Sisters Akousmatica: Herstory of Radio
ISLAND | ISSUE 153
[Transmitter 1] .-. . ... .. ... - .- -. -.-. .
[Transmitter 2] ... .. ... - . .-. ... / .- -.- --- ..- ... -- .- - .. -.-. .-
[Les Deux Voix] Sisters Akousmatica are inspired by the radical possibilities of radio, its porosity and the embodiment of the akousmatic[1] nature of a voice divorced from its source.
[Voix Onde] Sisters Akousmatica create curatorial, artistic and written projects which are concerned with collective radio practices, auditory-spatial exploration and the potential of emergent art forms to support, promote and cultivate socio-cultural and gender minorities in the field of sound arts.
[Voix Fantôme] We are seeking the truth of herstory through investigations of hidden radio broadcasts, communities and person-to-person communications.
[Voix Onde] Radio exists everywhere — whether we access it via transmission, or not. Its magic is that it is available to just about anyone, and is a potent site for both potential radical action and, very simply, communication between people. Radiophonic technology provides an invisible spectrum of possibilities to invade visible territories, reaching all ears in cars, homes and workplaces.
[Transmitter 1] Gather a space, Form your agoradio, Open discussion, Spread.
[Transmitter 2]
Roisin Madigan O’Reilly, Florence McKenzie, Tokyo Rose, Beatriz Ferreyra, Medora Olive Newell, Nadia Boulanger, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Gudrun Gut , Clara Rockmore, Maggy Payne, Maryanne Amacher, Christine Groult, Kathleen Parkin, Alice Shields, Laurie Spiegel, Else Marie Pade, Eliane Radigue, Olive Heartburg, Ada Lovelace, Johanna Beyer, Vera Wyse Munro
[Voix Fantôme] We work with invisible radiophonic networks to invade territories from within. In the same rhizomatic way, we use metafiction as a tool to undermine traditional history to reveal alternative herstories and investigate ‘proof of existence’ of women and non-binary explorers and generate future discoveries.
[Transmitter 2] The body itself, as you know, is an electrical device.[2]
[Voix Fantôme] The act of simply being women in public space, in radio/broadcast space, in performance space, in the world, can be a radical one – but we do not wish to leave it at that.
[Transmitter 1] How? How to begin to unpick a thousand years of cultural status quo?
[Voix Fantôme] There is a long tradition of radio as a vehicle for narrative-driven and fictional stories, emergency, espionage, propaganda, and two-way communications between political operatives – a vessel for information and misinformation.
[Voix Onde] By using methods and conventions of fiction and narrative we have almost limitless and free rein to create herstory, and present, of our choosing. By combining these structures and community-building activities we magnify and multiply opportunities for alternative stories to be told, and heard.
[Voix Fantôme] Collective initiatives seem more efficient at amplifying little-heard voices than individual efforts (For example the Female:Pressure network[3]) – and thinking here directly of the idea of many voices creating an analogue amplification through multiplication: the telephone-tree, the human megaphone. Of course, community radio is another way in which the voices of minorities have been given space – community radio, unlike its male-dominated commercial counterpart is a space in which women are trained in production and management[4].
[Voix Onde] Recently, we were commissioned by Radio33 (Hobart artist Tricky Walsh’s transmission project) to create a new broadcast work for Hobiennale 2017[5]. For this work we explored the fascinating worlds of Róisín Madigan O’Reilly (referred by Dr Jennifer Walshe’s The Avant Garde Archive of Ireland[6]) and Vera Wyse Munro (a pioneering New Zealand ham radio broadcaster, improviser and sonic experimenter, studied by the artist Celeste Oram[7]). Over the past year we have dedicated time to getting to know each of these women. In the case of Madigan O’Reilly, we took her instructional artworks Waves By Waves and Vowelling the Heaviside and created our own performance from them – performing live on the east coast of Tasmania in the winter of June 2017 as part of a retreat for women and non-binary sound artists. We approach this interaction in a collaborative and wholy authentic sense – we are 100 per cent invested in the fact that these herstorical works do form part of the canon of sound art, lost and found again. And by re-mixing, performing, ritualising and bringing them into existence, as Celeste Oram re-enacts Vera Munro’s practice, we give them a dedicated and empowering space in the current and contemporary sphere of sound-making. We hold up these works as beacons of possibility to prevent them of remaining unrecorded and unrecognised.
Sisters Akousmatica, The Silent Key, Adhocracy, Vitalstatistix 2017
Photo by Sarah Eastick and Heath Britton
[Transmitter 1] Transmission extract NM, SK: Think of this: (In theory) an electromagnetic wave will continue to radiate independently through free space infinitely, even if the originating current is stopped and the conductor removed.
