Wednesday 21 / Thursday 22 / Saturday 24 February 2024
Exploration of Radiophonic Soundscapes.
Training School with Radio Noise Collective, Marinos Koutsomichalis, and Alexandra Niaka. This training school is based on the work of COST Action Toolkit of Care (TOC), CA21102, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). https://cost.eu/
Wednesday and Thursday from 10 am to 5 pm – Apo33Lab, La Psalette – Impasse de la Psalette 44000 Nantes
Saturday 1pm to 5pm – Les Ateliers de Bitche, 44000, Nantes
Free participation, limited spots, mandatory reservation
Outline of the three-day workshop:
This workshop offers an immersive experience in the fascinating world of radiophonic instrument creation, combining collective music-making, DIY radio receiver building, and an in-depth exploration of radio as a musical instrument. Participants will have the unique opportunity to work with specialized artists to develop their understanding of the creative potentials of radio and everyday electronic devices.
Day 1 & 2: Radio Care Workshop
The emergence and proliferation of online streaming services, social media, and mobile communications over the past decades have had a significant impact on radio, both technologically and culturally. Radio is much less popular than it once was for listening to music or news broadcasts and is almost extinct as a daily means of communication. Concurrently, radio technologies are experiencing unprecedented expansion, with analog-era radio traditions seamlessly blending with digital modes, computer networks, software-defined technologies, and so forth. Radio Care aims to introduce the general public to the richness of invisible radio “noises” that can be immediately explored and listened to. The first day of the training school is devoted to a hands-on exploration of human or more-than-human radio broadcasts. Participants will be guided to explore different bands of the radio spectrum and listen to the signals, interferences, noises, and modulations found within. Additionally, they will build their own simple DIY antennas and radio receivers to gain hands-on experience with some of the materials, methods, and electronic components often involved in radio technology. Participants will be invited to improvise alongside the facilitator at the Festival.
DIY Radio Receiver Construction
The second part of the workshop will focus on building crystal radio receivers in a DIY fashion. Participants will have the opportunity to learn the basics of radio circuit construction and create their own customized radio receiver. This hands-on activity will provide insight into underlying technical principles while encouraging creativity in receiver design.
Day 3: Exploration of Radio as a Collective Musical Instrument
On this third day, participants will be invited to collaborate in creating a collective musical piece. Guided by experienced artists, they will explore the nuances of group music-making, using various instruments and sound devices to create a unique composition. This experience will foster collective creativity and enable participants to discover the endless possibilities of collaborative musical expression. Exploring radio as a musical instrument will constitute the final part of this captivating workshop. Participants will discover how everyday electronic devices can be innovatively used to create unique sound compositions. By manipulating familiar objects from daily life, they will push the boundaries of electronic music and experiment with radio as a versatile and expressive instrument. This workshop is open to all, regardless of musical experience level or technical knowledge. Join us for a day of discovery, learning, and creation in the captivating world of radiophonic music.
For this workshop, participants will need to:
Download Unity Hub, then the specific version: Unity 2021.3.15 (download directory: https://unity.com/releases/editor/archive) (on their laptops). Download TouchOSC (on their laptops).
For those without laptops, please contact: orga@apo33.org
Toolkit of Care
Toolkit of Care is an interdisciplinary group of creative practitioners, academics, researchers, and artistic/craft organizations specializing in creative technologies, who have come together to form a “care critical network”. The action network will collaborate to share collective expertise and creatively employed technical knowledge to develop care knowledge and methodologies. This training school is based on the work of COST Action Toolkit of Care (TOC), CA21102, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). https://cost.eu/ *COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a research and innovation network funding agency. Our actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to develop their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This stimulates their research, careers, and innovation.