Show 974: Five Motley Exchanges by Peter Blamey for diffusionfm

Peter Blamey, Five Motley Exchanges (2023) https://peterblamey.net/

photovoltaic (solar) panel, guitar pickup, biscuit tin lid, portable amplifier, 3-volt electric motor, crank torch, laser pointer

1. Flies interrupt the sunlight reaching a submerged solar panel.

2. Water flows over, around and through a guitar pickup stuck to a biscuit tin lid.

3. A small electric motor produces current as it is rolled over rocks then dropped into the creek.

4. Crank torches shine on a solar panel wedged in flowing water.

5. Cascading water defects laser light directed at a submerged solar panel, before sunlight breaks through the cloud cover.

Five Motley Exchanges documents several performances along a short stretch of Stony Creek, a small waterway on Darug land in Sydney’s north. Like many similar locations across the metropolitan area, this spot is valued by locals as green space, but otherwise seems subject to neglect. Native plants, fungi and animals (insects, birds, lizards, possums, fruit bats and the occasional wallaby) mix with introduced flora and a range of anthropogenic factors, including garbage (plastic, metal, ceramic, timber), cut branches and trunks left to rot, runoff from roads and drains, and noise from nearby bridge traffic and overhead planes, making it a rich and mingled place.

These five performances are interactions between me, a small bunch of devices, and the creek itself, together realising a somewhat variegated or motley range of energetic responses. Water flows over, on and sometimes through the devices (at times activating their resonant properties), as the same time as they register the effects of both sunlight and artificial light, of landforms and gravity, and of my own physical contributions (cranking, pointing, holding, dragging and rolling, etc.), combining the rush of natural energies with the hiss and hum of electronics. Their outputs were often simultaneously amplified into the surrounding space, muddling things further by introducing noises sourced from under the water into the air.

Some of these interactions push the physical limits and operational logic of the devices involved, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the sounds produced were fairly unruly. The work here retains much of their rough and ready character (after all, why shave a cactus?). Together, the materials, the creek and me engage with a poetics found in transduction. Sunlight and lasers mingle underwater, with insects and amp hiss, electrical crackle and splashing cascades.

Extra special thanks go to DiffusionFM for the invitation to produce this work.

Peter Blamey is an artist based in Sydney, Australia, on Gadigal land. His practice is often sound-focussed and accomplished via an economy of means, and includes performances, videos, recordings and installations. Broadly speaking, his work explores the interconnected themes of energies and residues, often through reimagining our everyday encounters with mundane materials and technologies and the physical world, and also by considering how they relate to our experiences of energy generation, use and waste. https://peterblamey.net/

Show 973: Soundscapes after October 7th 2023 (Radio Študent)

 

Soundscapes after October 7th 2023

The EU-Israel relationship is one of cooperation and mutual benefit: indeed, it is the deepest and most far-reaching relationship the EU has ever had with a third country. Only three years after the EEC came into being, Israel made its first diplomatic efforts to enter the Common Market Agreement as a signatory country.

Since the 1960s, Europe has been Israel’s most important trading partner. 1975 is the year in which the two sides signed a free trade agreement on industrial goods, to be in place by 1989.

This relationship has been strengthened thanks to the Association Agreement between Israel and the EU in 1995, which has taken cooperation to new heights: Europe is responsible for more than one third of Israel’s total foreign trade.

Cooperation is fruitful: as a full partner in the Horizon 2020/Horizon Europe research programme, Israel has so far received €1.3 billion in grants, making it one of the top three countries outside the EU with the most funding from the programme.

EU-Israel relations are further supported by the 2005 Action Plan under the European Neighbourhood Policy. The Action Plan aims at progressively integrating Israel into European policies and programmes and has established 10 sub-committees which meet regularly to discuss priorities and exchange views. In 2012, agreement was reached on the elimination of trade barriers and on the mutual recognition of marketing certificates for medicines.

Europe buys around 30% of Israeli exports (as of 2016) and ranks ahead of the US, which buys around 26%. This is particularly true in the processed food sector, where around 44% of Israeli exports are destined for Europe. Total trade between the EU and Israel amounted to €46.8 billion in 2022. EU imports from Israel were worth €17.5 billion: led by machinery and transport equipment (€7.6 billion, 43.5%), chemicals (€3.5 billion, 20.1%) and other industrial goods (€1.9 billion, 11.1%). EU exports to Israel amounted to €12.2 billion, dominated by machinery and transport equipment (€12.3 billion, 41.9%), chemicals (€5.1 billion, 17.6%) and other manufactured goods (€3.5 billion, 12.1%).

