Photo: Peter Ihlenfeld 2012

The garden has always been a mirror of social conditions and power structures. And as diversified a society might be as varied are its gardens. On this day, Hortus Politicus, we’ll examine the existing multiplicities, get to the bottom of them, shed some light, question them and allow them to be heard.

1 – 9 am daily
Datcha radio’s night loops are created from the submissions by our Open Call artists. We broadcast experimental and documentary works related to the theme of the preceding day for night owls, daydreamers, and early-risers. The contributions are international, of varying lengths and are aired as a two-hour loop.

To the overview:

Saturday 26th August 2017
Hortus Politicus: The focus is on sound recordings and compositions that explore and document the acoustic territory between humans and nature. 1-9 am

 Sunday 27th August 2017
“New symbioses”: snails are eating and it quietly crackles in the salad, on a beach walk along the coast of France… or is it Tasmania? The symbiotic night loop divides its attention between language, noise and the culinary. 1-9 am

 Monday 28th August 2017
“Biotopes in Future Perfect”: How can the translation of plant structures into sound be heard? What does a Sicilian tourist guide have say to the plants of their homeland? And how does it sound when a cricket called Cyclochila australasiae tires of singing? 1-9 am

Tuesday 29th August 2017
“Birds & Bees” The focus is on sound recordings and compositions that explore and document the acoustic territory between humans, nature and gardens worldwide. 1-9 am

The beginning and end of the loop are indicated by a bilingual announcement, interwoven with owl calls.

Antje Vowinckel, Radio artist, sound artist, composer and performer. The focus of her work is the musical aspects of language, for example in compositions with improvised spoken word and dialect as well as musical performances with images and objects.
Mon. 28.8, 4-5pm: The Cuckoo Look. Conversation and performance elements of the Cuckoo! With reference to Edgar Chance, fake eggs in silent film and early Cuckoo research. Edgar Percival Chance was a British Industrialist and ornithologist who at a time when bird egg collecting was not yet illegal, assembled an egg collection of more than 25,000 eggs.

Burgund T Brandt & DJ Shlucht hang together and get to the bottom of shadow and beauty. Of course only after the fall of darkness & in mutual “wächsel”.
Mon, 28.8, 10-11pm Garden DJ # 4. Schattengewächsel was a group exhibition, installation & series of sound performances as part in “48 hours Neukölln” at Kunstraum Argh!. A live improvised remix plus commentary from the man of the hour awaits the listener.

Christine Braunersreuther, feminist, activist, local councillor based in Graz/A.
Fr, 25.8, 11pm-12am, Guest Stream #1: Radio Helsinki in the Schaumbad.

Claudia Wegner aka radio continental drift, artist, sound artist working mostly in Africa. Realizes participative radio projects that seek to enable storytellers to take their own approach towards radio work and to use it to strengthen their community.
Sat, 26.8, 10-11am: World Gardner #1: “Stories of Gardens are better than none.” O-tone recordings from among others, Lucia Munenge, Margaret Munkuli, Eunice Mwinde; Music: Crystal DJ Kwe Favel “Radio Remixes Voices of Binga”

Dafne Della Dafne
Fr, 25.8, 10-11pm, Garden DJ #1: Feminist Electro Pop Duo Late Nights In Squat Bars (Shanti Suki and Dafne Della Dafne) provide a DJ set for the night.

Dirk HülsTrunk, free author, sound poet, audio artist, cultural activist in the fields of literature, (new) music, performance and multi-media art.
Fr, 25.8, 4-5pm: The Black and White Garden – field recordings, poetry and sound poetry. From white noise, black blocks and grey word herbs in the cracks.

Eva Ursprung, performance artist, musician, managing director of independent studios Schaumbad in Graz/A.
Fr, 25.8, 11pm-12am, Guest Stream #1: Radio Helsinki in the Schaumbad.

Frank Frohberg, radio collector, DJ, curator of the Fred Frohberg Foundation and Old Radio Museum Berlin.
Fr, 25.8, 8-9pm, Pop and Parsnips # 1. Melodious radio history, electrostatic-swing and shellac: the Fred Frohberg Foundation houses not only the Old Radio Museum, Berlin, but is also a nursery of east German music. The son of the former “Schlagerstars”, Fred Frohberg is unequivocally himself.

