Radio in Germany is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. To mark this occasion, the artistic research project »Listening to the World – 100 Years of Radio« is exploring listening as a global phenomenon. Sound artists and researchers as well as radio practitioners and theorists came together in Montevideo (March 2023) and Manila/Sagada (August 2023) to examine the past, present and future of regional and transregional listening during workshops. On 21 and 22 October 2023, the preliminary outcomes of the cooperative project between the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Goethe-Institut and Deutschlandfunk Kultur will now be presented at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin.
The artistic and discursive programme of »Listening to the World – 100 Years of Radio« comprises stories and perspectives on diverse sound realities as well as practices of listening to and making radio. From 12 noon on 21 and 22 October, sound and radio artists, experts and scientists will present their contributions to the project at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Elizabeth Enriquez will delve into 100 years of radio history in the Philippines during her presentation. Radio activists will consider how free radio is used for protest and resistance in Zimbabwe, Indonesia and Colombia during a roundtable discussion. Experts will exchange on the role of radio and listening when power structures extend beyond geopolitical borders, as was the case from Germany with Namibia, from the German Democratic Republic with Chile, and from the USA with the Philippines.
Riar Rizaldi from Indonesia will introduce his film »Tellurian Drama«, which looks at the role of radio technology in the colonisation of Indonesia. In the »Bauhaus.Listening.Workshops«, visitors will be able to participate in a guided radio meditation or experience radio broadcasts and field recordings made by indigenous communities in Bolivia in their struggle against oppression, performed live by sound artist Guely Morató Loredo and multimedia artist Víctor Mazón Gardoqui. Visitors are invited to actively interact in the field of tension between sonic radio archives and the direct environment during the sound walk by Noís Radio from Colombia. The radio artists Florencia Curci, Lefteris Krysalis and Nathalie Singer will present an installation of soundscapes and radio utopias from South America. The sound and performance artist Pisitakun Kuantalaeng will transform the sonic diversity of the protest movements in Thailand into a surround sound performance and the composer and the sound researcher meLê yamomo from the Philippines will explore colonial listening in his performance »Interferenzen - koloniales Scheitern im Radio«.
The workshop outcomes and research findings from previous events and the workshop held in Johannesburg in March 2024 will also be compiled on a new knowledge platform known as the »Transcultural Listening Map« and in turn provide the material for a podcast series on Deutschlandfunk Kultur and for productions by the participating countries. A preview of the platform can also be experienced at the HKW.
The detailed programme will is available here: www.hkw.de/programme/listening-to-the-world-100-years-of-radio
For more information on the project, see the Goethe-Institut’s culture magazine »Zeitgeister«: www.goethe.de/prj/zei/en/prj/jhr.html
Listen to the first snippets on the »Transcultural Listening Map«: www.goethe.de/prj/zei/en/art/24984063.html
»Listening to the World – 100 Jahre Radio« is a project of the Goethe-Institut, the Chair for Experimental Radio within the Faculty of Art and Design at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. It is funded by the Goethe-Institut and through the »New European Bauhaus« project of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Development of the »Transcultural Listening Map« is being supported by the Kreativfonds creative fund of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Listening to the World – 100 Years of Radio
Talks, workshops, performances, sound installations, film screenings, DJ sets
Time: Saturday, 21 October to Sunday, 22 October 2023, on both days from 12 noon
Location: Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW); John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10; 10557 Berlin
With contributions by:
Ignatius Aditya Adhiyatmaka, BELLA, Florencia Curci, Elizabeth Enriquez, Esteban Ferro, Marcus Gammel, Tatiana Heuman, Masimba Hwati, Lefteris Krysalis, Víctor Mazón Gardoqui, Frederike Moormann, Guely Morató Loredo, Noís Radio, Pisitakun, Refuge Worldwide DJs, Riar Rizaldi, Nathalie Singer, Alfredo Thiermann, meLê yamomo and many others
The project »Listening to the World – 100 Years of Radio« explores listening as a global phenomenon on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of radio in Europe. Radio listening has had a lasting impact on our coexistence. Radio connects peoples and creates identity – but is also used for propaganda purposes and as an instrument of espionage and power. Radio was a medium of globalisation from the outset and played a key role in colonial history. The internet has since replaced radio as a medium of global communication and spawned new audio formats. Our listening behaviour is being transformed. Every region of the world has its own stories of listening and listening away, of communities that gather around the radio then go their separate ways again. But since radio waves do not stop at national borders, these stories are in many ways connected.
In case of questions, please contact Romy Weinhold, Press and Public Relations Officer for the Faculty of Art and Design (+49 3643/58-1186; romy.weinhold[at]uni-weimar.de).