All posts by Gabi Schaffner

Radio artist, performer, writer, gardener

Open Call: The Gardens of Gyumri. 25.09

Open Call Datscha Radio // Բացեք զանգը Դատչա Ռադիո

The Gardens of Gyumri

In a few seconds they passed.
In agitation and crisis they passed // In sorrow and grieving they passed.
They left and the years passed// adding happiness to pain.


Arshalouys Markarian: Years

Excerpt from „The Other Voice. Armenian Women’s Poetry through the Ages”.
Translated by Diana Der-Hovanessian. AIva Press 2005

In the Taxi on the Road to Gyumri I ate the one and only apple I had brought with me from my Berlin garden. The taste was fresh, sour and sweet, and it mingled at the back of my palate with the aroma of exhaust fumes and dusty blankets. As a visiting artist from Germany, a stranger to the local communities, I feel immensely touched yet distant from the history of Armenia and the devastating earthquake in 1988. Now I live in Mush 2, one of the largest districts following the destruction of this city. My view goes out to new houses, old mountains and a small garden plot, fenced with a stone wall and used car tyres. Always, always, there will be something growing.

Datscha Radio is a nomadic garden radio project maintained and organized by Berlin artist and traveler Gabi Schaffner. ­­
Datscha Radio’s idea of gardening comprises the notion of gardens as a part of our cultural heritages. In the case of the Armenian project, this notion is extended to employ the arts and gardening as valuable strategies to grow resilience by taking care of one’s surroundings – be it plants, water, soil, housing or family.

Datscha Radio invites you to contribute to ­­“The Gardens of Gyumri”, celebrating the joy of connecting to each other: on site, on air and online. 

Together with our guests and participants, we will broadcast live on Sunday, 29th of September at a time yet to be fixed. We will also rev­ive the tradition of micro-broadcasting. The program will present talks and readings, concerts, sound art, and it will be organized in cooperation with the Art Basis platform and the Gyumri Branch of State Academy of Fine Arts of Armenia. 

Since this radio station is ‘home-made’, an experiment and absolutely non-commercial, please understand that we will not accept mainstream music or mixes. Instead:

We are curious about

  • Local knowledge about fauna & flora, ecology and the art of cooking
  • Poetry/conversations relating to neighbourhood, friendship and family, grieving & recovery
  • Sound art, field recordings and playful approaches to radio
  • Traditional music and songs
  • When interested to perform live, please send 100 words about your set.
  • When interested to do live cooking or share recipes, please send a note about what kind of dish you have in mind
  • Your very person: Come and create radio!

Deadline: September, 25, 2024

Languages: EN, ARM, RU

  • The English language is NOT mandatory!
  • You may send spoken word contributions or information about your work also in your native language
  • Don’t feel shy, there will be translators to help me understand.

Your contributions

  • Please send your sound contribution as mp3 ONLY (preferably 320 mbits)
  • label your tracks: firstname_lastname_title_min (minutes)
  • include a pdf with <100 words about your piece and your person
  • put Gyumri Gardens as subject line
  • send the link for your works to info@datscharadio.de or your files directly via wetransfer et al.

Note: You must own the (copy)rights of your production, be it sound or writing!

How to listen
You can listen online on datscharadio.de and selected radio stations to be announced in due time
You can listen on site (the location of the studio in Gyumri has not yet been decided on, but will be published soon on our social media channels and on datscharadio.de) We are fond of an open studio situation: performers, spontaneous live guests and visitors are welcome.

Sustainability
A For Datscha Radio, sustainability is not defined by the universal availability of replicable products, but by the experience of togetherness and local knowledge that is remembered and translated into a shared future.

B You are heartily invited to take out your old radios from their closets and experiment with analogue reception in the station’s vicinity.

Fees
Datscha Radio works on a non-commercial basis, therefore we cannot reimburse you for your valuable time and work. What we have to offer is a radio station and art platform for discovery, exchange and networking. In the off-line world.

Copyrights
All copyrights stay with the artists. For more information about the project, please see datscharadio.de

For any questions, please write to: info@datscharadio.de
Facebook: datscharadio.de || Insta: datscharadio


Text: ©Gabi Schaffner; Image: Armenian ornament, free license.
#culturemoveseurope #goetheinstitute Brussels #artbasis

­

Upcoming: Datscha Radio in Armenia

Already getting excited about traveling to Gyumri, Armenia in September!

On invitation of and in collaboration with the art collective Art Basis, Datscha Radio will do some radio gardening in the city of Gyumri.

The community art space and residency project is located in a building in Mush-2 district in Gyumri which houses people who have been living in temporary constructions after the 1988 earthquake. The space is imagined as an opportunity to initiate collaborative processes between the community and the visiting artists and guests. This initiative will serve as a space to engage in collective practices, experiences, initiatives and projects, art production and research and other activities in collaboration with the neighborhood.

Art Basis

The project is being supported by Culture Moves Europe and the Goethe Institute Brussels.

Rapid(s)Trains – SLEEPERTOWN #4/Anima Mundi

The project SLEEPERTOWN is moving to Berlin and Brandenburg! In collaboration with Errant Sound, curator Richard Carr has taken up the work to implement twelve compositions by 13 artists on specific sites in and around Berlin.

Rapid(s) Trains, four sound art compositions about trains, will settle in the Brandenburg area, at Bad Freienwalde in the Oderbruch region.

"ANIMA MUNDI is a European exchange project and network of project spaces for sound art and contemporary music, record labels and actors in experimental music scenes from Germany, Poland and Ireland that produce innovative works of contemporary music and sound art on the experience of environmental relationships, climate change and ecological issues while presenting them to a broad local audience. The musically and sonically diverse works and formats – concerts, concert and sound performances, field recordings, sound and multimedia installations as well as sound and audio walks – are intended to enable people of all ages and social backgrounds to get to know sound art in all its diversity and to gain sensual and direct, active access to their environment and its social and historical dimensions at the respective locations, particularly through listening."
Source: https://www.sleepertown.com/anima-mundi

“Das reisende Gartenradio” on Ö1, July 25

Datscha Radio is pleased to announce a new radio production for the Austrian Broadcast Station Ö1

Kunst zum Hören presents:
The Traveling Garden Radio
Thursday 25th 2024, 11:03 pm

Lan: DE; EN
Supervisor: Elisabeth Zimmermann

Gabi Schaffner has created two 20-minute collages for Kunst zum Hören. The first takes us to Altenburg in Thuringia in the summer of 2023, where Datscha Radio sent its field research into the ether several times.
The second block dives into geographically more distant horticultural
worlds of sound. A conversation between Elisabeth Zimmermann and the artist will provide further insights into the traveling garden radio and the practice of world gardening.

For more info/text/more about “Kunst zum Hören” as well as for listening to the show, please go to: https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20240725/765587/Ein-Garten-zwischen-Giesskanne-und-Mischpult

Credits

Datscha Radio in Altenburg

Team: Gabi Schaffner, Ernst Markus Stein, Helen Thein

Beiträge: Spaziergang zur Elisabethquelle – Wolfgang Paritzsch; Der Historische Laubengarten – Grit Martinez und Chris Junk; Gärten in der Ukraine – Gartengemeinschaft Einheit.

Gartengeschichte in Altenburg – Christine Nienhold; Unser Gemeinschaftsgarten – Anonym; Licht und Sterne – Frank Vohla; Laubengang – Gabi Schaffner, Ernst Markus Stein.

Marmeladenverkostung – Gartengäste; Bodenspuren – Marcus-Andreas Mohr; Zieräpfel – Tina-Marie Friedrich; Apfel-Boccia – alle; Gärten der Zukunft – Grit Martinez.