Frieder Butzmann, composer, musician, narrator, performer, troublemaker etc.
Tue, 29.8, 3pm: Twitter Chirrup Garden Spot.

Gabi Schaffner, interdisciplinary artist and curator in the field of radio art and visionary documentation, artistic director of Datscha Radio 17.
Daily 9-10pm, The Garden of Composers [Red.] The garden of composers gathers the selected composers from the open calls with their work and for an interview.
Tue, 29.8, 12-1pm: The King of Queens: RIP Peter Ihlenfeld. Garden friend Peter Leidenschaft was his “Queen of the Night”. Each winter they rented out their apartment – and stayed in the garden themselves. There’s probably nothing that he doesn’t know about the Moonlight Cactus… and after this conversation we will also know all the essentials about them.
Tue, 29.8, 5-5:30pm: The Travel of the Earthworm. The earthworm travels over land and through the air. Underground too, naturally. And towards Finland. And that isn’t you, it’s “the other”. O-ton texts: Teuri Haarla.

Hannes Wiendert, sound artist, performer, member of Hamburg based band Passierzettel. Investigates soundscapes from subcontinental instruments from the West and East, Eurasian and hybrid wind instruments.
Tue, 29.8, 6-7pm: In Search of the Horchfeld was composed after reading of Gottfried August Bürger’s Münchhausen. It is called “What are you listening to, my friend?” – “I listen to the pastime on the grass, and hear how it grows.” “And can you do that?” – “O little thing!” “In my service, my friend, who knows what sometimes can not be heard.” I thought to myself, some things from the garden of Gabi Schaffner, where there is grass, but also wasps after the mental revulsion of their hum. And the audience listens. Eavesdroppers! 

Hans Kellett, performer, artist, singer. The wandering resident poet will collect wisdom and advice from experienced gardeners from inside in the Schrebernachbarschaft and broadcast the witty morsels far and wide.
Daily, between 2-4pm: Pollen Excursion

Helmut Lemke, sound artist and beekeeper based in the UK
Mon., 28.8, 2-4pm: A piece about his bees and bee-keeping collective.

Junge Haut aka Nicole Messenlehner & Wolfgang Kriener, visual artists.
Mon, 28.8, 8-9pm: Pop and Parsnips # 4: Old friends Nicole Messenlehner and Wolfgang Kriener play and read from her  repertoire. In 2017 they joined together to play under the name Junge Haut.

Kasia Justka, sound artist, tinkeress, cook
Sat, 26.8., 4-5pm: Singing Kitchen is an audio-visual cooking performance. The public can listen to the preparation and will be fed thereafter.

Kate Donovan, Sound and radio artist/ expert in experimental radio forms and literature and Datscha curator.
Sat, 26.8, 5-7pm, Hidden Elements, Shanti Suki and Kate Donovan combine the subject matter and structure of their individual shows (Hidden Stories und Elements) to present a collaborative piece of uncovering, exploration, story telling and music.
Tue, 29.8, 7-8pm, Elements exploring the elements from a radio phonic perspective through sound, music and literature.
Fr, 25.8, 6-6:30pm, then it will appear sporadically : with Ryan McFadyen Greenhouse emissions – reports from the foliage

Kat Austen, artist and artistic researcher, environmental activist.
Sun, 27.8., 5-6pm, The Matter of the Soul. When we know so much about human effects on climate and the environment, what else do we need to know before we make material changes to our lives to ameliorate these effects? The Matter of the Soul, a sound and sculptural work in progress, questions our subjectivity by engendering empathy for dispersal in the Arctic region. For Datscha Radio, new sound recordings from hacked scientific equipment that measure melting ice and movement of water will be presented alongside interviews with residents and visitors to Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. These recordings were taken this month as part of the Artist in the Arctic 2017 residency with Friends of SPRI (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge), Bonhams and OneOcean Expeditions.

Laura Mello, composer, performer.  Living Radio is an enduring project.
Sat, 26.8, 7-8pm, Living Radio is a multilingual live radio drama, where the visuals are filtered through the audio. The artist explores the Datscha environment and describes her observations, impressions and fantasies through the microphone. The material from these living audio guides will combine on-site pre-recorded and live sounds.

