Being part of The Brunswick Club collective meant I had the opportunity to organise an event as part of our three year programme of activities funded by the West of England Visual Arts Alliance (WEVAA). At the end of July, with producer Rosie Bowery, I took great pleasure in curating a weekend of workshops, talks, improvisations and installations sited at Windmill Hill City Farm, and had the opportunity to invite some brilliant people to get involved, which led to many curious participants joining us for creative explorations into Radio Art.

TRANSMISSIONS : Radio Art Lab invited us to think about and play with how signals are transmitted and received in the human and the more-than-human world, exploring radio art, sound art, eco-acoustics, theremins, detoxifying gardens,  subversive streaming, pond dipping, weather instruments and listening together.  It was a fun packed weekend – below is a bit more information and documentation. All photographs by Ibi Feher.

Installation : Radio Air Garden by Magz Hall

Radio Air Garden uses plants which are known to absorb air pollution and are also great air pollinators promoting planting to improve air quality and linking in to the hundred-year long history of experimentation of using copper coils for growth, known as electro-culture. The first public edition of Radio Air Garden was planted up and installed at the farm for ‘Transmissions’ to provide a place to share radio art activities, workshops and talks and to raise awareness of air pollution. Read about Magz’ early years, involved with the very beginnings of Windmill Hill City Farm here.

Installation : Instant Public Address Systems by Lia Mazzari

Lia asks “how can landscapes be understood through listening?” Remote microphones broadcast in real-time from multiple locations enabling us to listen together through an outdoor PA system created from re-purposed tannoy system. This temporary network of live audio streams amplify and connect us to not-so-distant natural and urban sites in Bristol and further afield. Microphones listening in to various watery locations will invite us to explore spatio-temporal relations, duration and our resonating bodies.

Workshop: Build an FM Radio Transmitter with Magz Hall

Build your own mini-FM transmitter and begin broadcasting your own material from any amplified sound source in this workshop with Magz Hall. This DIY transmitter formed the basis of the ‘mini FM’ movement in Japan and Italy in the 1970s, allowing communities to form their own local broadcast infrastructure as the ultra-low wattage of the transmitters circumvented public broadcasting laws.

Workshop: Pond Dipping and Underwater Listening with Ian Thornhill &  Kathy Hinde

Freshwater ecologist, Ian Thornhill, led an session to learn about the wildlife living in the pond at Windmill Hill Farm through pond-dipping and a water quality survey. Ian was accompanied by artist Kathy Hinde who offered the opportunity to listen to the wildlife garden from a new perspective using different kinds of microphones and listening enhancing devices. We tuned in to the tiny sounds made by underwater creatures and plants; listened closely to the inner world of a tree and discover sounds from below the surface of the ground – or, infact, in the manure!

Talk: ACOUSTIC ECOLOGIES with Magz Hall, Lia Mazzari, Ian Thornhill and Ana Castro-Castellon chaired by Teresa Dillon

A stimulating conversation between artists and scientists touching on issues around listening, soundscapes and ecology. How might listening help protect vulnerable species, and foster empathy between humans and the ‘more-than-human’ world? How might plants and green infrastructure improve air quality as we co-exist in urban spaces? Our invited guests each presented their area of research, followed by an opportunity for questions to continue the conversation. Artist – Magz Hall (Radio Air Garden); Artist – Lia Mazzari (Instant Public Address Systems); Scientist – Ian Thornhill (bioacoustics and freshwater ecology); Scientist – Ana Castro-Castellon (Phytoremediation); Chair – Professor Teresa Dillon (Professor of City Futures, UWE).

Talk / Demo: Subversive Streaming with Matthew Olden

Matthew presented an artist talk on his discoveries using computers and radios. During this hour-long session Matthew demonstrated how to use computers, specifically the affordable and accessible Raspberry Pi, to receive and send radio signals. He explained how to set up a web-streaming box to broadcast localised sounds to the internet and demonstrated how easy it is to get live streaming up and running with OBS. Additionally, Matthew introduced SDR radio setups, allowing listeners to tune into any radio band worldwide, and demonstrate slow scan TV (sending pictures by radio), spy radio channels, how to use a Raspberry Pi to interrupt broadcasts on FM, and using a Raspberry Pi computer to create an offline local network for data sharing.

Workshop: Build an Electroculture Aeolian Antenna from found objects with Magz Hall

In this workshop, participants learnt about early French electro culture and Magz’s Radio Air Garden project, followed by the opportunity to have a go at making their own sculptural antenna to aid plant growth – which added toa stunning and playful centrepiece for the radio air garden.

Workshop: Build a Theremin with Bristol Communal Modular

The BCM Theremin aims to be super simple to build, really immediate to play, totally portable and loads of fun to experiment with. Using a couple of crocodile clips, you can turn almost anything metal into a controller for the instrument. With the built in speaker you can create weird sci-fi sounds anywhere. The electronics are very beginner friendly to build, but should also be a great starting point for anyone that wants to understand how a theremin works, and how it lets your body become part of the circuit.

Workshop: Join “Our Radio Orchestra” led by Matt Davies

In this workshop, a new version of Our Radio Orchestra was born – a performance for 6 radios, 12 operators and one TV inspired by John Cage’s: Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1951). During the workshop participants created their own unique aleatoric score in pairs, which they used to perform with later in the day. Matt Davies’ sound work is primarily engaged with the act of listening and the exploration of chance based composition. Matt is a member of BEEF (Bristol Experimental and Expanded Film) and the Brunswick Club.

Performance: Radio Garden Improvisation

A final celebration of the weekend of TRANSMISSIONS: Radio Art Lab – in the beautiful Garden Theatre at Windmill Hill City Farm, saw a lineup of experimental and improvised performances, including the Radio Orchestra peformance, improvisations with Theremins, synths and radios aplenty, including ‘Rummage‘ by Robin Thorn, a synth module that responds to bio data from plants will respond to Magz Hall’s Radio Air Garden… with audience participation…