Open Call Tracks: Apfel Birne Quitte – Tiger Stangl; Samensinfonie. Aus dem Leben eines Kerns – Ian Joyce, Tiger Stangl

Musiken/Sampling/Mixe: Ernst Markus Stein. Jingle Streuobst unter Verwendung von „Frau Holle“ – Goldmarie

Field Recordings: Gabi Schaffner

Datscha Radio International

Datscha Radio Ii, 2022

Team: Tina- Marie Friedrich, Gabi Schaffner

Beiträge: Towards Atmospheric Care – Hanna Husberg und Agata Marzecovas; Kilimandscharo – Inari Virmakoski; The River Ii Bridge – Tina-Marie Friedrich; Weather Changes – Heli Paaso-Rantala; Cloud Engineering – Filips Stanislavskis

Open Call Tracks: Love is in the Air – Jaakko Autio; On The Inhale – Elisabeth Shores

Datscha Radio Taipei, 2019

Team: Gabi Schaffner, Gabriel de Seta

Beiträge: Waste Culture – Margareth Shiu/Bamboo Curtain Studio, Mark van Tongeren, Hauyu Yang; Listening Culture – Laila Fan; Praying Machine Hacks – Lu Yi mit Gabriel de Seta; Listening Culture Reprise – Laila Fan

Musiken: Sea Waste 7.0 – Ken Yu; Praying Machine – Lu Yi

Field Recordings: Gabi Schaffner

Datscha Radio Madrid, 2018

Team: Gabi Schaffner, Maite Camacho/InSonora Artist Collective, Victor Jara/MediaLab Prado

Beiträge: Esta es Una Plaza – Alberto Peralta; Plant Sensor Music – Joaquin Diaz, KTA Martin; El Hospital de las Plantas – Óscar Domínguez mit Eva Kurly; Retiro Garden – Daniel Horcajo; The Batan Community Garden – Irene Prins

Musiken: 9 Olas – Carolina Carubba; Plant Music – Joaquin Diaz, KTA Martin; Atomic Garden – Alberto Garcia.

On Air On Site, Den Haag

Pleased to present two fixed media pieces as well as one live performance at the radio art festival ON AIR ON SITE.

Curation: Leonie Roessler, Margharita Brillada.

On Air - On Site is a sound investigation of a temporary radio event consisting of a broadcast schedule of 48 hours of non-stop streaming, including live performances, fixed media, and radio artworks specifically composed for the festival by an international community of sound artists. The project explores the boundaries of being simultaneously on air in a physical and virtual space, challenging different radio formats. 

ON FLOWERS – Duftgesänge

Exhibition

Curated by Almut Huefler. The exhibition still runs until 21st of April: Schau Fenster. Lobeckstr. 35, Berlin.

Performance pictures /
Graphic works

For the first time in Berlin, the album “Duftgesänge” (Fragrant Songs) was presented. If you missed it: The album is still around!
Below:
Moth*board, ca. 16×34 cm. Screenprint on wood.
Witches made much of them (Mandragora), screenprints on paper, Din A4
Vagrant Violets, screenprints on paper, Din A4

Roaminale #3: Tales of Molecules and Light

“Tales of Molecules and Light” will be shown during the Rominale #3 film festival in Berlin on Feb. 23. All movies were filmed in November 2023 at the Botanic Garden in Vácrátót, Hungary. The series comprises 16 videos, this exhibition presents four of them.

Credits:

Camera, text, sound, and editing: Gabi Schaffner
Additional samples/contributions:
Centerfold: Granular sound – lucyp123, 2021
In the Mountains: Prepared piano – Elo Masing, 2023
Lotus Receiver: Earth nose whistler recorded in stereo by Cluster 3 and 4 – Space Audio cc
Persuasion: Analogue Birds – Sarah Washington 2014; Piano – Anonymous, Finland 2008

Roaminale #3 screen is a screening weekend event dedicated to audiovisual artworks and moving images. The aim of Roaminale is to bring further visibility to works of various topics of concern and as well artistic creativity within distinguishable visions of each participant. Roaminale #3 screen is the third event in the series and is showing a selection of short films and video art in a variety of genres. The screening will take place parallel at roam project space and online.

Location: roam project space, Lindenstraße 91, 10969 Berlin & website https://www.roam-projects.eu/projects/

Time: Doors open at 6 pm; screening starts at 7 pm

  • Gaia’s Secret Passages
    Peeter Laurits, Martin Rästa, Kaiko Lipsmäe
  • Kömlődi Lösz \ Yellow Soil of Kömlőd
    Nemmivoltunk crew! \ We didn’t do it Crew!
  • Eliminated archive
    Polina Shcherbyna
  • On Ugodnichestvo
    Yelyzaveta Burtseva
  • Stories about Molecules and Light. 4 out of 16 videos
    Gabi Schaffner
  • New Year, New Me
    Robin Ellis Meta
  • Nothing
    Kiwa
  • Silver Bullet
    Holger Loodus
  • Habitat
    Peeter Laurits, Maido Hollo
  • Carnaval Caimanera
    Nathalie Grenzhaeuser
  • Powerplant – What Gives You Energy?
    Miina Barrera Pinochet, Lucia Westphal, Gahee Chung
  • Where to start?
    Vasylysa Shchogoleva
  • Wind in den Füßen \ Wind in the feet
    Kirstin Burckhardt, Nicole Wendel
  • Shadow feeling
    Louiza Andrus
  • Lioba von den Driesch
    ;paranoia publishing
  • Kiwa
    Second Earth
  • Ivar Veermäe
    Wild Hunt
  • Alexei Gordin
    Harm Contradiction
  • Julian Larger
    The Browse
  • Sten Saarits
    Gate X
  • Lioba von den Driesch
    Water Rises
  • Peeter Laurits, sound: Ann Reimann
    Fog of War
  • Anna Manankina
    Scattered and Found Files
  • Kelli Gedvil, sound: Natalia Wójcik
    am i a joke to you
  • Kristen Rästas
    last supper
  • Lioba von den Driesch
    30 Years of Optimism
  • Alexandru Mihai Budeș, Lisa Marie Schmitt

Freshly printed: Datscha Radio in Altenburg

Freshly printed: Datscha Radio’s documentation about Radio Gardening in Altenburg. 32 pages. 2023. With contributions by: Gabi Schaffner, Grit Martinez, Helen Thein, Luise Krischke (Fliegender Salon). Graphic design: tigerworx. Radio art concepts: Ernst Markus Stein, Gabi Schaffner, Helen Thein.
Number of copies (Datscha Radio): 250; (Fliegender Salon) 250.

Our Altenburg adventures include the chapters:

  • Sommergartenradio (30. Juni 2023) – Summergarden Radio
  • Laubenlauschen (3.-6. August 2023) – Listening to Arbours
  • Streuobstradio (1. Oktober 2023) – OrchardFruitRadio
  • Der Fliegende Salon: “Experimentierfreude im Fokus”
  • Summary in English
  • Radiorezepturen – Radio Recipes

All participating artists and gardeners are invited or order or fetch their personal copies. An online PDF will be available soon! For Berlin/international artists: please write to info(at)datscharadio.de.

Leimfliegenfänger [Fly Ribbons]. Wallstein 2024

New !

My essay on fly ribbons and their entanglement with the human world will form part of a new book titled “39 Small Things Between the Species. Keywords for a more-than-human world.”

In: Borgards, Roland, Frederike Felcht, Verena Kuni, Frederike Middelhoff, Robert Pütz und Antje Schlottmann (Hrsg.): 39 Kleinigkeiten zwischen den Arten. Von Fliegenfängern und Katzenklappen. Stichworte zu einer mehr-als-menschlichen Welt.
Göttingen, Wallstein. 2024



Illustration: Gabi Schaffner. Critter #8. 2023. Gouache on paper.

“Von den vielfältigen Beziehungen zwischen den Arten erzählen in diesem interdisziplinären Buch unter anderem ein flauschiger Teddybär, ein kühler Weinkeller und klebrige Spinnenfäden. Ausgehend von oft unscheinbaren Akteur:innen wird gezeigt, wie das naturkulturelle Verhältnis von mehr-als-menschlichen Gesellschaften fortlaufend neu bestimmt und gestaltet wird. Die Autor:innen schlagen vor, menschliche Sichtweisen zu dezentrieren und sich für das Eigenleben anderer Arten zu öffnen. Dabei nutzen sie die Brillen ihrer jeweiligen wissenschaftlichen Disziplinen, um über diese hinauszublicken und weiterführende Perspektiven aufzuzeigen.” Text: Book info, courtesy Wallstein Verlag 2023

Beyond Listening. Agency, Art and the Environment.

Photo by Milos Vojtechovsky

Radio Practice as Experimental Ethnology

As part of the Cense (Central European Network of Sonic Ecologies) symposium program “Beyond Listening” Datscha Radio’s approach to experimental ethnography was presented.