Marek Brandt, photographer, sound artist, field recordist, label owner of privatelektro. Visits animals in their typical habitats for the ongoing series “Music for Animals” since 2007, where he puts on concerts for them. The original compositions arose after intense research of the hearing ability and musical taste of respective species in congruence with their locations.
Mon, 28.8, 7-8pm: Music for Snails – Music for snails, slugs and escargots

Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka, musician, performer, composer based in Graz/A.
Fr, 25.8, 11pm-12am, Guest Stream #1: Radio Helsinki in the Schaumbad.

Marlies Pratter, programme co-ordinator of Radio Helsinki
Fr, 25.8, 11pm-12am, Guest Stream #1: Radio Helsinki in the Schaumbad.

Marta Zapparoli, Italian experimental artist, improviser, performer and musician. Creates narrative sound pieces utilizing a large palette of recording techniques including a mastery of live band manipulations.
Sun, 27.8, 4-5pm: Natural Radio, During her performance, Marta Zapparoli will improvise using a part of her pre-recorded sound archive of her “Inaudible Sound” project, composed by radio waves: morse code, telegraph, whether phenomena, natural radio VLF, air and navy communication which she captured and recorded during residences and travels in New York, Croatia, Austria, Lithuania, Italy, Germany.  

Marold Langer-Philippsen  is a media artist, director, performer, designer, musician active in ephemeral art with a special emphasis on public spaces. Marold Langer-Philippsen aka ArchieArchive appears – expectedly and unexpectedly – in different radio stations as a short-term archivist who occupies the airwaves.
Sun, 27.8, 6-8pm and 10pm-1am, ArchieArchive hört zu pt 1 and pt 2

Miyuki Jokiranta, producer for ABC RN’s documentary format Earshot. As the maker of Soundproof, ABC’s playground for sonic curiosities, she paid tribute to her love of radio art. Within her own radiographic practice, she creates a space in the balance between words and music.
Sun, 27.8, 11am-12pm, The Morning Chorus # 2, Extra Contribution: Miyuki Jokirantas “Antipodean Voices / Voices of Antipodia”. Around the world our homes are filled with similar house plants, which must survive in very similar climates with only minimal differences in temperature or humidity. But the conditions outside vary. From their special seat on the window sill, our plant-based guests share with us what they have to say about the Australian winters in “Voices of Antipodia” – from houseplant to houseplant.

Niki Matita, artist, event manager, specializing in sound art, sound and music; DJ; music journalist and Datscha curator
Sat, 26.8, 10-11pm, GartenDJ #2

Plants and Empire (Christina Ertl Shirley), sound artist, composer, radio maker. Plants are connected with specially designed electronic instruments and their sounds are modulated by biochemical processes. Plants and Empire concerts are born out of these live-modulated sounds and plant-fieldrecordings.
Sun, 27.8, 8-9pm: Pop and Parsnips #3

Radio Helsinki aka Reni Hofmüller, Marlies Pratter, Christine Braunersreuther, Eva Ursprung, Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka. Feminist music, art and radio activists from Graz present their favorite green spaces and report on the planned Mur power station.
Fr, 25.8, 11pm-12am, Guest Stream #1: Radio Helsinki in the Schaumbad. The green devil is loose in Graz! Right-wing politicians want to dam the river Mur and cut down 16,000 trees. 1/3 of them have already been chopped down. Activists are occupying trees and protecting the river. We get a first-hand report on what is going on!

Reni Hofmüller, media artist, radio activist, founder of esc Medien Kunst Labor
Fr, 25.8, 11pm-12am, Guest Stream #1: Radio Helsinki in the Schaumbad.

Rosanna Lovell und Gregor Kasper, musicians, educators and sound artists, both study art in context at the university of art, Berlin
Tue, 29.8, 4-5pm Listening Session Inspired by the work of the collective ‘Ultra-Red’, we conduct a listening session where we listen to recordings from gardens. What do we hear? How does it sounds …. ? Beyond the first audio impressions, we think about the meaning behind what is presented. Everyone is invited to participate in the session.

