Mobile Radio

art project by Sarah Washington & Knut Aufermann

Category Archives: 2013

KINHEIM-KINDEL November 2013

November 5, 2013 by Mobile Radio

Every autumn thousands of wine cellars in the Mosel valley, Germany’s premier wine growing region, turn into magnificent sound installations. Freshly pressed grape juice starts fermenting in barrels and the escaping gas bubbles through glass u-pipes, each barrel at its own speed. Mobile Radio set up seven microphones in the wine cellar of bio-dynamic winemakers Rudolf & Rita Trossen to capture and broadcast live these fermentation sounds, documenting the work of yeast turning juice into wine over a period of 17 hours. The following edit is a recording of the activity in the cellar during the midnight hour on the 5th November 2013.








 
Many radio stations from the Radia Network broadcast the sounds live through the night (Radio Panik, Radio Zero, free109point9/WGXC, Kanal 103, Radio Campus, Radio Corax, Reboot.fm, Soundart Radio) or as an edit later on (Radio x, Orange 94.0, Resonance104.4fm, Radio One 91FM, Närradio). Even state public radio and television in Germany (SWR1, SWR4 and SWR TV) reported on what they dubbed the ‘bubble symphony’.
A special sacrifice was made by the fruit flies who added their sparks to the soundscape by visting the fly zapper.








MULHOUSE October 2013

October 26, 2013 by Mobile Radio

We were invited to the week-long Franco-German Klapperstein meeting of university radio stations in Mulhouse to lead a radio hacking workshop.













Our workshop was held in a former textile factory that is slowly being converted into a cultural centre. Old FM radios were opened up and turned into beautiful noise machines by making new connections on their circuit boards. On the second day the participants, who came from campus or free radio stations in France and Germany, could also learn from Dinah Bird how to make a contact microphone.








Many aspects of the Klapperstein meeting were broadcast on a temporary FM frequency of Radio Campus in Mulhouse. Their approach was to transmit from various different make-shift locations in Switzerland (gallery), Germany (pub) and France (factory, club, restaurant, gallery space) which worked well and confirmed the possibility to run a radio station from many decentralized studios.

The final act of the meeting was a 24h Placard headphone festival which we opened with a Tonic Train set and later on included a performance by some of our workshop participants on their new musical instruments.

STOCKHOLM September 2013

September 22, 2013 by Mobile Radio


After our productive workshop at Konsthall C in May we returned with the idea to create a 24 hour radio art festival on two FM frequencies. Called Dubbelradio, it was probably the first such festival in the world.
The four-channel audio works that were performed and broadcast are hard to document, so we have made a video to show the scope of the project. Click here to watch it in HD. Listening will be greatly enhanced on headphones or decent speakers.

Dubbelradio logo by Hanna Stenman

HALLE July 2013

July 12, 2013 by Mobile Radio

As guest curator and contributor to the Addicted2Random festival of Radio Corax, Knut assembled an international group to produce Imaginary Radio Band No. 1 for the opening of the proceedings at the Händelhaus. The musicians performing live on stage were:

Andre Damião (BR), computer, voice
Børre Mølstad (NO), tuba, voice
Xentos ‘Fray’ Bentos (UK), guitar, voice
Knut Aufermann (DE), electronics, voice
Sarah Washington (UK), electronics, voice
With additional voices by Helen Hahmann and Ralf Wendt

The idea was to produce an acoustic journey through an uncharted band on the radio dial, jumping from station to station. We were lucky enough to work with the museum custodian Christiane Barth, who allowed us to perform on the organ built by Johann Gottlieb Mauer in 1770. The recorded version below is a special reworking of the live recordings for the Radia network by Xentos.



















Photos: Marcus Andreas Mohr

Other events of this wildly diverse and beautiful festival included a duo of Tetsuo Kogawa (on AM transmitters via live-stream from Tokyo) and Knut, a rare DJ set by the elusive Johnny Head-in-Air and the introduction of two people who should have already met decades ago…







STOCKHOLM May – June 2013

June 4, 2013 by Mobile Radio

We were invited by the artist group akcg to give a radio workshop at the artspace Konsthall C in a suburb of Stockholm













The idea was to offer practical skills and give some inspiration by showing an overview of radio art projects we have encountered and been involved with. The workshop ran over the course of a week and participants were an engaged group of local artists and political activists. One pair of artists wired up their dog with binaural microphones to create a canine sound exploration of the surrounding area. The workshop was designed to culminate in a two-hour live broadcast from Konsthall C on the largest community radio station in Stockholm








Alex Nowitz






The live broadcast from Konsthall C was the first radio show of the newly formed Centrifug Radio Populär. The name of the project reflects the other use of the building that Konsthall C shares – it is a working laundry for the neighbouring blocks of flats. We will return in September to carry out part two of the workshop


Tonic Train


Knut Aufermann
Johannes Bergmark
Sören Runolf



While we were in Stockholm we were able to take part in a few other events. We gave a concert at Fylkingen, which consisted of two duos and a quartet: Tonic Train & Fåglar av glas (Johannes Bergmark & Sören Runolf). Photos: akcg

We also managed to visit the famous Electronic Music Studio in the same building




City of Drizzle


Another reason for the timing of our visit was to take part in the launch of the latest OEI magazine. The edition includes a CD from Mobile Radio of a piece we made in São Paulo for Kunstradio. We were happy to help Cecilia and Jonas glue in the CDs to the cover. The piece is entitled City of Drizzle and reflects some of our experiences of working in Brazil:

Launch of OEI Magazine at Moderna Museet with an extended DJ set. Photo: akcg






We also gave an artist talk about Mobile Radio BSP at IASPIS together with OEI. Photos: akcg

VIENNA February 2013

February 24, 2013 by Mobile Radio

Our trip to Vienna began with a Tonic Train concert (watch) as part of the Stupid Third Wednesday concert series at the Rhiz.


Photo: klingt.org

The reason for our travel was an invitation by Marold Langer-Philippsen to join him for part 8 of his Paradise Lost series for Kunstradio. Here we got our first chance to use the fantastic ORF radio studio for a live broadcast. We got so completely lost in our radiophonic world that we missed the end of the show…








BREMEN January 2013

January 17, 2013 by Mobile Radio

For the celebration of the 1000050th birthday of art we were invited to do a joint broadcast with Willem de Ridder at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art. Initiated by Anne Thurmann-Jajes of the Research Centre for Artists’ Publications and hosted by Regine Beyer this was our first meeting with the fluxus godfather of radio art.











Thanks to Elisabeth Zimmermann from ORF Kunstradio in Austria our live stream was carried on the EBU satellite HAYDN for 20 minutes and picked up by radio stations around the world. It was a ball working with Willem, who has a knack for summoning up innumerable possibilities out of thin air. We gave a talk about Mobile Radio and performances in various combinations throughout the evening. Especially noteworthy was the duo of Willem’s compelling meandering voice and the echoing response of Sarah’s electronic beeps. They were lost in space for a little while there.