Harakka Island Radio 4: Radio Magic

11 Grad, Wind und noch mehr Wind aus Süden, lautete die magische Wettervorhersage an diesem Tag. Wir starteten 15 Minuten vor der Zeit: Zur Freude der vorbeisegelnden Vögel mischte sich das Tonband von Lukatoyboy mit ihren Stimmen und dem Rauschen des Windes.

Weitere akustische Magie kam aus Australien in Form einer Aufzeichnung von Tuning Forks, einer “Wahrsage-Kochshow” der Klanghexen Julia Drouhin, Philippa Stafford und Biddy O’Connor.

Radiogast des Tages war die in Helsinki lebende, finnisch-tschechische Künstlerin, Aktivistin und Dichterin Roza Turunen, die in Begleitung ihrer Schriftstellerfreundin Maija Karakoski und ihrer Mutter und Kostümkünstlerin Jana Vyborna-Turunen kam. Roza stellte ihr Bewusstseinsstrom-Gedicht “Caesura of Tragedy” vor, das sich mit magischen Momenten in der alltäglichen Welt beschäftigt.

Unser anschließendes Gespräch drehte sich um Rozas Schreib- und Wahrnehmungspraktiken. Caesura of Tragedy zum Beispiel wurde in jedem Wort unverändert gelassen. Die Gedanken der Dichterin wurden direkt auf ihrem Notepad aufgezeichnet.

Das Gedicht der antidisziplinären Künstlerin Cecilie Fang Our skin as a Carrie – “Wortzeilen, die die Ökologie der Berührung verschlingen” (Fang), bot sich als ebenso schöner wie passender Abschluss von Rozas Lesung an.

Taking a small break on the path to the house, I was lucky to strike a very quick conversation with the artist Sirkku Ala-Harja about sea monsters, the theme of her two drawings put up at the gallery.

Spells for changing weather conditions are a common and worldwide spread magical practice. A Prayer for Rain, for everyone, sent to Harraka Island Radio by Sebastiane Hegarty offered “A fragment of voice from an anonymous audio cassette letter, sent from Canada to Winchester, UK and found in a second-hand shop in the late 1990s.” This was followed by GongPunk, a “sound recording of a “Gong Bath” provided by the Gong Master Gonzalo Zavalla and intervened in real-time by Franco Falistoco in 2018.”

The last conversation transmitted to the airwaves of Harakka Island was with Kari Yli-Annala, reflecting on the event’s tides of performances, lectures, movie screenings, and the exhibition in the gallery Lennätin. Altogether, more than 20 artists shared their art and knowledge. Kari said, a better-funded and more thoroughly advertised “Week of the Impossible” would of course still offer more channels to spread the interdisciplinarity of the Experimental Arts… as is his declared endeavor for 2024. Together with the visiting guests of the gallery we then listened to last day’s recording of Joonas’ lecture.

Our broadcast closed with a work by the sonic anthropologist Tom Miller, Thin Cities – an “imaginary sound-mapping of Thomas More’s fictional 16th-century island of Utopia, built around analog tapes of Italo Calvino reading from his books Invisible Cities and Mr. Palomar.“

It felt sad to leave the island, the (im)possibility of returning for more radio and more analogue magic hanging in the air like Petrichor. Yet, what became very clear again – in my talks with Kari, in the multi-felt’ processes related to radio-making and getting to know a new place with its varied fauna and flora: Radio is a medium that is reaching out… and truly affects the listeners’ being-in-the-world. I liked Harakka Radio’s humble 92 MHz frequency that shared (and re-shared) the air space with hundreds of watchful avian nesting. Important to say: everybody I spoke to, was greatly impressed, amazed, dazed (you name it) by the very existence of radio art.

Contributing radio artists of Day 4 (in loose order of appearance)

• Julia Drouhin, Pip Stafford, Biddy O’Connor: Tuning Forks
• Tiger Stangl: Rewind
• Cecilie Fang: Our Skin as Carrier Bag
• Sebastiane Hegarty: A Prayer for Rain, for everyone
• Franco Fallistocu: Gong Punk
• Joonas Jokiranta: Magiasta. Lecture from 27th of May
• Tom Miller: Thin Cities

Last but not least remark: ­­Some views of the island and the station’s surroundings were captured on a mechanical panorama camera :) If something’s on the film: You will see it in due time.

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