Tag Archives: radio art

“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.

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.

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

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

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.

{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.”

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

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.

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!

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.

Duftgesänge

Pleased to announce that the German version of my 2019 “10 (S)Cent Poems” has been accepted for production by deutschlandfunk Kultur (German National Radio). Such, a new “Wurfsendung” is coming up. Curated by Julia Tieke.

Duftgesänge
Poems, recording & composition: Gabi Schaffner
Voice: Hans Kellett
Will we manage before the blooming season ends? Ms Schaffner hopes so!

Lavendel Lavendel Lavendel

Ein Duft steigt auf und rundet sich
schwebt in der Luft und weitet sich
wie ein Ballon…
So breit und weit
Wie der nächtliche Garten
Von einem Winkel
Zum anderen.

Oh würziges Amor-Aroma!
Du weckst die Damen aus der Ohnmacht
Du schöpfst den Trost ins müde Herz
Du bringst den Schlaf
Vertreibst die Pest.
Du wirst geliebt
Vom Hummelvolk
Und den Bienen.

Lavendel Lavendel

Du wehst davon in Wellen
Lavendel-Ballon
Du wehst davon in Welten
Verschwenderisch veränderlich

Ich atme
aromatisches Szenario,
veränderlich verschwenderisch…


May 17: “Radio Garten” at Kunstradio Vienna

How does making radio in the garden sound like? Between bugs and beetle bread, under the spell of the moon, in the small hours of the morning. How can the garden and its ecologies resound in radio?

These questions lay at the core of my archival and radiophonic investigations of what “makes” Datscha Radio special. On commission of Kunstradio Vienna a 51 minute sound collage was put together, to be broadcast on
– Mai 17
– 23 pm CET
https://oe1.orf.at/programm/20200517/598436/Datscha-Radio-ein-Radiogarten
– Produced by: Elisabeth Zimmermann

Includes excerpts of Datscha Radio 2017 and the Nightgardening series 2019 plus additional material. Datscha Radio Berlin is realized with Kate Donovan, Helen Thein and Niki Matita.

In A Nutshell

Für die Eröffnung des neuen Sendestudios des frbb am 31. März 2020 im Haus der Statistik am Berliner Alexanderplatz hat Datscha Radio die 10-minütige Radioklangkollage „Datscha Radio in a Nutshell“ beigesteuert, die auf datscharadio.de nachgehört werden kann.

Listen Here: datscharadio.de

Komposition und Bearbeitung: Gabi Schaffner 2020. Länge: 10 min
Mit #NikiMatita#KateDonovan#Ryan McFadyen #Frieder Butzmann #MichaelaSchimun#gabischaffner#UlrikeStoehring#SarahWashington#CatherineLee#Yi-ChunLiu #MabelWang#Ming-ChunCheng #RomiCasile#AlbertoGarcia#EvaKurly#BerlinerChorSinglust#HannesWienert#MimosaPale, #FXSchroeder#kateraugustin

The Lion Dreams Of Hunting

Ms Schaffner is pleased to announce that her composition “The Lion Dreams Of Hunting” forms part of EARLID’s latest online exhibition of 12 pieces about dreamscapes, THE DREAM HAD ME: http://www.earlid.org/posts/the-dream-had-me/. Get lured into your favourite lucid state!

Quick update: THE DREAM HAD ME will be broadcast by Wave Farm in May 2020. More info in short notice.

Thank you for including my work, Joan Schuman.

Radio works at Borealis Festival

A quick announcement: “The Dog That Licked Up A Star” has been selected by the Radiophrenia team in Glasgow to travel the airwaves of the Borealis Festival’s “Radio Space”. Also featured: “The Journey of the Earthworm” (a widely traveling specimen indeed) and “The Night of the NIghtingales” by Datscha Radio (featuring very wonderful story readings by Kate Donovan, many Berlin nightingales on a rainy predawn morning and the gruesome story of Philomena).

Night Gardening I-III

The night is, far more than the day, a sphere of transmission. Fragrances and odours are perceived more strongly, the ear is sharpened, the superiority of the visual recedes.
Since its inception, Datscha Radio has paid special attention to the night. In the three-part event series NACHTGÄRTNERN [NIGHT GARDENING], Datscha Radio intends to fill the living space of the night in a synaesthetic and radiophonic way. Each station is located in a different garden in Berlin. We will broadcast live, from exactly sunset to sunrise. (Depending upon transmission date, the transmitting time will vary).

I The Night of the Nightingales (April 30th) Datscha Radio explores the essence of the night on the first evening with a focus on the nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos). April 30th, 20.32 – 5:33, May 1st, 2019.
II Frequencies and Fragrances ( (August 8th) Datscha Radio will take one step further in its radio-sensory exploration of the nightly garden. How may scents translate into radio? August 8th, 20:46 – 5:39, August 9th
III Night Walks, Rituals and Ceremonies ( (October) 21st of October, 5:57 pm – 22nd of October 7:45 am.
Uneven ground, restricted view, in the truest sense of the word unforeseen obstacles: Walking in the dark activates different abilities of our senses and physics. Body boundaries shift and expand, and with them also thinking and imagination go new ways…

Radio Seed Bombs

On the evening of the award ceremony, Datscha Radio will release three radiophonic loops at Humboldthain Club, that can be captured on site with radio receivers.
“Radio Seed Bombs” is an acoustic cross-pollination and self-fertilization in one, conceived by radio artists Kate Donovan, Niki Matita and Gabi Schaffner.

