aural infrastructure.

Research Studio: aural infrastructure. radio as a method for spatial practice
C-2.1-65, A-2.1-30, D-2.1-30, A-1.1-30, A-1.1-34, C-1.1-34, A-1.0-10, A-2.0-10, S-2.0-01, S-2.0-04
Serena Abbondanza M.A.
Thursday, 12:00-13:30
Open for A/S/L
R.3200, Moritz 2/online (alternating)
First Meeting: 23.04. 12:00, analogue in Kassel

In this research studio, students explore alternative and collective strategies for activating, reusing, and transforming vacant spaces. The seminar approaches radio and podcasting as research methods: through sound, voice, and listening, places are investigated, documented, and reinterpreted. Central to the course are acoustic methods of spatial perception, including soundwalking, narrative and autoethnographic interviews, as well as experimental radio art. The focus lies on spaces in both urban and rural contexts shaped by vacancy, displacement, or transformation.
Throughout the semester, participants develop their own audio-based works that engage with self-selected spaces, sites, or moments within urban and rural landscapes. Methods such as sound writing, soundscapes, narrative interviews, and autoethnographic storytelling are explored and tested. The seminar does not aim to meet conventional journalistic standards; rather, research itself becomes the form. Formats such as reports, soundwalks, phone calls, and soundscapes are understood as ways of developing site-specific inquiry—beyond architectural drawing and representation. A particular emphasis is placed on approaches from free radio and radio art.

Optional / Extension:
Together, participants develop an experimental radio program, which may emerge through individual works or collaborative formats. The resulting pieces will be broadcast at the end of the seminar as a live or radio transmission via Radio Borgo Ex (Sicily), and may also be further developed into a longer collective composition in the sound studio (tbc).

This seminar will be in German and English, most texts we are reading will be in English.

Note: It is recommended that you also take part in the ACE Excursion to Berlin.