Next to decidedly experimental settings (“NightGardening”, Berlin 2019), Datscha Radio engages in cross-cultural garden research and broadcasted from Spain (2018), Taiwan (2019), and most recently, Finland (Art Biennial Ii, “Air on Air”, 2022). The project also sprouts radiophonic solo off-shoots exploring seasonal states of mind (KAAMOS Radio, Finland 2021) or topographies (Harakka Island Radio, Finland 2023). In my lecture, I introduced several of Datscha Radio’s abroad iterations and discussed the perspectives of nomadic radio stations as havens of situated knowledge.

Audio examples taken from interviews about plant care work with:
Subrabha Seshan (Gurukula, Botanic Sanctuary, India 2017)
Eva Kurly with Oscar Domínguez (Hospital de Plantas, Spain 2018)

Turning a Leaf. Video and sound work, mimeographs. OMA, Budapest

Exhibition at Ordinary Music Archives Budapest, Dec. 1

Videowork: Micro Arboreta. 12 videos about plantscapes in the Botanic Garden of Vácrátót, Hungary

Performance: Turing a Leaf. 16:37 min. LowFi Loop #5

Mimeograph printings: 4 works on paper.

Many thanks to Nikolaus Gerszewski for hosting me and to the Hungarian Writers Association that facilitated the residency at the Botanic Garden Vácrátót.

Here are some images… and a poem.

Persuasion

Red is a language
without words.
It spells in colour.

Red in the language
of berries and birds
means food.

Red is persuasion.

                   Warning Permeation
Permutation Invasion

Red is a loud sound
Drumming
screaming maybe
if eyes were ears.

Birds are good with reds.
They know the hues
and the rules.

Humans fall prey

              to red, easily.
Blood and tears.

Red fruit and seeds
are carried far

          traveling in the bowels
across borders and continents

Red keeps spreading

         like joy
like war

Persuaded to weave wreaths,
or decorate our homes

                 Or our loved ones

We fall for red. And always will.

Writing :: Micro-Climates

Micro-Climates. © Gabi Schaffner

On the invitation of the Hungarian Writers Association I will spend November in the Botanic Garden of Vácrátót with a poetic writing and filming project on the micro-climates of the local arboretum.

Microclimates traditionally have been defined as “the climates in a small space” or “the physical state of the atmosphere close to a very small area of the earth’s surface, often in relation to living matter such as crops or insects” Thus, microclimates may span the spatial scale from leaves to hillslopes. Temporal scales for microclimates may be comparably diverse, from less than 24 hours (Barry, 1970) to a range from seconds…

https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/0-387-30749-4_115

Radiophrenia: Critter’s Home Study + Loop #3 var.

Happy to annouce two contributions to this years Radiophrenia festival in Glasgow, Scotland.

For the full programme, please visit
https://radiophrenia.scot/schedule/

August 25, 8:00 am – 9:00 am (9:00 CET)
1 – Anne Marie Deacy & Rachel Doolin – Oscillithic: Hidden In Quartz. Sounding Stones. (9:58) 2 – Diana Duta – Ballade XI b (2:05) 3 – Pageboi – =]= noise gate (4:28) 4 – Wendy Kirkup – rough cut botanical (8:01) 5 – Guillaume Loizillon – temps-ordinaires (3:19) 6 – Gabi Schaffner – Critter’s Home Study – (12:15) 7 – Juliette Chartier – Space Cemetery (5:56) 8 – Emma Vickers – An Uprooted Voice (1:17) 9 – Tam Lin – Bench Loop 1 (7:39) 10 -Trần Uy Đức – Asking for Gyrations (1:54)

A seed concerto, piano keys, a radio. Imagine yourself small.  A gathering of sample recordings, mostly from instruments… performers. The difference between the analogue and the digital, is it like a fuel driven rocket to a time jump? I am sometimes afraid to listen (for the most manifold time) to a piece just created, just compiled from the file berths. Anyhow, this is about small places I think, “hiding corners’ (‘Versteckecken’) and broadcasting different materials (wood, plastic, wool, meta¬¬¬l).  And families of critters lounging in lichen deckchairs, all grouped around a buzzing radio. A bucket of salt water fits the scenery. Particles of mice, and straws.
All (prepared) piano and kalimba: Elo Masing and birds. Seeds, more sounds and oilcan guitar: Gabi Schaffner.

27 August 2023  12:30 pm – 1:00 pm   
LoFiLoop #3::Handmade Generative Music (Glaswegian Mix)

Loop #3 evolved from recent experiments in micro-looping and its influence on time perception. In 2021, sifting through tons of field recordings for the 22-hour {A Wave Novel} for radioart.zone, I dreamt of giant ‘musical waves’ generated for this mission by some really smart and lucid machine/program/spaceship. It did not happen; instead, I assembled everything by hand. At the  Seanaps Radio Lab in 2022, I took up that thoroughly composted idea of using micro snippets of ‘audio trash’, long-lived-with sonic crumbs, and further semi-redundant sound material of short duration as a pattern-weaving material. And lo behold: It worked out. At least I think so. Recordings, sampling and composition: Gabi Schaffner © 2023 Credits/Sound Sources in order of appearance: Mongolian Snip: “Sedna’s Glove“, video, Schaffner 2006. Portable record player: Oliver Augst 2014. Organ: Tobias Lange 2021. Cat: Augustin, 2019; Radio Snippet: Taiwan, 2019, Saurofon: Yrjänä Sauros, Kokkola 2007. Guitar Pick: Peter Apel, 2022. Road radio: Texas 2018. Museum voice: Bangalore 2017. Unknown Ukulele player /+ Musical Saw, Mimosa Pale, 2021. Others: Schaffner

Floating Transmissions – Hamburg

“R for Radio” and “Schweben” were both created for and exhibited at the Floating Transmissions festival in Hamburg.

R for Radio. Lower deck, MS Stubnitz

19:20 min. Narrow-cast installation for transmitter and pocket radios. 88,4 MHz. FM

R as in radiation, rocks, reminiscence, rockets
A as in Argonauts, ass, audio
D as in darling, dot, dispersal
I as in island, idol, India
O as in „oh, it’s you again!“, ocean, oblivion

R for radio
Full of electric ghosts and recordings of the waters huddling close to the body of the Stubnitz at her berth, R for Radio takes the listeners on a journey into a lo-fi acoustic maze.
Angels meet devils, and float together with dispersed shortwaves from different countries, with horror movie sounds and traffic songs, phonophernalia, and a woman reading some of the best ‘liked’ from Virginia Woolfe’s The Waves.

Credits
Bonnie song (Trad.): Sanne Drouhin-Kok, Readings from “The Waves” by Virginia Woolfe: Kate Donovan. Devil Story: Michael Fisher, Hobart, Tasmania. Beat: Ghostly Beat by Apple. Shortwave radio recorded in Hualien (with unknown song by unknown interpret), Taiwan; Bogong Village (“I only have eyes for you”, Harry Warren – unknown interpret), Australia. Other field recordings, sampling, micro compositions: Gabi Schaffner

Schweben. Baakenhafen

15:42 min. Geofenced audio. Listen via echoes.xyz

‘Schweben’ is an invitation to immerse yourself in a series of short narratives about out-of-body musings.

Schweben can be listened to only at Baakenhafen, which is a meeting point and chill place maybe 50 meters distant from the berth of the Stubnitz. The piece takes the “float” (=schweben) in the title of the exhibition literally. Guests, passerbys and members of the Stubnitz staff were asked about their experiences in floating or hovering in the air…  Other bodies of water and air whirl alongside, from vitamin tablets to ship ventilators.
The piano belongs to the Stubnitz, and is played in an improvisation by the crew’s cook, Ronan.

Credits
Stimmen/Voices: Claudia, HW, Karim, Jann, L., Mathias, Tina
Piano: Ronan.
Fieldrecordings: Gabi Schaffner. Other: „Ein Zimmer voller Sterne“, Schaffner, 2020.
Samples Freesound.org: 39900__aesqe__sea_water_churning; 267137__claudius__bubbles, 103104__jovica__layers-018-alchemic-hunting-125; 133863__vhlam__ext-red-sea; 433811__archos__vitamin-tablet.

THANK YOU, STUBNITZ!