“In “Seed Dispersal”, Kate Donovan explores the sounds and stories of various seeds on their journeys through water, air, and bodies: a cosmos of dispersal, told in radio snippets and sent upon a breeze. With sounds and voices from Pablo Juanes; Molly, Hunter & Scout.

Niki Matita presents “Babosa”: Eine Erkundung der Welt jener ungeliebten Gartenbewohnerinnen, die in vielen Menschen Ekel und Unmut hervorrufen. Niki Matita untersucht, ob, und wenn ja wozu, Nacktschnecken nützlich sein können, welche kulturelle und spirituelle Bedeutung ihnen zukommt und welche Abhilfe es gegen sie gibt.

With “Gymnospermia”, Gabi Schaffner will broadcast an illustrious potpourri of Sicilian fruit descriptions, seed sounds, lawnmower microsymphonies, and tiny garden soundscapes in fourteen miniature compositions. With the voices of: Paolo Cavarro, Hans Kellet, Dirk Heiden, Kate Donovan and Margarita (courtesy Romila Casile)

Radio Revolten Documentation


64 blog posts in 30 days
Commissioned by Radio Revolten, radio art festival in Halle, 2016. Curated by Knut Aufermann, Anna Friz and Sarah Washington.

NEW: Radio Revolten. 30 Days of Radio Art.
Knut Aufermann, Helen Hahmann, Sarah Washington, Ralf Wendt (Editors) Marcus-Andreas Mohr (Photographer)

2019. 358 pages. Spector Books
978-3-95905-189-7 (ISBN)

5th Nov. 23:00 Magnetic Layer #3
Going into the archive files is like going underground. You disappear into some rabbit hole of your presence and come to a wonderland of unreal imagery and puzzling sounds. And you come across piles of unused material: The „Red-Zone-Talk with Sally McIntyre recalling ghostly recording situations, an interview with Sebastian who was responsible for the omnipresent beautiful light design, a café-chat with Maya Urstadt, more portrait pics, stills, snippets of tram announcements, more talks… Order is an illusion. Documentation is an absurdist’s game.>

7th Nov. 10:13 Magnetic Layer #2,5: The Bee Hive
I imagine all artists have now returned to some sort of every-day-normality. Some things can’t be captured on film or tape or digital recorders. When people talk about an event like a festival that has passed the talk often turns to „the energy“ of that event, stuff that’s unfathomable but was there. Smiles, encounters, new friendships, prospective projects.
Thinking of Radio Revolten, the thought or image of a wild beehive comes to my mind instead, with the wave-world as a honey comb that provides sweetness and nourishment for present and future. Eventually with the performance of each artist signifying the „waggle dance“ of a bee, the unending, „figure eight“ of infinity showing the way to the multileveled pastures of reality?

19th Nov. 15:05 Magnetic Layer #0,1 The Lost Stuff/Gardener’s View
Some talks got lost though. I saved them, I sent them via mail to myself… they seemingly disintegrated on the way. Others just went to sleep on my hard drives… Others never happened like the one with Miyuki Jokiranta about the Australian sound artist scene. I had visited her in the studio during her broadcast when the sounds she brought with her stimulated an unusual growth of green. She also broke the sad news that her ABC program Soundproof has been sentenced to end this year. A shame and a terrible loss to the sound art and radio world!
Sorting more files: Most of it is reconstruction. Almost nothing – reality excepted – is as fleeting as radio (art). It is there and then it is gone. Situations that enveloped the body in a physical surrounding with noise, talks, sensual contact, wine, smoke and fresh air have strangely faded and taken their place in memory. Three weeks after Revolten the diary reminds me of one of those little wooden boxes where you stash „Krimskrams“, odd earrings and bracelets, chocolate, chewing gum, a spare SD-card, coins and foreign currency, a postcard or two, emergency cigarettes, and, as it is the case with gardeners: Seeds and seedpods…

22nd Nov. 17:49 Magnetic Layer 5
So maybe that is the way… seeds and bees and chewing gum and endless radio art possibilities to sprout and blossom from them (Don’t ask me how comes it is spouting from a chewing gum). Good news for the German readers: Almost all texts (- except this one for the moment!- ) have been re-transferred into my native tongue. Thanks again to Emil for helping out and thanks already to Helen Thein who will take care of some final adjustments and translations. Here come the last pictures of the garden that I took the morning after… our „antenna plant“ in the circle covered in all golden leaves…
Cheers, your diarist.

Last diary entry, 5th November 2017. Complete diary on radiorevolten.net