ARIKA & RADIOPHRENIA
NEW RADICALS
David Pollock takes a look at two events pushing the boundaries of art, performance and music in Glasgow
N ovember is a golden hour for esoteric music-inspired events in Glasgow. Community art collective Arika return with the latest in their Episodes strand, Episode 9: Other Worlds Already Exist, a series of performances, discussions, workshops and screenings that investigate which present stories might generate different futures. Elsewhere, Radiophrenia pitches itself as ‘the light at the end of the dial’: it’s a two-week radio transmission from the CCA which treats the medium of radio as its own art form.
weaponised audio experiments; a mash-up of beat poetry and minimalist compositions by Belle & Sebastian co-founder Stuart David; and Jenn Mattinson’s radio documentary Out of Place, exploring the later life of BBC Radiophonic Workshop composer Delia Derbyshire.’ Arika, meanwhile, started out by organising experimental music and i lm festivals in 2001,
‘It seems to us that [radio] is one of the most egalitarian mediums,’ says Radiophrenia’s production manager Barry Burns, who co-founded the station with Mark Vernon. ‘It’s free, you can digest ideas in the comfort of your own home, and almost everyone can access it. We don’t have any set programme lengths, which makes scheduling a nightmare, but this means we can accommodate pieces of any duration from one minute to over eleven hours. We had listeners in 39 countries last year, so we want to try to expand on that.’
recordings Taking cues from Resonance FM in London and Sound Art Radio in Devon, Radiophrenia radiophonic promises soundscapes, experiments, i eld and unconventional approaches to traditional formats. The 336 hours of broadcast time will be i lled with a blend of free performances at the CCA and pre-recorded commissioned pieces, as well as an open call for new work and workshops with marginalised groups.
‘Felix Kubin is coming over
from Hamburg to do a live performance,’ says Burns. ‘He’ll be presenting a combination of miniature radio plays about audio libraries. Another live performances is by (artist and former Life Without Buildings singer) Sue Tompkins and (artist and electronic musician) Russell Haswell. We have no idea what they’re going to do, which is one of the exciting things for us. Elsewhere we have Ernestus Chald’s and mutated into events that question the nature of such festivals, while also supporting grassroots political action. ‘To put it simply, we explore ways in which communities produce creativity and joy in their l ight from oppression,’ says Arika’s Barry Esson. ‘Sometimes some of us at Arika are members of these communities, but if we’re not, we try to act as good allies.’ This year they’ve i nally drawn one of their
greatest inl uences, the science i ction writer Samuel R Delany, to Glasgow.
‘One thing that runs through his writing is his way of approaching science i ction as a distortion of the present,’ says Esson, ‘of how any dream we might have of overcoming multiple oppressions will always be rooted in our daily desires and struggles. He has this optimistic concrete way of thinking of our collective sociality, which the worlds we want to create already exist, even if they’re duress, and so they need to be protected, cultivated and nourished. ‘ under
says
that
P H O T O
:
B O B S W E E N E Y
the
As well as Delaney, this year’s Episode welcomes the dance artist Storyboard P; journalist and blogger on queer struggle Huw Lemmey, with some of his politicised fan-i ction; Philadelphia housing activist, black quantum and political musician Moor the Mother attention-grabbing two- woman Glasgow electro- punk group LAPS (Ladies As Pimps); and young performer, Glaswegian fashion and impresario’ ‘nightlife Sgaire Woods. (pictured);
designer
futurist
A question of just how ‘weighty’ this Episode is, where the balance between politics and enjoyment is struck, brings Esson to draw a comparison: ‘The jazz saxophonist Joe McPhee made a record titled As Serious As Your Life. It’s a complex, joyous, difi cult, thrilling, uplifting, challenging and angry piece of music. Like it, the seriousness of life in 2017 can’t be ignored.’ legendary
Radiophrenia transmits through radiophrenia.scot from the CCA, Glasgow, Thu 6–Sun 19 Nov; Arika – Episode 9: Other Worlds Already Exist, Tramway and Kinning Park Complex, Glasgow, Thu 16– Sun 19 Nov.
1 Nov 2017–31 Jan 2018 THE LIST 47