For infomation about the festival, please go to https://www.instagram.com/floatingtransmissions/

Anfang September verwandelt sich die MS Stubnitz in eine schwimmende Radiostation. In experimentellen künstlerischen Formaten wird der «Fluss-Raum» über UKW und weitere Protokolle übertragen. Die teilnehmenden Künstler*innen, wie Sophie Allerding, Jack Bardwell, Benjamin van Bebber, Ludwig Berger, Kathrin Dröppelmann, Antje Feger, Ulf Freyhoff, Leo Hofmann, Hye-Eun Kim, Tilo Kremer, Niko de Paula Lefort, Felicity Mangan, Felix Raeithel, Gabi Schaffner, Paula Schopf, Benjamin Stumpf, Dong Zhou uvm. stellen ihre Arbeiten vor. Es entsteht ein Live-Radio-Programm, das aus künstlerischen Beiträgen – von multimedialen Klangskulpturen bis immersiven Performances an Elbe und Bille mit städteübergreifender Übertragung besteht. Neben Klanginstallationen, die sich auf vielfältige Weise mit den Soundscapes der Stadt auseinandersetzen, soll es außerdem Workshops und partizipative Projekte geben, die sich prozesshaft entwickeln.

FLOATING TRANSMISSIONS zeigt ästhetische Zugänge als «schwimmende Radiostation», um in immersiven Settings sinnliche Erfahrungen mit auditiven Medien zu ermöglichen. Das Programm, das temporär auf schwimmenden Expeditionen über Elbe und Bille treibt, wird ergänzt durch Konzertabende und kuratierte Sound-Listening-Sessions von Hamburger DJs und Labels. Die Formate werden über das Freie Sender Kombinat FSK, HALLO: Radio und TIDE.radio sowie Freie Radios in Deutschland u.a. übertragen.

Open Call: ‘OrchardFruitRadio’

From 2 to 6 pm on Thanksgiving Day, October 1, 2023, we will be broadcasting directly from a Thuringian orchard. What is this sound of apples dropping into the wet grass? Of the spores floating amongst pollen and dirt? What recipe did your grandma use for her plum jam? What are sounds of the pleasures of harvesting the goods of the garden? Datscha Radio wants to find out – and needs your radiophonic autumn treasures!

If you want to contribute please find all infos here:
https://datscharadio.de/en/blog/2023/08/orchardfruitradio-open-call/

Floating Transmissions

Pleased to contribute to Floating Transmissions, Hamburg. A sound and radio art festival curated by Julia Nordholz. Graphic design used for the above flyers by Jonas Mannherz..

At the beginning of September, the MS Stubnitz will be transformed into a floating radio station.
In experimental artistic formats, the „river space“ will be broadcast via UKW and other protocols. Participating artists like Sophie Allerding, Jack Bardwell, Benjamin van Bebber, Ludwig Berger, Kathrin Dröppelmann, Antje Feger, Ulf Freyhoff, Leo Hofmann, Hye-Eun Kim, Tilo Kremer, Niko de Paula Lefort, Felicity Mangan, Felix Raeithel, Gabi Schaffner, Paula Schopf, Benjamin Stumpf, Dong Zhou and many more will present their works. The result is a live radio program consisting of artistic contributions – from multimedia sound sculptures to immersive performances on the Elbe and Bille rivers with cross-city broadcasts. In addition to sound installations that explore the city’s soundscapes in a variety of ways, there will also be workshops and participatory projects that develop in a processual manner.
Text: Floating Transmissions, 2023

Halffloor presents: Piece of Turf after Dürer

Pleased to contribute to HALFFLOOR‘s #103 episode of sound art and start their SEASON SIX with the summerly Piece of Turf No.10:

“It’s that time of the every other week again, and this one is just a bit more special than usual (as if that were even possible, we know). Today is namely the start of SEASON SIX of Halffloor!

Today’s contribution comes from Germany, where our friend Gabi Schaffner has sent us 60 seconds titled ”Rasenstücke aka Rasenmähersymphonien”, inspired to an almost frightening extent by Albrecht Dürer’s drawing with almost the same title.”

crew: Marie Gavois+George Kentros+Susanne Skog+Michel Klöfkornhttps://www.halffloor.com/

Radio Art Zone: Environmental Edit by Adrian Newton

A podcast by sound artist Adrian Newton assembles 12 excerpts from radioart.zone into a one-hour piece titled “Sound mosaics for a broken world.”
Listen here: https://lnns.co/ek9y4OalKXY


“Our world is breaking. Ecosystems are collapsing, our house is burning. But we can fix it like a mosaic, sticking it back together piece by piece. Here’s a soundtrack for the recovery process, incorporating sound art, experimental music, audio essays and field recording.”

Adrian Newton

Radiogardening in Thuringia

Altenburg in Thuringia is the place where the card game of Skat was invented. The city looks back on a great past as a baroque center of trade and gardening.

Datscha Radio will accompany the activities of the Fliegender Salon Altenburg this summer. Starting on the 30th of June within the frame of the Altenburger Nacht der Museen. We will broadcast live from the “Historischer Laubengarten” together with guests and visitors, and with a talk about the history of allotment gardening in the 1920s.

IONN Festival, July 8

I will be taking part in this:

IONN 1/2023

saturday 1. july5 p.m. at brennerei zernikowexhibition opening + concert3½ – sound installations by lena czerniawska / emilio gordoa / maximilian glass[prepared engines, swaying snippets and resonating objects]concert: alex mendizabal “brandenburger konzert” [under the open sky]
 
saturday 8. july8 p.m. at brennerei zernikowopen-air performance of the commissioned compositions by michael barthel, gabi schaffner and mowe as a live installation at gutshof zernikow
 
friday 14. julyfrom 7 p.m. at zernikower mühleprivate primate nnoi camp // for more information : camp[at]nnoi.de
 
saturday 15. julyfrom 10 a.m. at zernikower mühleprivate primate nnoi camp // for more information : camp[at]nnoi.de4 p.m. at church zernikowconcert: andré vidaconcert: za siódmą górą
 
sunday 16. julyfrom 10 a.m. at zernikower mühleprivate primate nnoi camp // for more information : camp[at]nnoi.de2 p.m. at gutshof zernikowexperimental music theatre with the residents of the reha-consult facilities3 p.m. at gutshof and tierpark zernikowconcert : hinhören / weghören – dialogues with extended playing techniques. a soundwalk in the forest of zernikow. meeting place: gutshofwith: carina khorkhordina, marina cyrino, mia dyberg, eric bauer, emilio gordoa, antonio borghini, antti virtaranta, burkhard beins, sofia borges, axel dörner, maximilian glass
 
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1. – 16. julyexhibition brennerei zernikow3 ½sound installations by emilio gordoa, lena czerniawska, maximilian glassprepared engines, swaying snippets and resonating objectsopening hours: 1 – 16 july 2023 / saturdays and sundays / 12 noon to 6 p.m.

Harakka Radio

Ms Schaffner is most pleased to announce a 4 day radio event on the island of Harakka Finland. We will broadcast on 92 MHz from 2-5pm on the 25-28th of May.

Just in case you did not know: the 22nd of May is The Day of the Impossible, as proclaimed by the infamous musician Sun Ra.  For a whole week from the 22nd on, the Finnish media artist and performer Kari Yli-Annala invites the world to join the artistic activities at Nomad Academy on Harakka Island, Helsinki. This year’s theme is The Magic and the Analogue. – And what can be more magic and analogue than a W-Lan-free radio station on an island?

Together with the human and more-than-human islanders and artist guests, and under the umbrella of the Nomad Academy of Experimental Arts and is founder Kari Yli-Annala we will create a 3-hour program for 4 days.

The Island

 ‘Magpie’ island is situated a 6 min ferry ride from the center of Helsinki, a mostly flat and rocky slab of basalt and mica gneiss, streaked with magnetit and other shimmering minerals. Harakka Island is not resting still: with a speed of 3-4 mm (30-40 cm pro century) it continues to rise above sea level. It is nowadays uninhabited, but hosts a nature preservation and education center, and very diverse buildings and barracks that date back to the time of the Russian occupation.  The festival’s main location, Nomad Academy, was formerly a telecommunication center. 

The Open Call

With your contribution you can help to create the ‘impossible’ radio on Harakka Island.

