| Creative Radio Initiative | |
From 2001 to 2003 Victoria Fenner coordinated the Creative Radio Initiative. This three year educational program was funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation via the Canadian Society for Independent Rasdio Production. The project allowed dozens on Ontario community broadcasters to explore community radio as artspace. The project involved workshops on radio drama, electronic literature, documentaries, soundscapes, and audio art, plus web based training materials.
The workshops listed below offered volunteer and staff producers a rare opportunity to work and learn from professionals and artists from many backgrounds. The workshop series culminated in the Transmissions sans Frontieres conference which brought together creative radio makers from Canada, The US, and abroad for three days of workshops and performances at the University of Toronto.
The Workshops
Deep Wireless
Radio That Hears the Soundscape
April 2002
Assembly Hall, Toronto, Ontario
Radio plays a major role in our community's soundscape. We hear it in our homes, in shops, in restaurants, in cars, and piped out onto the streets.
As radio producers, we have a significant impact on the sounds which our communities hear. But how often do we think about how our programming is reflecting the sound of our community? How do the sounds we create affect the communities in which we live? And how can radio take part in the dialogue about the acoustic environment where we live and work?
"Deep Wireless" is a two day workshop for community radio producers who want to explore the soundscape of our communities. It is also suitable for artists of all types who want to listen deeply, hear clearly, and use those sounds in their artistic production.
Facilitators: Wende Bartley, Anne Bourne, Darren Copeland
Electronic Words
New Ways of Presenting Literature on the Radio
March 2003
An interactive workshop for writers and literary radio producers to explore new forms of audio literature.
Radio is quite possibly the best medium for presenting literature outside of the printed page, combining the infinite possibilities of the human voice, while still allowing the listeners' imagination to fill in the accompanying images.
Electronic Words will explore different approaches to presenting poetry, story, and other literary forms on radio, in recordings, or on the Internet. The workshops will explore technical considerations, and will help artists to develop a performance style which is most effective in an electronic medium.
Facilitators: Penn Kemp & Laurence Stevenson
It Goes By Once:
Creative Documentary Production
March 2002
University of Windsor, Ontario
An intensive workshop in the art and poetry of sound.
Knowing how to write gripping stories for radio means knowing how to grab the ear and keep hold of it. It means listening for the vivid detail in location sounds, tone of voice in interview clips, and giving the right energy to your own delivery.
This two-day workshop will teach aspiring and experienced documentary producers and reporters, as well as any others who write for broadcast media, how to "compose" for the ear, especially the jittery, impatient ear that's typical of most audiences today. Ears and minds which won't and can't rewind or flip the page back to see what you were trying to say.
You've got just one chance to be understood.
Participants will learn how to maintain interest in a story, how to convey complicated ideas by simple images, how to write and speak so that listeners stay with you. The "grammar" of sounds and their effective, even sensual and seductive use to paint memorable mental images. Rhythm and pacing. Choosing when you want to jar or disturb your audience.
Facilitator: Steve Wadhams
Audio Soup
Radio Technical Basics
A two day workshop about microphones, tape recorders, mixers and everything you need to be a technically competent radio producer.
This seminar will provide participants an opportunity to meet each other and to share details of their craft and practice. People of all levels of technical proficiency are encouraged to attend -- beginners, intermediate or advanced.
Seminar presentations will include descriptions and demonstrations of radio documentary, radio drama, radio art and general radio production and performance, as well as reflections on community radio listenership.
A two day international workshop produced in partnership with New Adventures in Sound Art as part of the Deep Wireless Festival. Artists and producers from Canada, the US , and abroad gathered for several days of listening sessions, discussion, and performances.