Photo Tobias Abel; source Twitter.
Sound exists without borders and so does ABC RN’s new team heading up its Creative Audio Unit (CAU) and producing the programs Radiotonic and Soundproof.
When I first met them about a month ago: Executive Producer Julie Shapiro had just flown in from Chicago and Sophea Lerner had returned to Australia from New Delhi – both making Sydney their new home. Melbourne-based Miyuki Jokiranta had travelled in the opposite direction. She had worked for a range of public radio programs in the United States and in community radio in Argentina before returning to RN to produce and present Soundproof, while Australian home-grown talent and Radiotonic presenter Jesse Cox had worked in community radio in Sydney, produced work for other RN programs, and also explored audio through theatre, performance, and geo-locative technology.
It is an amazing web of creative connectivity – an international asset that is now an RN one.
Shapiro has been a professional listener for a long time. For more than a decade she was the artistic director of the Third Coast International Audio Festival in Chicago, which she co-founded. Shapiro said: ‘Our diverse backgrounds really speak to the goals of the founding of this unit – to be relevant internationally and placed in context here, but also to help export Australia content to the increasingly connected global listening community.’
‘All of us don’t necessarily just work on either program. We work in a collaborative space where most of the stuff we do is internally shared across both shows.’ Jokiranta said working collaboratively with the team has created a range of infinite possibilities for the new program.
‘It’s great when we are talking and workshopping ideas because we have such a vast idea of what we want to achieve. It’s really good to brainstorm and create some really strong audio.’
‘There’s a lot of overlap in our backgrounds,’ Shapiro added. ‘Jesse has had experience with theatre and performance-driven radio, while Miyuki has worked as a creative festival organiser, as well as a sound engineer for RN, so has a lot of technological know-how to add to our efforts. She has a real curiosity about the architecture of sound, which translates beautifully over the air and helps bring listeners into the experience of listening to more abstract or conceptual work.
‘Sophea is very passionate about technology and the social potential for listening communities, and the impact radio can have. She helped start a group listening practice in New Delhi, and has brought a different set of perspectives and knowledge into the mix. The four of us coming together has created a kind of powder keg of creative energy.
‘Lerner is working on a program that will air in late June that takes a very hands-on approach to exploring old audio tools and what’s been lost in the editing process as digital technologies have evolved,’ explained Shapiro.
‘I’m excited to be part of the team which is making these kinds of programs,’ said Cox.
Originally a visual artist, Cox has been recognised for works which have been featured at the Next Wave Festival, Art & About and Underbelly Arts. His work Sculpture by the Sea included the installation of tiny speakers in showerheads that literally showered people with stories.
‘For me, that was the crossover of two interests between radio and art, and that’s how I became interested in creative audio and in particular, radio and storytelling,’ said Cox.
This notion is embedded in the core of RN’s new Creative Audio Unit, to explore the ever-broadening possibilities of how we listen, and what indeed that creative audio experience could entail.
Radiotonic and Soundproof are the two newest editions to the RN programming, the ABC’s national ideas network.