48-hour Radio Art Festival: On Air On Site. 3 pm, April 15

Radio Art Festival “On Air On Site” starts tomorrow, April 14!
Live Radio at Institute of Sonology.
Curated by Margherita Brillada and Leonie Roessler

On Air -On Site #1 is a sound investigation of a temporary radio event consisting of a broadcast schedule of 48 hours of non-stop streaming, including live performances/shows, fixed media, and prerecorded work specifically composed for the festival.By re-thinking radio as an exhibition space for experimental sound art andexperimental electronic music, the event aims to explore the possibilities of a broader project with the ultimate goal of developing a community experimental radio station in Den Haag, seeking collaborators and looking for a common interest in radio practice. The event will explore the boundaries of being simultaneously on air in a physical and virtual space, challenging different radio formats.

http://www.westdenhaag.nl/information/exhibitions/23_03_On_Air_On_Site/press/23_03_On_Air_On_Site_EN.pdf

Loop #3 has evolved from my recent experiments in micro-looping and its influence on time perception dating back to 2020. “Time Is A Sliding Door” (Radiophrenia 2020) could be considered a forerunner, and clearly speaks with the voices of many clocks and cuckoos entangled in frequencies and field recording, yet…
Later in 2021, sifting through tons of field recordings for the 22-hour {A Wave Novel} for radioart.zone, I dreamt of giant ‘musical waves’ generated for this mission by some really smart and lucid machine/program/spaceship. It did not happen; instead, I assembled everything by hand.

Finally, at the IMPROVISORIUM Seanaps Radio Lab in 2022 I took up that thoroughly composted idea of using micro snippets of ‘audio trash’, long-lived-with sonic crumbs, and further semi-redundant sound material of short duration as a pattern-weaving material. And lo behold: It worked out. At least I think so.

DON’T BLOW!

There is a mind-blowing new micro edition at the start, which was presented just last weekend in Arnhem, Netherlands.

  • Mimeograph printing + inkjet + laser
  • Thread binding
  • 20 individual copies
  • 18 Euro (one copy)

The pair of scissors used to cut the pages one belonged to my late mother. Originally designed to cut lining fabric, it cut nothing for the past 30 years. It was just heavy. I kept it nonetheless. Now it makes papers look pretty.

Many thanks to DJ Shlucht once again to help with the mimeograph printing.

Fazzoletto/Not Just A Fair

Latest news: The Fazzoletto album ‘Handkerchief for an Eternity’ will soon be traveling to Arnhem as I have been invited to perform at the collective’s come-together This Is Not A Fair on the 8th of April, 5 pm. This is what it is about… and I am chilled to arrive there 🙂

As for the selected works, we see them as a starting point for echoes and conversations that will bridge connections for people who are working on publishing practices. Publishing and printing are not solitary endeavors; they require collaboration and collectivity.

This is Not A Fair
7-9th April
Location: @platform_post
Platform for comtemporary art,
Arnhem Driekoningenstraat 16, Arnhem
Graphic design: @baboonboom
The event is hosted by Not Just a Collective

Not Just a Collective consists of a group of multidisciplinary artists, researchers and designers who share a common desire to discuss artistic progress and create a space for emerging international artists. To work on a supporting framework together, Not Just a Collective set out to host a series of art and cultural activities contributing to multi-disciplinary practices in art ecology. Moreover, it is not only a collective, in conventional perception, but also a community aiming to breed new initiatives and foster cultural participation by facilitating accessibility.

SLEEPERTOWN in Italy, 2023

I am delighted to let you know that the project SLEEPERTOWN will take place in the Lazio region with a planned opening in June 2023. For my work Rapid(s)Train the curators have confirmed the amazing ancient archeological site of Norba which was once a flourishing city approximately 50km south of Rome.

SLEEPERTOWN is a mobile public art programme curated by Richard Carr and features six diverse sonic artworks from the following artists: Michael Petry (Director; MOCA London) & John Powell (Oscar Nominated Film Composer), Gabi Schaffner (Artist, Berlin), Younes Baba-Ali (Artist Morocco/Belgium), Carmen Torrano Mellado (Double Bass | Georgian National Philharmonic Orchestra), Joseph Young (Artist UK), Aoise O’Dwyer (Violist Ireland), Camilo Gaete Puga (Double Bass Chilie/Ireland) and Richard Carr (Artist Ireland).

Playing on the sonic similarity of fast flowing/falling waters and the sound of trains rushing by, RAPID(S)TRAIN combines selected recordings of German and other international train stations with recordings of rivers, waterfalls and oceanscapes. Central to the compositions are concepts of flowing, passing by, announcements, the din of voices, steps and trolley bags, the interplay of distance and locality. Both water and rail are part of the global system of transporting goods; they are as much linked to economy as they are to personal and sensual experience. Train stations form a re-sounding universe with past and presence rushing into an off-site future.
Each piece creates a fictional journey with Norba as its departure point. The combination of real-time field recording and samples, layering, acceleration and deceleration corresponds to the juxtaposition of microsound and melody, noise, language and signal. All four works have been specifically composed for SLEEPERTOWN.

Locations and Credits
Underpass Falls (Melbourne, London Kensington, Bremen, Skogarfoss Falls) Concert Recording, Berlin: Ansgar Wilken (Cello), Ruth-Maria Adam (Violin)
Gutang Passing Time (Taipei Metro Station Gutang, Shortwave recording, Hualien Beach, Gudurfoss Falls)
Condofuri Brass (Vinyl record “Eisenbahnclub Köln” 1964, Condofuri Station, Condofuri Beach, Acireale: “Banda Historica” Brass Orchestra, Skogarfoss Falls)
Waving to Elevators (Berlin, Hamburg, Cacilhas/Lisbon, Oldenburg, Vienna, Frankfurt/Main, Azhimuhkam Beach

The project utilises mobile technologies (Geo-Fencing) to create a parallel listening world, accessed digitally within the public realm. This world coexists with our ‘real-world’ geographical landscape and encourages people to move through the town to specific spaces/places. As they move, they trigger and immerse themselves, in new public artworks via their personal mobile devices. 

{A Wave Novel} radioart.zone LUX

Thinking of waves, thinking maybe of radio, I imagined a wave… sloshing/rolling on for 22 hours. As in an ocean, a wave does not exist by itself. It moves with others in intricate patterns and feeds on the energies of the wind. Small ones at first, all miracles of physics, they become a 4-dimensional being, rolling over, licking, and spitting.

This is how it started…. thinking about waves and pondering on the enormous task to compose a 22-hour piece for the radioart.zone festival in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg! I am happy to announce that the archive of the festival is now online! More than 100 radio artists participated and you can listen to ALL their works!
This is a link to “A Wave Novel”:


Waves offer no paths. Our mind, in a nutshell, floats on them. I got lost, often – while recording and while listening. Just like it happens with most radio waves.

The seas are open.

Credits

I owe many of these recordings to the kindness of friends, colleagues, hosts… and unknown strangers. Thank you all!
Thanks also to Ernst Markus Stein, who introduced me to the world of mimeographs.

Credits (numbers = chapter of appearance):
Anita Hannunen (17; 22), Carla Genchi (19), Charlotte Law (11), Chrisse Candolin (16), Claudio Comandini (19), Dirk Heiden (20), Erkki Pirtola (10), Felix Schroeder (19; 20), Hannes Wienert (20), Hans Kellett (20), Hauyu Yang (18), Jukka Ylisuvanto (11; 12), Kate Donovan (7), Kirsi Poutanen (16), Lilli Moors (17), Lori Huang (19), Chen-Chi Huang (20) Madelynne Cornish (11; 17), Margaret Shiu (20), Mathias Deutsch (2, 20), Mi Duncker (Sea Jump; 1), Mimosa Pale (Musical Saw), Nathalie Grenzhaueser (1; 14), Niina Lehtonen-Braun (2), Olsen Wolf (Accordion), Papu Pirtola (16), Richard Schaffner (22), Simone of Melbourne (11), Singlust e. V. (21), Stella Braun (19), Susan Beattie (11), Teemu Tuonela (11; 16), Teuri Haarla (9; 11), Tina of Helsinki (16), Tina-Marie Friedrich (6; 7), Tixa Juha (17; 19), Ulrike Stöhring (16; 20), unknown musician (Ukulele!), Mr. Vijay Thiruvady (20), Yrjänä Sauros (19)

07.11.2022 Gwaith Sŵn’s Sonic Darts: LoFiLoop

“Hi Gabi

Many thanks for submitting your work to Sonic Darts. I’m pleased to say we’ve included your track, LoFi Loop, in the next show, to be broadcast at 10pm GMT on Monday 7th November 2022 and repeated at 6am on the following Sunday. The show will be broadcast on Resonance FM via 104.4FM in London and online at https://resonancefm.com, and simulcast on DAB+ via Resonance Extra. It will also be available to stream after the broadcast on the Resonance FM mixcloud https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/.