Two-way trade in services between the EU and Israel amounted to €16.7 billion in 2021.

The European Neighbourhood Policy provides political and financial assistance to Israel.

On energy, the EU is financing feasibility studies for the construction of the so-called East-Med pipeline to carry gas from Israel as far as Italy by 2027. Israel is keen to join the EU’s efforts to diversify its energy sources and develop renewable energy sources. The Memorandum of Understanding on gas exports between the EU, Israel and Egypt, signed in June 2022, is an excellent example of Israel’s role in the EU’s efforts to address the energy crisis.

MILITARY COOPERATION

In 2016, Europe became the second largest export destination for the Israeli arms industry after Asia. Frontex – the EU’s best-funded agency with a budget of around USD 823 million for 2022 – has awarded border surveillance drone contracts to Airbus, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Elbit. As of 2018, more than €63 million of EU public money has been spent on direct war funding.

Israeli military drones are a useful tool in the crackdown on refugees: in September 2018, the EU border management agency Frontex announced the start of test flights for drones across Europe. The type of drones being tested had previously been used to attack Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009, killing dozens of civilians. A subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries – has been hired to design a prototype for the controversial wall proposed by Trump along the US border with Mexico. Another Israeli drone manufacturer was awarded a contract in 2014 to build surveillance towers between Arizona and Mexico. The same companies are looking for business opportunities in Europe.

Israel is the only non-European full partner country for EU research funding under the 7-year Framework Programmes. It is involved in three EU-funded research projects in the field of border security, one of which was aimed at developing specially adapted combat robots that “will take appropriate action to stop illegal activities under the control of border guards”.

In 2020, Frontex signed a $118 million contract to lease Israeli-made drones.

Well, but, the show is not about that. It’s about what’s going on in the background (and recently forefront) of these business deals between the EU and its new old partner in the energy sector.

Made for Radio Študent in Ljubljana by Višnja Malinić.

Show 972: Variations on a Topography by Lia Kohl for Wave Farm

Variations on a Topography is constructed in stratified layers, each containing a recording of a full scan of the AM/FM spectrum from bottom to top and back down again. Tuning through the spectrum in the same place every time, Kohl charts a map of her specific signal, showcasing the geographic specificity of radio and drawing out its topography with additional musical sounds. Cello and synthesizer highlight moments of clarity and static, creating a counterpoint ruled by the dichotomy between them. These “signal sweeps” also offer a sedimentary view of time, capturing multiple 28 minute sections of what would otherwise be completely ephemeral sounds. The recordings, taken over the span of a few months, speak in various ways to the passage of time – the weather gets colder, traffic patterns shift, wars break out. The signal, like a ghostly mountain range, hovers around us.

Lia Kohl is Wave Farm’s fall 2023 Radio Art Fellow. She is a composer, cellist, and sound artist based in Chicago. Her wide-ranging practice includes solo composition and performance, installation, improvisation, and collaboration. Kohl tours nationally and internationally, working in theater, jazz, rock, and experimental contexts. Her work centers curiosity and patience, an exploration of the mundane and profound possibilities of sound.

Show 971: Subterranean Bubbles by Music for hiccups (Radio Panik)

Music for hiccups is a duo composed of Brussels-based musicians Chiara Bacci and Nicola Lancerotti.

The improvised music they create centers around a continuous dialogue between modified voice and modular synthesizers. In their performances, the roles they play are intentionally left undefined: sometimes the voice can become an abstract disturbing sound, while modular synths can create melodic textures and often they are intertwined in a manner that blurs the lines between them.

“Subterranean Bubbles” was recorded in July 2023 during an artistic residency at Zsenne Art Lab in Brussels.

https://archive.org/details/radia-show-971-subterranean-bubbles-by-music-for-hiccups-radio-panik

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Music for hiccups est un duo composé des musiciens bruxellois Chiara Bacci et Nicola Lancerotti.

Leurs improvisations sont articulées autour d’un dialogue ininterrompu entre la voix modifiée et les synthétiseurs modulaires. Lors qu’ils performent, les rôles qu’ils jouent sont intentionnellement indéfinis : parfois la voix peut devenir un son abstrait et dérangeant, tandis que les synthés peuvent créer des textures mélodiques, les deux sources étant souvent entrelacées de manière qui en brouille les limites.

“Subterranean Bubbles” a été enregistré en juillet 2023 lors d’une résidence artistique à Zsenne Art Lab à Bruxelles.

https://archive.org/details/radia-show-971-subterranean-bubbles-by-music-for-hiccups-radio-panik