Expanding Radio. Ecological Thinking and Trans-scalar Encounters in Contemporary Radio ... - 0 views
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john roach on 30 Dec 23"This thesis is an exploration of some of the discourses arising out of the current ecological crises (Haraway 2016; Horton 2017) and argues that radio art is a constructive method for opening out practices of listening, for helping move beyond anthropocentric dialogues, and simultaneously beyond the constraints of dominant modes of storytelling. Ecological Thinking (Code 2006) and concepts of Planetary Time (Dimock 2003) are a useful framework from which to view contemporary radio art practices because they accentuate long and complex networks of interconnectivity, not only within nature, but, more recently, between living beings, technology and the environment. By identifying the interconnectedness of radio and transmission, and the possibility for immersion not only in the content but the process of the medium itself, it is hoped that recognition will be given to the necessity to think ecologically (holistically) in order to create sustainable symbioses between humans, technology and the living and 'non-living' entities of the planet. I begin by providing an outline of anthropocene discourses intertwined with radio and radio art practice. Then I describe and contextualize the radio art work 'chorus duet for radio' (Donovan 2016), positioning it as an example of a collective, trans-scalar listening encounter. I move on to posit radio as a valuable medium from which to critique and disrupt masculinised and westernised (radio) histories, and as an outlet for feminist, queer, and speculative re-tellings of the past. History is viewed here in the same way as electromagnetic radiation: as matter to be untangled. Finally I use the garden radio art project Datscha Radio17 (Schaffner 2017) to give an overview of how radio can be implemented in an expanded way to examine many of the interconnected themes of this thesis: the anthropocene, radio art, ecology, human and more-than-human networks, listening, speculative storytelling, and disruption. This thesis is an explor