We will also be posting about the show on our facebook and twitter accounts: @gwaithswn.”

Songbook ‘Bewilderung’

Bewilderung is a geolocated sound installation and can be heard via an app on your mobile phone: Echoes.xyz at the Güterbahnhof – Areal für Kunst und Kultur, Bremen.

A handmade ‘songbook’ assembles the poems written for this audio walk in German and English language. The project will continue and eventually be released as a record.

Poems, herbarium, and translations: © Gabi Schaffner
Proofreading: Kate Donovan, Helen Thein
Graphics: Tiger Stangl
Printing and binding: Marion Bösen

We are the wilderness under your feet. Unasked for, usually uninvited

We are manifold, inconspicuous, tiny, unknown and nameless (for most of you humans). 
Among us, we keep company with the ants and earthworms, chat with the sand bees and the wasps 
Among us we trade grains of sand for wilted leaves and remnants of organic matter.
Among us we share the seasons and weather, the chemicals and the iron dust of the rails.
Among us, inaudible to your ears, we suck the sunlight into our cells and breathe quietly onto the asphalt. 
Among us, there are trade routes trafficking countless seeds and sagas. 
Where you tread on us 
Where tyres press us into the dirt, 
we stay small, our flowers keep their heads low. 
Where we can thrive along the roadsides, 
in corners overlooked by the efficient minds (of your generation), 
in deserted warehouses 
we sprout from cracks in the ground. 

Into the cracks of human consciousness, 
we send forth our roots and shoots, 
and all sorts of seeds 
that spiral featherlike down the hallways of your dreams: 
We are wilderness as long as we are strangers, fellow creatures once you see us, 
a sanctuary once you need us.   - And you will.

New Radia Show #905

Freunde

Broadcast now (August 4 to August 13) on https://radia.fm: The ‘radia mix edit’ of Errant Waves in Arcadia. Originally commissioned by Cashmere Radio, some tweaks were added and/or left out 🙂

ERRANT WAVES IN ARCADIA
by GABI SCHAFFNER

Frequencies permeate our life world on all levels.

They can be abstract, unfathomable, they can lurk at the threshold of our hearing, they can be extremely figurative or even plainly obtrusive. They can be soothing, piercing, alarming, beautiful, awe-inspiring, familiar. Once in a blue moon they come along single, as one clear tone, more often they huddle in clusters or patterns. Frequencies sail like clouds along the horizons of our perception. They rain on us. And they sneak into the deepest layers of our brain, where they conjure up memories or feelings or both.

As a series of life-world-frequency vignettes, “Errant Waves in Arcardia” assembles varied notions of mimicry, dirt, duration, and osmosis.

Recordings and composition: Gabi Schaffner, 2022
Accordion: Olsen Wolf, 2020
Musical Saw: Mimosa Pale, 2012/2020
Cat: Augustin, 2021
Drums: Toni Brokoli, Patrick Guderitz, 2020
String instrument: Anonymous Lady in Folk Music Shop, Taiwan 2019
Xylophone: Stella Braun, 2011
Husky dogs: recorded by Nathalie Grenzhaeuser, 2021

Bewilderung

„Bewilderung“, by Gabi Schaffner

GPS-based audio walk on the wild and cultivated plants of the Künstlerhaus Güterbahnhof [freight train station] Bremen. EN/DE. Permanent exhibition, 3 years minimum.

Via a free ‘app’ (echoes.xyz) installed on your mobile phone, < 6 compositions can be listened to while walking among the plantings on the grounds of the Güterbahnhof art and culture area. 

The focus is on a selection of wild plants that, although ubiquitous and indispensable to the insect world, are ‘blank slates’ in their (medicinal, ecological, historical) peculiarities for most city dwellers: Evening Primrose, Mugwort, Yarrow, Mullein, Wild Carrot, etc.

The compositions approach the respective plant in different ways: in dialogues, as sonification, via onomatopoeia, song, narration, and field recording.

The aim is a series of musical pieces that convey a sensory-poetic experience of the wild plant world – including its communications and secrets invisible to the human eye. The installation will be open to the public and accessible around the clock from the 18th of September 2022 on

Open Call: Air on Air

Open Call: Air on Air
Datscha Radio will broadcast from the 8th Art Biennale in Ii, Finland. From June 15-19, 2022.

About

Art Ii Biennial addresses current themes, participates in the public discussion through the methods of art and boldly combines the rich cultural heritage of Ii with contemporary art.

The main focus of the event is ecological, economical, social and cultural sustainability.

This year’s theme is In the Air. How can the interconnected immateriality of air be communicated using the methods of art.

Text: https://artii.fi/

Broadcasting  about and  listening  to  ‘just  air’  seems  to  be  an  unusual  concept.  This  is  mainly  because  we  take  air  for  granted.  Actually,  it  is  not.  The  next  planet  with  a  probability  of  having  an  atmosphere  breathable  for  our  species  lies  159  lightyears  in  a  distance. 

Datscha Radio’s 2022 event “Air on Air” will present a 24/5 hour radio stream of the air in Ii. For three hours each day we will invite artists and locals alike into our studio to talk about air and present selected works from the open call. For the remaining hours a microphone will transmit the atmospheres of Ii. 
Air on Air” will happen from the 16th to the 19th of June 2022, we will be broadcasting directly from the park of the Biennal, close to the banks of the river Iijoki. The broadcasts can be heard online on datscharadio.de and via micro FM on the grounds of the Biennale.

The Call

Most  people  consider  air  sound  as  boring,  since  it  contains  not  much/redundant/ uninteresting  information.  The  contrary  might  be  true.  Air  does  not  only  form  the  background  of  anything  we  perceive  by  our  sense  of  hearing:  It  constitutes  the  very  precondition  of  why  we  hear  at  all.  There  is  no  transmission  of  sound  in  empty  space.   

What  travels  empty  space  and  almost  any  space  though,  is  radio.  In  the  shape  of  electromagnetic  waves,  radio  frequencies  have  been  with  the  cosmos  from  its  very  beginning…  and  they  travel  on  forever,  no  matter  whether  they  are  emitted  by  cosmic  explosions,  radioactive  matter,  microwave  ovens,  mobile  phones,  or,  in  that  instance,  by  Datscha  Radio. 

Let us broadcast your ‘airborne’ compositions and sonic musings together under the midsummer skies of Northern Finland. Datscha Radio is looking forward to your radiophonic input.

How to

  • Please send your files via wetransfer to info@datscharadio.de. Air
  • Please send as MP3 in 192-300 mbits
  • Label your tracks: name_surname_title
  • Do not (!) send any links to downloads. Do not send your work as mail attachment. Thank you!
  • Please provide a pdf with two or three lines (400 spaces max) each about the piece and its relevance for the theme. Two or three lines (400 spaces max) about yourself, including a website if desired. 
  • Add a line as to whether you agree with having your broadcast work archived with Datscha Radio’s online documentation. 
  • Please put “Air on Air” as a subject line.
  • Deadline: May 20, 2022

What Datscha Radio can offer

Datscha Radio works on a non-commercial basis, therefore we cannot reimburse you for your valuable time and work. Instead, what we have to offer is this:

  • your work will be presented within the frame of the Art Biennal Ii 15-19 June, locally on FM,and worldwide on stream
  • a radio art platform for discovery, exchange and networking
  • sustainability: the documentation of “Air on Air” will be archived and made accessible on mixcloud (your agreement provided)

All copyrights stay with the artists.

Datscha Radio@ii biennal 2022

Datscha Radio will travel to Finland! Very happy to announce that our proposal “Air ‘on Air'” has been accepted by the curator’s team of the Art Biennal Ii. For information about the festival, see https://artii.fi/
Datscha Radio Ii will be realised by Gabi Schaffner and Tina-Marie Friedrich, allgirls Berlin international.
More news soon !

