening to the World - 100 Years of Radio is a project by the Goethe-Institut, the Chair of Experimental Radio at the Faculty of Art and Design at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. It was funded by the Goethe-Institut and the “New European Bauhaus” project of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

Artistic Director/Editor: Prof. Nathalie Singer

Concept and Editing: Lefteris Krysalis, Frederike Moormann, Prof. Nathalie Singer

Project Coordination: Sandra Rücker, Vitalis Neufeld

Sound/Editing: Tilman Victor Böhnke

Web Design and Technical Realization: NEOANALOG Schmitz & Rabe GbR