Sonic Nutrients

Radio Arts Catalyst is a space for sonic expression, a peer-led process of collective inquiry, and a resource for learning. As The School of Broadcasting evolves, online tools and research material emerging from the process will be made available here for anyone to freely use – a small contribution to the vital history and ongoing legacy of DIY broadcasting! If you have any tips or suggestions for this page then please get in touch with us via admin@artscatalyst.org.

Listening

What do we hear when we listen? What frequencies reach our ears on a daily basis, or more rarely? How much passes us by? How does the environment in which we live alter what we hear and how we hear things? What sounds trigger different emotions, sensations or thoughts in our psyches, consciously or unconsciously? How can we translate or reinterpret what we hear? Who is listening to us?

Mapping

In what ways can a process of mapping communities of sound help us to understand the role the sonic plays in our everyday lives? What associations can we make? What knowledge can we accrue? What sounds right, or wrong, together?

Transmitting

Who gets to speak and be heard? What does a politics that exists purely on the airwaves sound like? How can our existing understanding of broadcasting be reimagined, reshaped and remixed? What noises best communicate the things we want to express?

Links & Resources

Pauline Oliveros: Deep Listening, A Composer’s Sound Practice

In 1988, as a result of descending 14 feet into the Dan Harpole underground cistern in Port Townsend, Washington, to make a recording, Oliveros coined the term “deep listening”—a pun that has blossomed into “an aesthetic based upon principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation. This aesthetic is designed to inspire both trained and untrained performers to practice the art of listening and responding to environmental conditions in solo and ensemble situations”.

Melanin-o-phonic Space, or the speaker body as totem, essay by Evan Ifekoya

Black Obsidian meditation by Black Obsidian Sound System

BBC Radiophonic Workshop

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was one of the sound effects units of the BBC, created in 1958 to produce incidental sounds and new music for radio and, later, television. The unit is known for its experimental and pioneering work in electronic music and music technology, as well as its popular scores for programs such as Doctor Who and Quatermass and the Pit during the 1950s and 1960s.

Outside Inside Simultaneously — meditation by Evan Ifekoya in collaboration with sj Rahatoka Lotus Sutra by Evan Ifekoya on SoundCloud

A conversation with Laraaji about laughter, music and wellbeing — Crack Magazine

Conceptual Framework

Oscillating Continuum by Ryoichi Kurokawa

oscillating continuum, Meditative Installation, and AV Work of Ryoichi Kurokawa