ABOUT

RadioActive - on Water is a six episode podcast series, exploring the interactions between transmission, sound, activism and water. Each episode is created by a different artist/group of artists who engage with water politics and the politics of listening through the medium of radio.

Curated by Meira Asher and Stephen Shiell

Production - Meira Asher, radioart106

Mastering - Daniel Meir

Website design - Laetitiia Boulud

‘An Ear to River ~ counterflows’ by Blanc Sceol (Stephen Shiell & Hannah White) invites the audience to listen with the Channelsea river, a recovering waterway in East London and home to the city’s largest combined sewage outfall. ‘River song, singing rivers’ by Lisa Blackmore and Leonel Vásquez, navigates the Bogotá River in Colombia through a more-than-human song created in collaboration with the living forces that shape the watershed’s ecosystems. ‘Watered’ by RE-PEAT collective approaches water justice through imagining the perspective of water nself, by drawing stories and definitions of bodies of water, and n's entanglement in relation with other bodies, bogs, bugs, sundew, moss and more. ‘Sonic Traces’ by Margarida Mendes, is a journey from the deep ocean to the Mississippi river, to expose how traces of pollution, sonic and chemical, travel through watery space impacting communities across ecosystems. ‘River Breathing’ by Carlos Monleon and Nathaniel Mann, examines the impact of irrigation systems on human and more-than-human communities through the Ebro river in Spain and its endangered clam population. ‘Liquidation’ by Meira Asher interrogates the politically engineered water crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Jordan Valley where Israel deliberately and strategically deprives Palestinian shepherd communities of access to water.

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Water and radio have similarities in how they transmit—via waves and currents—seeping through matter to cross boundaries, and traverse cultural, political and social divides. They remind us of our fragility and impermanence with their ability to shape-shift and expand. The white noise of the gushing waterfall or radio static can both elucidate auditory hallucinations. Composers such as Annea Lockwood and Pauline Oliveros explore these phenomena in their works, inviting us to listen to water in new ways.

The control of water, as a vital component of all life, creates conflict and struggle across the globe. Listening underwater was first made possible by Marie "Bobbie" Dennis Poland Fish who developed the hydrophone for the US navy, to differentiate between submarine sounds and marine life. ‘Liquidation’, uncovers the devastating effects of a restricted water supply on Palestinians, and ‘River Breathing’ considers the unequal distribution of water resources for leisure, farming and ecosystem survival. ‘Sonic Traces’ ‘River song, singing rivers’ and ‘An Ear to River ~ counterflows’ all examine the effects of neo-liberal infrastructure, contamination and colonial legacies. 'Waterbody' seeks to manifest the layers of water justice from the perspective of liquid places themselves.

Listening with water can inspire and initiate action to protect our shared water systems. The air waves offer a shared space of watery resilience, a “hydro-acoustic-commons”, to add an auditory dimension to Astrida Neimanis’ term for a more embodied approach to water management. All episodes open up a sensory portal to the diverse methods being used around the world to tackle the challenges posed by the Anthropocene. The series has the potential to foster what Daniela Medina Epoch calls "aqualiteracy" - a recognition of the caring relationship with waters as living beings and an understanding of the constant dialogue between all bodies in constant exchange.

RadioActive - on Water was produced with the support of the Pais council for Culture and Art.