Radio Public - listening

Fourth week of meeting up with the Radio Public team at CoLab (2nd week in person for me) it felt like steps had been made and some ideas had hardened into intentions, although others were unsettled - only to be expected at this stage and that floaty openness that has characterised the project remains.  Bill and Helen have further exciting plans to create further opportunities for collaboration over the next couple of weeks by inviting new persons into the group and in arranging meetings at weekends.

I haven’t let ideas settle and you will have to forgive me for being slightly opaque in this post but I have several milling about that loosely revolve round the fabric of the high street and how to provoke attention to that. Some are partly formed of previous works that I think will perform well outside on Dudley High Street, while others may be compatible with other's ideas. 

I have deliberately prevented letting of these land to give them time to brew and warp, but I need to open them up so that process can happen in conjunction with others. By this I hope they will trigger a process of change that can evolve into work. 

I ended this week, or rather I begun the next, at 04:50 from the edge of a small wood nearby here, taking part in a world-wide collaborative art project, called Reveil9, created to stream a continuous dawn chorus over 24 hours from positions like mine around the world. Handily, Helen and Bill leant me a lavallier mic for Radio Public, so I was able to use that.

Setting up my ‘camp’ online initially seemed a bit tricky until I figured out that my Wi-Fi was blocking access to Soundtent. Once I figured that out the rest was very easy. Sitting in my cosy car by the wood watching my recording apparatus, while my head was in a too-early morning fuzz quite unpenetrable by hot coffee, and the occasional sparrow darted through the hedge, I listened to the rise and fall of birdsong over 40 minutes. This was a beautiful interlude to my usual bank holiday weekend which can be just a bit too indoors and screen-based - like most of life. 

There were times when all the songs of different birds repeatedly congealed into a single chord and then broke apart again, something I had never noticed before. I rarely make time to experience this liminal time, but now, having tested out how it works I am considering how to reposition and expand my contribution for Reveil10 next year.

Sketch of recording setup

Although I never did get to listen to my stream it was there in the listing right at the end of the stream. See pic for proof! However, searching for a recording led me to an enjoyable Female Pressure 97 mix on ResonanceFM by Crylighter: Link. 

If I find a link to Reveil 9 2022 I will update this post with it.