Son[i]a #438

Two decades ago, Sarah Washington and Knut Aufermann left London to embark on their journey as Mobile Radio. They left behind a few hectic years in which they had been part of the city’s improvised music scene. They had also contributed to setting up artist-run community radio station Resonance FM, gleaning a wealth of experiences and experiments in what became one of the main laboratories broadcasting radio art in Europe. Since then, Mobile Radio has been their vital artistic project, taking on diverse adventures, developing their hallmark style and their vision of radio as a tool, a medium, and a context, to where they have been invited.

Agitators by nature, their radio practice involves the activation of ephemeral radio stations that emerge from a mix of technical skills and knowledge, their desire to keep trying new things and testing the medium, and their capacity to bring out the best in the local communities that host them. Their projects –which often involve long timeframes and a certain monumental spirit– establish spaces of exception that interrupt the logic of radio and arts practices for brief, intense periods of time, forging relationships that open up new possibilities in their wake.   

In this podcast, Knut and Sarah talk about their approach to radio through the various spaces they have activated over the years: from workshops to major projects such as the studio at the São Paulo Biennial, Radio Revolten: 30 Days of Radio Art in Halle, and the 100-day Radio Art Zone. They also talk about smaller projects, such as their improvisation duo, Tonic Train, which encapsulates their idea of artistic practice –and life– as something dirty and leaky, in the best sense of the words.

Sound sources:

00:00 CWCH Collective, “Edition 11”
16:32 Knut Aufermann, “Radio Art Zone excerpt”
23:51 CWCH Collective, “Edition 4”
30:58 CWCH Collective, “Edition 6”
48:46 Sarah Washington, “In the Air We Share”
63:27 Tonic Train, “out there”