We admit: Datscha Radio’s location for its first broadcast installation, the so-called swamp Marais de Wiels sent our heads spinning with ideas about ambiguous, amphioxus habitats and frogs – both in real as well as in digital realities. And those reverberations kept their echoes and amplifcations up …
For the first time, Datscha Radio experimented with AI contents and tackled strategies of how to make creative use of them. Our program included research into digital forensics, (field) recordings of the internet, weather forecasts and news from the past and future, pop songs and fantasy story telling – swapping the levels of acute presence and fantasized future scenarios – while conducting interviews in the neighborhood.
Datscha Radio’s stream could be listened to on P-node Radio, on datscharadio.de and on cashmereradio.com. On both days we broadcast also for analogue radio on 89.7 FM.
The festival Oscillation ::: The Weather happened from May 1-4 in Brussels, Belgium, with venues strewn over the whole expanse of the city. For information, please see: https://www.oscillation-festival.be/2025/
So much said, here comes a resumé of both days.
Marais de Wiels, May 1, 4-6 pm, 2025
Announcement Q_o2, modified. Photo: Norma Prendergast
The Marais de Wiels formed as an accidental body of water in 2007, when ill-planned construction works for a building led to a rise of groundwater, rendering the concept of new builds obsolete.
The area, a spread of some 8000 square meters, settled as a nature reserve, greatly welcomed by the surrounding working-class population of the Wiels district in Brussels.
When we arrived, the place was buzzing with wild plants, insects, idlers, and a million frogs. An urban garden near the Le Brass community centre, legalised wall surfaces for graffiti artists, benches and wooden platforms for conversations complement this precarious recreational space, which also provides a tolerated free space for some homeless people and their need for small, self-built houses. Much of our prior information of the place was luckily provided by a paper by Urbane Praxis, “Resurging bodies of water in Urban Spaces” (https://www.urbanepraxis.berlin/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/UPON_Talk3_EN.pdf ).
With our station situated amidst the vegetation to the ‘bogsite’, the programme followed a winding thread of conversations about the Marais, interspersed with live interviews, field recordings on site, weather reports from the past, present and future and included the introduction of two secret hero(in)es who have made the swamp their garden: Bogman and Swamperella. These creatures, which no one has ever seen, fueled our imagination of the Marais de Wiels and its future development.
Drawing: Marie Baudet. From the workshop “Au Travers Du Miroir”, April 30, 2025
A quick overview of our contents on that day:
– War&Weather: War, climatic and economical changes affect deeply our present stay on this planet. The 1st of May seemed a fitting date to reflect on this. Ernst Jandl’s poem “schtzngrmm“ flowed into a disconcerting news soundscape, followed by “The weather”. Our ensuing chat highlighted on the site, and its urban history, and the tradition of celebrating the first of May.
– Prior to our shows and on invitation of the community center “Le Brass”, a 3-day workshop (Au travers du Miroir/Gabi Schaffner) had investigated the ecologies of the ‘swamp’. Recordings of the students formed part of our further talks.
– “The Grafitti Underground field recordings”, and a parabol shotgun ‘spy mic’ that takes drawings of traffic – richard hamilton please call back !
– Since 2015, a group of citizens known as Les Fé.e.s du Marais (the fairies of the swamp) has been safeguarding the site. We spoke to Julia as one of them. Julia lives in the neighbourhood of the Marais and has been organizing communal activities there since the beginning. Our interest in their “Dirt Parties” led to extended questions (and recordings) of urban waste management and the cultural call around trash and dirt. Fix my street !
– The need for a bar conversation
– Diaries and weather books – the log is locked – Has forecast a history ?
– Introduction of Bogman and Swamperella
– Talk with Marta Zapparoli who was one of the artists to perform that day, about her piece “Interdimensional Generated Space (The Final Symphony)”
– “Water Memories” by Gabi Schaffner, a recording of stories told by Gustave and Marie, members of the workshop, induced by the smell of the site’s stale water body.
– Swamperella’s Swamp Song
This is how it looked like. Our studio amidst the bushes. Photo: Julia Eckhardt
Sumpfsender calling from Jean-Félix Hap Park,
May 3, 3-6 pm
Marie Gabriele, Guardian of Peace.
Our surroundings in the Félix Hap Park in the Etterbeck district differed greatly from the Marais Wiels: A well-kept garden scape with two ponds, mowed lawns and tulip tree famous for its size and beauty. The main entrance of the park is guarded by a small lodge, where a guardian keeps watch over the gate and visitors. On our park exploration day prior to the event, we were lucky to meet (and record) Marie, who works as a Guardian of Peace in the neighbourhood.
With plenty of audio in the pipeline and an hour plus, our programme on day two evolved more towards experimentation, including two other live events taking place on site alongside our show.
At 4 and 5pm, Justin Bennett gave a concert entitled ‘a heap of stones’ in the Orangerie building, while artist Rory Salter performed a day-long piece on the wooden platform of the larger pond, recording his physical presence in the midst of this watery world. For both, Datscha Radio transmitted sound and talk via telephone. Using this extremely simple technique melted seamlessly with our main themes for this day: Real and imagined ‘digital swamps’, the impact of AI on the earthly environments and a sequel to the story of Swamperella and Bogman.
Datscha Radio’s broadcast ended with a conversation with Julia Eckhardt, founder and co-organisator of this 5th Oscillation festival in 2025 in Brussels.
Sketch of a plan. GS
Quick overview of our contents:
– 2095: “The News”; Bogman and Swamperella move to Happark; “The Weather”
– AI in Datscha Radio. Talk & introduction of Hap Park in the Etterbeck district
– Interview Maria Gabriele, Guardian of Peace, Hap Park, who explains about her work and how it bonds to community feeling, citizen’s everyday lives as well as public security.
– Musical greetings from Bogman and Swamperella
– Thinking about AI and education: Early speech synthesis experiments from the 1940s. Feature by Markus Stein
– Field recordings from the internet: Imagined dark futures. Conversation & Live mix.
– 1st concert transmission from the Orangerie
– Digital Swamps (And How to Record Them). We travel from fantasied data environments to concrete obsolete soundscapes of the internet and back.
– Five Hours in a Fake Forest. Composition/live mix
– Unearthed: Tech forensics. Anecdotes and (country) music from the internet
– Joseph Weisenberg: Computer psychotherapist. Feature by Markus Stein
– 2nd concert transmission
– Gabi talks with artist Rory next to the park’s pond
– Oscillation Festival – history & future plans
It was a drizzly day, and our radio attracted pink dragons next to other radio listeners
Datscha Radio wishes to thank all members of the festival team for their great support in setting up the radio stations!
Many thanks also to the Community Centre “Le BRASS” and the participants of the workshop “Au Travers du Miroir” for their enthusiastic cooperation and for putting their recordings at our disposal for the broadcasts: It’s been great, Gustave, Maria, and Felice! More thanks to Norma Pendergast, and to Gina and Marie for their talks.
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