1. The use of
non-narratives forms
in radio
”Experimenting with time and
sound”
MS1404

2. Sound
Audience as ‘blind listener’
 Hackney Podcasts (Writers Walk)2012
See:

3. 1. What are non-narrative
forms in radio?
 Narrative forms – Last semester –making sense of world
 Drama – Radio play - clip ‘A Lad In The City’
 Documentary featureBBCRadio 1 Stories -
 Journalism – eg news bulletin, investigative stories and scoops
 Non-narrative forms – Challenging perceptions of world
 Thematic feature – story telling on a theme
 Soundscapes –stories told through sound
 Sound artists – audio as an art form
 Cut up techniques – collage’s in radio

4. Criticism of modernity:
Freud & surrealism
 “The dream has come to represent all that has been repressed
in waking life” (*Sigmund Freud –1856-1939 reading 1 workbooks)
 Freud offers challenge to conventional modes of
perception and making sense of world.
 Exposing non-rational motivations
 Dreams and our subconscious
 Dreams as a way of accessing cultural and
personal repression
 Surprise element – things are not always as they ‘seem’

5. Freud continued
 Three key areas:
 Condensation – Merging of different memories into one
 Displacement – Turning disturbing images and memories into
something more pleasing and palatable
 Symbolism –a Replacing disturbing images, often of a sexual
nature with a more neutral one.
 According to Freud these relate to our
subconscious selves, often visiting us in dreams.
 " A dream without condensation, distortion, dramatisation and above all
wish-fulfillment, surely hardly deserves the name” (Sigmund Freud)

6. Freud cont’d
 Element of surprise and the unexpected
 Collapse of time
 Freud’s theories lend themselves well to
experimentation through the medium of
radio because it is relatively easy to
manipulate the ‘blind listener’ through
sound. (less distractions)

7. Non-narrative: the historical
context
 New millennium triumphalism of imperial
powers
 Unfairness and social inequality of
capitalism
 Unprecedented slaughter of WW1
 1919 Flu epidemic
 Influence of Freud
 The depression of the 1930’s

8. Criticism of modernity:
surrealism
 Freud offers challenge to conventional
modes of perception
 Exposing non-rational motivations
 Dreams access cultural and personal
repression

9. History
 Sound has many potential uses as an arts and
entertainment form beyond what we hear on
mainstream radio
 In US limited range of radio forms has been
blamed on commercialisation of the medium
 http://www.somewhere.org/NAR/index.html?272,
78
 ‘Pictures painted in sound’ are a common art
form in German radio links between dreams and
poetry - the word poetry in German translated into English means to
condense – think back to Freud’s theory of ‘condensation’

10. History cont/
 In UK always been a history of experimentation
in radio, tied to the development of the radio
feature
 The radio feature was similar to the
documentary traditions in photography and
journalism
 1958 The Radio Ballads By EwanMacColl: No
narrator, just songs, sounds and recorded
speech, real people not actors
 A milestone because it broke with the
conventions of the documentary feature,
 EwanMacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles
Parker The Travelling People (1964)

11. History cont/
 Similar to collage
 Influenced by
Brecht’s “Epic
Theatre”
 This deliberately
tried to alienate the
audience to
encourage critical
thought
 Tried to prevent
the “suspension
of disbelief” Richard Hamilton Just What Is It That Makes Today’s
Homes So Different, So Appealing? 1956

12. Non-narrative techniques
 Cut up
 Invented by BrionGysin, a painter, poet and sound
artist and collaborator with William Burroughs
 Pistol Poem (1960)
 Cut ups (1959/1982)
 The Sunday Format, R4 1999 - 2004
 Process of radio editing is in itself a cut up and can
manipulate reality more effectively than film:
Chris Morris – On The Hour - 2005

13. New American Radio & Radio
Art
Works created by artists who participated in New Radio
and Performing Arts’ NRPA New American Radio during
the 1980’s & ‘90’s.
Radio holds a unique place in American cultural history,
shaping of popular culture in particular.
Bridge between two halves of 20th century.
For three decades radio held a central place in our living
rooms.

14. New American Radio Art
cont’d
 Even when Radio was superceded by television, still
very influential and a primary conduit for youth culture
and its music- rock ‘n’ roll
 For a great number of Americans who were in their
teens and early twenties in the 1950’s and 60’s, radio
and automobiles are inseparable.
 Not surprisingly, radio continued to hold a special
fascination for a generation of of American artists for
whom it had become part of their life experience and
imagination
http://www.somewhere.org/NAR/index.html?272,78

15. Dreams in sound and Poetry
 Going back briefly to our theme of dreams and the subconscious and the
power of radio, wanted to play a couple of clips from this creative
soundscape feature. Poetry Texas is a feature about a place and about
poetry, it also sounds like poetry.
 Poetry Texas – clip 1 BBC Radio 4, 2012 (Pejk Malinovski)
 Poetry Texas – clip 2

16. Avant Garde Radio
Non commercial and pirate radio
 1970’s It was the advent in the 70’s of non-
commercial, listener sponsored public radio on
the FM band, including college and local
community radio stations that opened up the
possibilities of ‘art on the airwaves’ as an
alternative to rigidly formatted commercial radio.
 (dominated by advertising interest)

17. Pirate Radio, music, DJ mix
 You could argue that it is only on non
commercial stations that artists are truly
allowed to experiment and flourish
 Importance of pirate and community radio
 Away for constraints of big bosses and
money. Dj mixes. A collective spirit and
audience. The DJ takes the listener on a
journey

18. Non-narrative techniques
 Borrowed from literature
 Stream of consciousness: Authors like Jack Kerouac
‘On The Road’ – he was influenced in turn by William Burroughs
* Can mean the listener doesnt know how to‘read’
the text - should they read it as a fictional
representation or as something which is literally true?
Chris Morris: trailer bushwacked? BBC Radio 4
 Sound themes
 Down the Drain – BBC Radio 4 doc sound of water
Idea themes
 Laurie Anderson: Same time tomorrow
 People like us: Dolly Pardon

19. Non-narrative techniques
 Soundscapes
 Trying to engage the listener by using sound alone,
often through the use of field recordings of natural
sound.
Helen Thorington (1990) Land of the imagination
Jose Iges and Concha Jerez(1994)City of Water
Christian Marclay(1990) Shop Talk
Chris Watson (2002) Vatnajokuli, from Weather
Report
 Sound Installations
 'Lowlands' - Susan Philipsz Turner Art Prize Winner
2010

20. Web resources
• History of Ewan MacColl’s work:
www.pegseeger.com/html/ewan.html
• CD booklet for The Radio Ballads
www.topicrecords.co.uk
• Huge range of downloadable sound art:
www.ubu.com/
• Fan website devoted to Chris Morris
www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/

21. Web resources
• Info about sonic arts
www.sonicartsnetwork.org/
• Pressure group campaigning for sonic
environment
www.acousticecology.org/index.html
• Soundscape CDs with downloadable clips
http://www.earthear.com/
Website for making cut ups
http://www.hamiltonsbrain.co.uk/cutup/cutup
.htm

22. Listen
 Hackney Podcasts
 Audio, experimentation, listen and ‘observe with your ears’
 http://hackneypodcast.co.uk/