Even the meat-sack of our bodies (made from stardust and billions of years of coincidence) emits an electromagnetic frequency – vibrating ‘beyond the red’, warm waves as we move through the world. 12 microns over and over forever.
Waves are waves are waves are waves.
[Voix Onde] The Silent Key ~ found online or via terrestrial broadcast (mouth-to-ear)
[Voix Fantôme] Through an investigation of a worldwide mysterious broadcast known as The Silent Key[8] we collect clues and facts of an alternate herstory where only female and non-binary people have access to radio technology; a secret network that connects via shortwave communications and clandestine broadcast. The use of shortwave radio network and communication structure provides a global ‘sisterhood’ with few rules and little bureaucracy and an ability to transcend language, religion and race – while never quite knowing who we might come in contact with. Also it will still function when the digital and phone networks collapse.
[Voix Onde] The Silent Key, in amateur radio parlance, is a term for the ‘end of transmission’ or the call-sign of a deceased radio operator. Here, though, we use it to describe the act of moving from one transmission site to another, untraceable, but leaving traces, being re-born each time on a different wavelength or vanity call-sign. Inspired by spy novels, international espionage, and mysterious radio broadcasts, The Silent Key is a playful relay of shortwave broadcast messages delivered to and from shortwave radio stations around the world. Augmented by a series of terrestrial radio, online and IRL clues, performances, broadcasts, cryptic messages, publications, QSL postcards, street posters, ham radio communications and social media interventions,The Silent Key is a complex web of (mis)information that connects operators and listeners across the world and creates a constellation of shortwave artefacts, actions and broadcasts. Accessible from varied points, it gives clues to locate the next radio station and the content of the next chapter, riding an adventurous wave signal.
[Voix Fantôme] There are about three million amateur radio operators worldwide and hundreds of shortwave stations broadcasting daily around the clock, and Sisters Akousmatica are always listening – seeking out unusual and strange broadcasts. We propagate ear-to-ear signals and encourage people to meet on the airwaves and public space, with organised broadcasts from shortwave and ham radio enthusiasts around the world, to connect more and more synaptic islands. Sometimes physically separated, but always connected through transmission networks.
[Voix Onde] This is our starting point: a world where the contribution of gender minorities to radio is status quo, where the secrets of the Heaviside are ours alone. We create connections between radio artists now and radio artists then, between grains of sand and the ocean. Waves are waves. Static. A needle across a dial. Signals everywhere. On everything. Pinging up and bouncing back. Waves make waves. There are secrets to be had on radio: messages that are both public and private. Espionage happens on airwaves, and teenagers request songs for secret loves.
[Transmitter 2] . -. -.. / --- ..-. / - .-. .- -. ... -- .. ... ... .. --- -.
[Transmitter 1] L’art d'Émettre en relation[9]. Dans l’air, on peut s'élever. Je suis ici, et je suis là.
Ma voix s'élève dans l’au-delà. ▼
Sisters Akousmatica, Postcard, 2018, courtesy of the artists
All other images: Sisters Akousmatica, Next Wave Festival 2016
Photos by Keelan O’Hehir
NOTES[1] Akousmatic comes from Ancient Greek ἀκουσματικός (akousmatikós), from ἀκούω (akoúō, ‘I hear’). It refers to a sound that has no visually identifiable cause, inspired by Pythagorean disciples who for years listened to his lectures from behind a curtain, unable to see him. This method prevented his discourse being disrupted by facial expressions or gestures, maintaining focus on the sound and meaning of his voice. Radio is a medium that embodies at its best the absence of identifiable source.
[2] Ursula Meyer, ‘Conversation with Robert Barry, 12 October 1969’, in Douglas Kahn, Earth Sound Earth Signal: Energies and Earth Magnitude in the Arts (University of California Press, 2013)
[3] femalepressure.net
[4] The creation of Sisters Akousmatica was developed through Next Wave’s Emerging Curators Program with Liquid Architecture for Next Wave Festival 2016. The project was presented in association with Signal and 3CR and has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, City of Melbourne, Testing Grounds and The Channel. Sisters Akousmatica and 3CR were awarded the CBAA Excellence in Music Programming award at the 2017 CBAA Conference.
3cr.org.au/sistersakousmatica
[5] hobiennale.com/curated-shelf---radio-33.html
[6] aisteach.org/?p=93
[7] celesteoram.com/Vera-Wyse-Munro-1897-1966
[8] thesilentkey.com/
[9] syntone.fr/radio-revolten-ou-lart-demettre-en-relation/
This arts feature appeared in Island 153 in 2018. Order a print issue here.
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