Ryan McFadyen, writer from Auchkland, New Zealand, co-founded the award-winning intermediate ensemble all and sundry. In 1998, he received the New Zealand Young Playwrights’ Literary Prize.
Fr, 25.8, 6-6:30pm, Then it will appear sporadically: with Kate Donovan Greenhouse emissions – reports from the foliage

Sally Ann McIntyre, writer, sound practitioner and radio artist working out of Dunedin, New Zealand. She has programmed the Mini FM station Radio Cegeste 104.5 as a small-radius platform for site-responsive radio art events.
Mon, 28.8, 11pm-12am, Guest Stream # 4: Radio Cegeste is broadcast on 104.5 FM and this evening directly on Datscha’s stream. McIntyre focuses her ears on the small details, her station is tiny, with small transmission power, unstable, mobile and natural: always site-specific

Salon Bruit is a Berlin based non-commercial forum for both audience and artists interested in experimental music and video works, as well as installations and workshops.
Tue, 29.8, 10-11pm GartenDJ #5

Schnick-Schnack, SchnickSchnack – nakayamafutaba & Patrick WEH Weiland, 2-Kid-Combo from Berlin {lo-fi trash pop toy music casio punk}
Sat, 26.8, 8-9pm, Pop und Parsnips #2: KOOLAZOOGA In nature our pop sticks to you like gum on your shoe, the sweet curse of the walkway. Singing from imaginary trees in a room full of strawberries. Makes sense, no? Possibly-Maybe…and yet, yes indeed.

Shanti Suki Osman, musician, researcher, educator and Datscha curator works with singing, performance, acoustic art and radio to deal with the themes of identities and privilege, intersectional feminism, post colonial criticism and activism.
Fr, 25.8, 6-8pm, Hidden Garden Stories, This special garden edition includes interviews with community garden empowerment projects and considers the garden as a critical site of remembrance and history.
Fr, 25.8, 10-11pm, GartenDJ #1: Feminist Electro Pop Duo Late Nights In Squat Bars (Shanti Suki and Dafne Della Dafne) provide a DJ set for the night

Silky Thoss & Pete Deville Wistful, wild and sometimes quite edgy: The duo Silky & Pete stir up the compost!
Tue, Aug 29, 8-9pm: Pop and Parsnips # 5: Boogie in the Mud: With Silky’s fingers on the keys of the accordion and singing along, one can witness burning notes flying through the sky. Pete strikes everything that gets in his way with his drumsticks.

Sophea Lerner, a maker of radio, world traveler, versed in experimental botany and improvisation – and especially interested in the atmospheres of community cooking.
Sat, Aug. 26, 11pm, Guest Stream # 2: Live Feeds. Hybrid Cuisine from the New Radio Kitchen is an invitation to all of you to combine cooking and radio. Now, however, it is late in the evening for a Berliner but bright in the country of Oz. We are looking forward to an unpredictable menu!

Suetszu, musician, performer and performance artist. She always looks for the beauty in small things, poetic miniatures and fragile imperfections.
Mon, 28.8, 5-6pm, Flight Master’s Whistle

Tetsuo Kogawa, from Tokyo, Japan, is known as the pioneer of the micro-Fm movement. He can be understood as more than a nomadic practitioner of radio or radiation art, also identifying himself with his official titles as media critic and curator. In various cities around the world, he has made challenging, radical experiments in radio art, and invents devices for use and display.
Tue, 29.8, 11pm-12am, Guest Stream #5: Smelling Hands. Do frequencies have a smell? Is a fragrance also a frequency? In poetic, trilingual exchange, a stream of waves and words between Datscha in northern Berlin and Tetsuo Kogawa’s apartment in southern Tokyo grows.

Xusha Hundertmark, featured author.
Tue, 29.8, 5:30-6pm, Earth to Earth: Floral and composting aspects of burial culture and cemeteries in the course of time. A feature about last rites in outdoor environments.

Zelda Panda, musician, artist and shamanic practitioner
Mon, 28.8, 6-7pm, A Path of Compassion and Love: A bridge between the extraordinary and the everyday reality is established by a shamanic connection with the spirits in the garden.