Radiophonic Spaces: »Mindmap on Radio Art« audiovisual platform now online
An online platform is now available at www.radiophonic.space and presents the results of the »Radiophonic Spaces« artistic research project. As a digital catalogue for the exhibition project which goes by the same name, the »Mindmap on Radio Art« makes a hundred years of radio art creation available to the general public.
»Radiophonic Spaces« as a touring exhibition in Basel, Berlin and Weimar
The multi-part, interdisciplinary »Radiophonic Spaces« exhibition project on the history of radio art was created by Prof. Nathalie Singer, Professor of Experimental Radio at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, and forms part of the interdisciplinary research project »Radiophonic Cultures – Environments and Archives in Hybrid Media Systems«. The immersive, individually experienced exhibition concept was designed for the three locations and invited visitors to take a sonic journey through radio art of the past century. Equipped with headphones and specially programmed smartphones, visitors were able to explore more than 200 radio pieces. They could choose to linger on particular radio pieces and switch between current and historic perspectives, thus exploring the thematically curated works in their own individual way. The exhibition was presented at the three locations between 2018 and 2019: as a »sonic journey through the history of radio art« in Basel (Museum Tinguely), as a »walk-in radio archive and platform for listening knowledge« in Berlin (Haus der Kulturen der Welt), and from 26 July to 18 September 2019 at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (University Library). Each of the three exhibitions was accompanied by a local, multi-day itinerary.
Research stations in the exhibitions themselves allowed visitors to follow an audiovisual path through radio landscape. The mindmap displayed on a screen illustrated how individual pieces related to each other, and provided background information on the various works.
»Mindmap on Radio Art«: digital reference work and exhibition catalogue
Using this mindmap as the foundation, the results of the research and exhibition project have now been published as an online audiovisual platform called the »Mindmap on Radio Art«, which also serves as a catalogue for the exhibition. The online mindmap functions as a form of reference work – in other words a sort of Wikipedia of radio art – that can evolve as a work in progress.
This aligns with one of the key goals of »Radiophonic Spaces«, which is to open up the archive and bring radio as an art form and the associated cultural heritage back into the public eye and our collective consciousness. Despite an increasing number of podcast and audio portals, the cultural heritage of a hundred years of radio art remains is unfamiliar and difficult to access for most. Copyright or financial reasons prevent many radio art productions from being uploaded to audio libraries. The majority of radio drama and sound art productions are archived by broadcasters and only broadcast very rarely, meaning that there is a danger of this traditional art form and its transmission worldwide being forgotten. The project also seeks to place greater emphasis on acoustic art and to place listening at the core of an art world otherwise dominated by the visual.
The »Mindmap on Radio Art« offers the opportunity to both explore and research the history of radio art: scripts, scores and sound clips from productions stand alongside excerpts from audio pieces, personal testimonies and statements of those involved – with reviews and films also serving as background materials. This offers a visualisation of how pieces, authors, studios and archives are all intertwined. Visitors to the website are guided by their interests in the content and specifically researched historical and content-related references. This enables the mindmap (which is available in German and English) to be used for digital teaching and research by an international audience.
With more than 7,000 exhibition visitors, »Radiophonic Spaces« made a hundred years of cultural heritage accessible to a wide international audience, both in terms of content and technologically innovatively designed media environments. The experiment of integrating listening into a museum as a cultural technique has been very successful and has won various awards, including the top prize at the international Heritage in Motion Award 2019 in the »Games & Interactive Experiences« category. The »Mindmap on Radio Art« is a vital way of demonstrating the diversity of radio art, and will continue to expand as a research topic.
»Mindmap on Radio Art« credits:
Artistic director: Prof. Nathalie Singer, Experimental Radio, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Design and technical realisation: MESO Digital Interiors GmbH
Concept, development and organisation: Astrid Drechsler, Anja Erdmann, Andreas Feddersen, Elena Zieser, Viola Ahrensfeld
Curatorial and research assistants: Andrea Cohen, Tatiana Eichenberger, Andreas Feddersen, Dr. Golo Föllmer, Andreas Hagelüken, Patricia Jäggi, Jochen Meißner, Jan Philip Müller, Dr. Wolfram Wessels
Further authors: Katarina Agathos, Miguel Molina Alarcón, Andreja Andrisević, Prof. Sabine Breitsameter, Prof. Dr. Camilla Bork, Christoph Brünggel, Amy Cimini, Dr. Andrea Cohen, Heather Contant, Astrid Drechsler, Dr. Martin Elste, Tobias Gerber, Frank Kaspar, Tina Klatte, Ingo Kottkamp, Michael Kunkel, Karsten Lichau, Dr. Hanne Loreck, Ania Mauruschat, Johann Mittmann, Katrin Moll, Wolfgang Mörth, Matthias Pasdzierny, Severin Schenkel, Thomas Schopp, Peter Schütz, Julia Tieke, Prof. Dr. Antje Tumat, Marianne Weil, Anne Zeitz and others
Supporters:
The project is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation, the State Chancellery of Thuringia, the Hertie Foundation, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (including the Bauhaus100 fund), Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, the Goethe Institut, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Museum Tinguely, Hanna and Dieter Paulmann, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Südwestrundfunk, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Österreichischen Rundfunk and various broadcasters and radio artists.
More than 200 works are presented from various broadcasters and archives including BBC Radio, Bayerischer Rundfunk, documenta 14 Radio/SAVVY Funk Berlin, Hessischer Rundfunk, Radio France Culture, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, Österreichischer Rundfunk, Radiotelevisione Italia, Radio Bremen, Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, Saarländischer Rundfunk, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, Deutsches Rundfunk Archiv, IMEC, INA and Lautarchiv.
Mindmap on Radio Art
www.radiophonic.space
Find out more on the »Radiophonic Spaces« touring exhibition here:
https://www.uni-weimar.de/en/art-and-design/chairs/experimentelles-radio/radiophonic-spaces/