Since their formation in 2000, the artist duo blablabor, consisting of Annette Schmucki and Reto Friedmann, has been dedicated to the creation of radio art. In their work, the radio is not just a medium but is present in all its functions, both technical and cultural: a transmitter of voices, of language, a form of communication. From recorded sound pieces to site-specific installations and performances, they have explored this medium and its possibilities.
”Radio is good when you can’t hear it”
The radio-apparatus, once almost impossible to separate from what was ‘radio’ in our collective consciousness, has today become more of a nostalgic object. Rectangular, square, beige, grey, small and made of plastic, or large and made of wood; a number of bars, buttons, a built-in speaker and a silver antenna that can be unfolded and angled. Today, the object has become more of a symbol of what is ‘radio’, and not something on which its existence depends.
So what is radio? The general definition can be summarised as the act of transmitting information, usually via electromagnetic waves, which can be received by one or more receivers. Who transmits, what is transmitted and who receives varies greatly depending on purpose, context and equipment. Radio broadcasting news, music and various programmes to the public is just one of many examples. But whatever the type, the link between transmitter and receiver is fundamental to its definition.
Around the world, there is a slow change in the technology used to broadcast both commercial and public service radio to the public. The former, well-established FM radio is being replaced by DAB radio, which instead of broadcasting in analogue via electromagnetic waves, broadcasts digitally. This has already happened in Norway, for example, where national radio has been broadcast exclusively in digital since 2017; and in blablabor's home country, Switzerland, a similar switchover is in its final stages, with all FM broadcasts being switched off after 2024. As sound artists whose previous work has revolved heavily around radio, this change is obviously of great interest to blablabor. But while the switchover has sparked debates on everything from economics to technical difficulties, it's not the practical issues that the artist duo are interested in as they turn their eyes (and ears) to the phenomenon.
blablabor's radio play ”radio”, from 2017, is thematically based on this transition, which in Switzerland was, at the time, a few years in the future. In the play, a man sits at his amateur radio station, surrounded by a large collection of old radios. He turns their dials, searching for something, listening attentively for the frequency noise that has always taken the place of silence when there have been no radio channels to pick up. But all he hears is a steady hiss. When radio stops broadcasting in analogue, the old FM radios will
no longer pick up much sound. And, the characteristic frequency noise that has always been present between radio stations will then fall silent, which, according to blablabor, means that the radio medium will cease to exist acoustically.
‘radio’ is a lament over this fact, and the pieces Radioart presents this month can all be seen as verses from this lament. The man in the amateur radio station records a radio programme and broadcasts it, despite the uncertainty of whether anyone can hear him at all. In various sections, consisting of lines of words or phrases, he meditates on the radio as an object, a form of communication or a sonic place.
In beule am lautsprecher, he describes a radio that has seen better days: the buttons come off, the frequency meter doesn't move as it should, the battery is weak.
In fust (the name of a Swiss home and electronics store), there is a kind of pairing of different transmissions and radio set models.
In short range devices, different forms of transmission are being lined up, different forms of radio.
And in überlagerrung, different kinds of noise, in relation to language and music.
All these pieces are accompanied by an electric guitar that follows the text like a parallel language; a wordless exploration of the same themes. All in all, it becomes an exploration of what the radio is, on the basis of its materiality; an objective, physically conditioned image of the object and phenomenon.
Frequency noise is part of this materiality, although it’s essentially a technological by- product, which really only points to the inadequacy of the technology in being able to create a direct link between transmitter and receiver. But by-products like these do become part of the whole, and in one way or another we find ways to deal with this fact. blablabor's sadness over the disappearance of frequency noise may well be rooted in the loss of a sound, an acoustic presence. But sometimes the works in ‘radio’ suggest the impact that the material properties of radio have on the user. In the piece fine tuning someone sings about the act of fine-tuning the frequency position of an FM radio, in order to find the cleanest, clearest sound. The act is a search, a movement through the noise. The receiver must actively listen to find the transmitter's message, a listening that, in the best of worlds, continues once they have reached their ideal sound.
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