False Forks@Maerzmusik

Today and tomorrow: My commissioned piece “False Forks – Errant Waves in Arcadia” will be broadcast within the frame of Cashmere Radio’s collaboration with Maerzmusik festival Berlin 2022. There will be a listening session starting on Sunday, 10 pm, at Cashmere Radio.
For more info please look into https://cashmereradio.com/

False Forks (Errant waves in Arcadia)
32:35 min

Frequencies permeate our life world on all levels. They can be abstract, unfathomable, lurk at the threshold of our hearing, be extremely figurative or even plainly obtrusive. They can be soothing, piercing, alarming, beautiful, awe inspiring, familiar. Seldomly, they come along single, as one clear tone, more often they huddle in clusters or patterns. Frequencies sail like clouds along the horizons of our perception. They rain on us. And they sneak into the deepest layers of our brain, where they tickle memories or feelings or both.

For this piece, I was looking for frequencies offside the tech sphere (if such a thing is possible). There is, of course, the language of animals and the mumblings of human voices, the resounding of instruments, elemental drones, doorbells, sewing machines. I became especially interested in those clusters of wavelengths one finds grouped in little scenes of everyday life. While having fun with my work I kept thinking about ‘forking paths’ and forks and branches, about ‘taking a wrong turn’, and about mazes and ‘amazement’. It seems though, that frequencies are much too ephemeral to follow any track, be it right or wrong. Under their cloaks of math or (astro)physical formulas I imagine they foster secret urges to roll about in the mud and dirt, to permeate and mingle, to travel as sirens across the seas of the city, or to be breathed out of the pleats of an accordion.

As a series of life-world-frequency vignettes, “False Forks (Errant Waves in Arcardia)” assembles varied notions of mimicry, dirt, duration and osmosis.

Recordings and composition /Aufnahmen und Komposition
Gabi Schaffner 2022

Credits
Accordion/Akkordeon: Olsen auf Aldebaran, 2020
Musical Saw/SIngende Säge: Mimosa Pale, 2012/2020
Cat/Kater: Augustin, 2021
Drums: Toni Brokoli, Patrick Guderitz, 2020
String instrument/Saiteninstrument: Anonymous lady in Folk Music Shop, Taiwan 2019
Xylophone/ Xylophon: Stella Braun, 2011
Recording Husky dogs / Aufnahme von Huskys: Nathalie Grenzhaeuser, 2021

Radio Art Zone!

22 hours of radio art per day, all by a world-wide community of renowned radio artists. I am honored to have been invited to contribute: You can listen to the 22-chapters of {A Wave Novel} here.
The piece was broadcast on the 28th of June 2022.

RadioArtZone was a 100 day festival
https://radioart.zone/
A radio art project by Radio ARA and Mobile Radio
for the European Capital of Culture Esch 2022

Imagine a radio that sounds different every day…

Radio Art Zone is a 100-day radio art station for Esch2022,
which will be broadcast in the south of Luxembourg by
Radio ARA on 87.8 FM. It will also be live-streamed for a
worldwide audience and transmitted by a network of
international partners.

The Radio Art Zone schedule consists of two daily
programmes: newly-commissioned 22-hour radio productions
created by more than 100 international and local artists, and
2-hour live shows from kitchens in the community.

Additionally Radio Art Zone offers artist residencies,
workshops, youth productions plus interventions in public
space, opening up participatory opportunities for residents
and visitors to the Capital of Culture region.

…welcome to the zone where radio and art mix freely!

Exhibition Tor 40

Painting, drawing, silkscreen prints, geo-located audio walk

Invitation to the exhibition at Tor 40, Bremen
Opening: 24. September, 8 pm
Performance “Duftgesänge” with Gabi Schaffner and Hans Kellett that same evening

September 24 – October 3, 2021
Open daily from 3 pm to 6pm
or contact Tor26@gb-bremen.de

Wir freuen uns, daß wir in diesem Sommer 3 Künstler*innen
ins Gastatelier im Tor 26 einladen konnten. Sie haben dort jeweils zwischen 4 bis 6 Wochen gearbeitet. APL315 ist aus der Ukraine,
lebt jetzt seit mehreren Jahren in Montenegro. Gabi Schaffner lebt und arbeitet in Berlin. Anya Triestram ist tätig in Wien und
Leipzig. In dieser Ausstellung präsentieren sie ihre Arbeiten, die zum Teil in Bremen entstanden sind.

Address:
Güterbahnhof Bremen – Areal für Kunst und Kultur
Beim Handelsmuseum 9, 28195 Bremen
www.gb-bremen.de

Sneak preview of 10″ record cover. Number of copies: 20. Release date: 24. September 2021
Exploring plants and poems: interactive “Echoes” map of Güterbahnhof Bremen.

KukkaShopOverdrive, 25.06.21 DLF

Location Podcasts
Zusammengestellt von EBU Ars Acustica Group
Mit Beiträgen von verschiedenen Autor*innen
Moderation: Golo Föllmer
Produktion: EBU Ars Acustica Group 2021
Länge: 54’30A

Pleased to become part of the Location Podcasts, broadcast on Deutschlandradio Kultur, June 25, 0:05 h.

Admittedly this is a hare and not a hen, and there is also no busy nighttime street pictured…
So, the binaural Kukkashop Overdrive is very different from whatever you might expect. That is probably good.

18.04. 10pm CET: OTTO MöTÖ on HR 2 Kultur

Turn up the volume and rejoice: The era of combustion engines is coming to an end. And Ms Schaffner’s radio play “Otto Mötö – From the Archives of Martti Mauri” foresaw it all! Feel free to dive into the sound world of Martti Mauri, Finland’s first motor music avantgardist, a forerunner of techno and music of shared origins and a true feminist composer and collaborator. His life ended in a car crash in 2003 – and let us go from there…

Draft for Cover. Schaffner 2012.

Otto Mötö was written and directed by Gabi Schaffner and received the prize “Radio play of the Month” in 2012. Mötö is also a collaborative project involving the following composers from Finland, Germany and Austria:

Lauri Kivelä, Jani Purhonen, Helsinki; „Pink Twins“ (Vesi & Juha
Vehviläinen), Helsinki; Tuomo Puranen (Op:l Bastards), Helsinki; Ovro, Finnland
Dirk Hülstrunk, Frankfurt; Michaela Schimun, Wien; Gabi Schaffner, Berlin; Martin Moritz, Hamburg
Idea/conception „Martti Mauri“: Gabi Schaffner, Martin Moritz 2009
All original sound recordings: Gabi Schaffner 2009 – 2012

THIS BEAUTIFUL SHOT…/Interview

THIS BEAUTIFUL SHOT IS NOT AN ACCIDENT

a podcast about the Creative Process, Storytelling and Social Change.

Join Laura Lukitsch speaking to artists, change-makers, and thinkers – creative humans who are deeply engaged in the creative process, exploring new ways of seeing the world and sharing what is possible.

In Season 3, Laura J. Lukitsch was talking with artists living or exhibiting in Berlin about their first solo show.

Interview with Laura Lukitsch, Filmmaker, Story Consultant 2021

Kaamos Radio. Finland

On the invitation of the Serlachius Art Residency in Mänttä, Finland, KAAMOS RADIO staged two 14-hour long broadcasts from its mobile studio in the town of Mänttä. In collaboration with the Berlin/Bratislava artist Marold Langer-Philippsen who supported the broadcast via a 6-hour live stream dedicated to a journey to Mars, “Aelita”.

Kuunvalo nukahti ja tähdet katosivat taivaalta. Ja maa hengitti hiljaa lumen alla.
The moonlight fell asleep and the stars disappeared from the sky. And the earth breathed quietly under the snow.

A radiophonic journey into the (sub)arctic winter.

The term ‘Kaamos’ refers to the lightless period of the year (above the 60th latitude) when the sun lingers below the horizon. Kaamos is the time of darkness, of stillness and quietude and of the arctic light, a time for storytelling, contemplation and of taking a rest. A Sami legend tells us of the ‘Nest days’, because it was believed that the sun rests like an egg in its nest during that time. ‘Kaamos’ also
stands for a mental state that is difficult to endure and is also used synonymously for winter depression in Finnish culture.

LOCATION
The town of Mäntää-­‐Vilppula is located approximatly 180 km northeast of Tampere, on the shores of Lake Melasjärvi. It is surrounded by a sparsely populated landscape made up of forests, lakes and rivers. Temperatures in January and February go from – 20 to -­‐2 degrees Celsius. Northern lights occur at times.

KAAMOS RADIO will track both the phenomenon and variations of its inner states
-­‐ as a local radio sphere
-­‐ in field recording
-­‐ in talks with artists and musicians from the area
-­‐ via congenial guest contributions and radio streams
-­‐ as an ongoing attempt to respond to the conditions of light and temperature

PLEASE SHARE WITH ME
-­‐ theme specific compositions
-­‐ favourite winter‐time stories
-­‐ poems and spoken word
-­‐ recordings and investigations
Please send your files via wetransfer to kaamos@datscharadio.de.
Please provide two or three lines each about the piece and yourself including a website, if possible.
Please put Kaamos Radio Contribution as a subject line.

LIVE STREAM
As the project is still in its planning stage, the final dates need to be confirmed yet. Scheduled are
-­‐ Saturday, February 13, 2021
-­‐ Saturday, February 20, 2021
The length of the broadcasts is between 2 and 6 hours on the respective days.
DEADLINE
Please submit your audio pieces until the 3rd of February 2021

KAAMOS RADIO is a temporary radio art project located at the residency studios of the Serlachius
Museum in Mänttä/Central Finland. It is initiated and maintained by the Berlin sound artist and performer Gabi Schaffner, in cooperation with Sophea Lerner (Open Radio, Helsinki), Marold Langer-Philippsen (radiolada, Bratislava) and aporee.org (Berlin)

SCHEDULE
The program will grow with the flow of the events. There is no fixed time schedule. You’ll find a list of
all participating artists on the datscharadio website in due time.
KAAMOS RADIO CAN BE HEARD ON
● datscharadio.de
● openradio.in (play.openradio.in/public/openradio)
● in collaboration with other radio stations and projects (if interested, please, let me know)
Contact:
kaamos@datscharadio.de

Waste Culture on Common Waves

Pleased to announce that since November 1 Datscha Radio will be broadcast within the frame of the COMMON WAVES festival.

Super pleased also to find ourselves among long-standing friends, colleagues and collaborators. Please have a look at the schedule.
My personal thanks to Ute Seitz!

Common Waves is an International Radio Collective launched during Tbilisi Architecture Biennial 2020. Along the theme of the Biennial “What do we have in common” we will explore the different layers of common spaces – public, collectively organised or imagined spaces of community.

How do we share spaces? What defines the public areas around us? How are they built and what do they sound and look like? Do they serve the needs of communities or individuals, companies or states? Who decides how we move and act in our cities? How can we design open spaces that allow creativity and diversity?

Our answers to these questions may be artistic, activist, professional, transdisciplinary, historical, local, global, subversive or emotional. We believe in the power of independent radio to voice diverse perspectives and promote experimental approaches – even more so in international cooperations. This is why our collective is formed by various community and artist radios, podcasters and individuals.

The Common Waves Collective will produce and curate interviews, documentaries, sound art and DIY radio formats during Tbilisi Architecture Biennial 2020 and beyond.

Nachtgartenkosmos 4 Cashmere Radio

It is unusual enough to broadcast from a garden, creating a studio situation exposed to the immediate surroundings like weather, temperatures and background sounds. With “Nightgardening” In 2019, Datscha Radio took its experimental approach to the garden as a matrix for self-organization, autopoiesis and ecological radio art, even one step further. How can we approach the audible ecospheres of the night, what stories can be told, what fragrances turned into frequencies?

The compilation presents a mix of excerpts taken from “Plots & Prophecies” (2017) and “Nightgardening” (2019), followed by palimpsests and passages from Datscha Radio’s 2020 iteration “Listening to the Universe”. This latter event, happening from the 11th to the 13th of August, was dedicated to the Perseides’ meteor showers. Talks and readings, concerts and performances revolved around themes like sonification, storytelling, and cosmic relations in the so-called Anthropocene.

Credits

Datscha Radio: Nachtgartenkosmos

A radio(art) collage by Gabi Schaffner.
Length: 51:48 min
A commission for Cashmere Radio

List of participating artists and titles of their contributions
in order of their appearance

I What happened before

  • Intros Datscha Radio from the 2017 festival “Plots and Prophecies”
  • Body Garden Experiment by Kerry Morrison, read by Kate Donovan + Rosanna Lovell in conversation with Gregor Kaspar (Cut up)
  • Carolina Carubba: Kalimba Rain. Datscha Radio Madrid, 2018

II Nightgardening

  • Lukatoyboy: 7“ Bird Vinyls
  • Marold Langer-Philippsen: Maschkera (Excerpts)
  • Cutup: Niina Lehtonen-Braun: Iltakahvit + Kat Austen: The Beetles’ Harvest Supper
  • Niki Matita, Walter Schulze: Secret-en-plein-aire  (Excerpt)
  • Kate Donovan: Gratitude Ritual 
  • Peggy Sylopp with Gabi Schaffner: Dämmerungsspaziergang

III Listening to the Universe

  • Jingle Universe (Helen Thein)
  • Ally Bishop: Possible Vehicles for Time Travel
  • Kate Donovan with Sasha Engelmann: Satellite Séance
  • Tiger Stangl: Milchstraße links unten
  • Vladimir Kryuchev: Nye Sbylos (Some Dreams Never Come True)
  • Jasmina Al-Qaisi and Helena Otto „To the Belly and Back: Star Taste“ (Excerpts)
  • Elo Masing: Day Sky Improvisation +| Gabi Schaffner: Cosmogonic Storytelling I (Mix!)
  • Gabi Schaffner: Satellite Signals/Der Schweigende Stern
  • Tim Schleinitz and Helen Thein: GDR Science Fiction Movies + Niki Matita/Elo Masing: Nativitas (Cutup) + Tiger Stangl: Ein Stern geht auf (Backdrop, modified)
  • Ela Spalding: Moonrise Reflection / Gabi Schaffner: A Walk between Bamboo and Ghosts (Backdrop)
  • Marta Zapparoli (and Kate Donovan): Echoes from Outer Space
  • Sarah Washington: Datscha Owl, Datscha Radio Jingle 2012

Selection, editing and additional sounds: Gabi Schaffner, 2020

Radia.Fm: 2.-8.11.: Lost in Transmission

Lost in Transmission

LOST IN TRANSMISSION
… is a collaborative piece by Kate Donovan and Gabi Schaffner; editing and sound design: Gabi Schaffner.

Listen here: http://radia.fm/

How can we conceive of an expedition in non-territorial terms? Can we read the signals of our ecosphere? What if a reed turns out to be an antenna? Kate Donovan and Gabi Schaffner venture into the water retention basin of the Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin: at times an idyllic lake, sometimes a swampland the size of a football field, this body of water fluctuates between effective area and dreamscape, biomass and place of retreat.
Editing and sound design: Gabi Schaffner.

Radia.fm presentation by Verena Kuni, radio x, Frankfurt/Main.

The piece was conceived of during Datscha Radio’s iteration at the Firefly festival on the 30th of August 2020.

Also featured in this #814 show:

RADIO ECOLOGIES
… is a Radio Art piece by Kate Donovan, 2020, with narration by Molly Donovan Higham.
In this piece, radio is acknowledged as a natural as well as a human-made phenomenon, that is interconnected and active across species
and scales. The work asks: How does an expanded perspective impact our imagination of radio in the future?

Listening to the Universe – Radiophonien des Alls

Listening to the Universe – Radiophonien des Alls  

A radio art festival by Datscha Radio.
Realised by Gabi Schaffner, Helen Thein, Kate Donovan and Niki Matita

Every year in August, the Northern Hemisphere’s night sky is graced by meteor showers – the Perseids. Datscha Radio used this astronomical spectacle as the departure point for a 48-hour festival of radio art, from moonset at 2:04 pm on August 11, until 2 pm on August 13, 2020. 

Datscha Radio – a non-commercial, independent, nomadic and interdisciplinary Berlin radio art initiative – has been engaged in expanding the culture of radio creation since 2012. It aims to create new listening experiences beyond the dichotomies of culture/nature and sender/receiver. It is transmitted from an allotment garden in the north of Berlin. 

“Listening to the Universe – Radiophonien des Alls“ was dedicated to themes and music inspired by the phenomenon of the comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle.

With a broad spectrum of topics – from cosmogonical myths to the signals of meteor detectors, from starlight-inspired violin improvisations to experimental horoscopes – Datscha Radio traced the path of these ‘falling stars’ to their manifestations in space and matter as the fictions and artistic responses that are bound up with them. 

A documentation of our shows will be uploaded on mixcloud in due time.