Being Heard

Abstract

We describe Radio With Palestine (RWP), a project that broadcasts live sounds from demonstrations. Reflecting on RWP as ongoing work, we are thinking about rhythms, temporalities and resonant spaces of direct actions as manifestations of political urgencies and injustices. Ecological radio moves live sounds from place to place, colliding timeframes and moments of emergent struggles, creating a live archive that aims to amplify and document ephemeral situations, without turning them into spectacles or specimens. 

During RWP, people attend actions in support of Palestine and run live audio streams. Using free streaming apps and DIY audio devices with omni-directional microphones, RWP enacts a form of flat listening against the grain of mainstream media. Events vary from minor acts of resistance at neighbourhood scale to large, conventionally under-reported protests. 

By drawing attention to how (different) these situations sound, we can think about the ways direct actions work beyond each site, with its distinct architectures, tempos and acoustics. Being in and broadcasting streets full of dissonant sounds and voices, hearing ourselves back with lag, we sense both the possibilities and the limits of synchrony / solidarity. 

Notes on Contributors

Soundcamp (Sasha Baraitser Smith, Mortimer Drew, Grant Smith) are an arts cooperative based at Stave Hill Ecological Park in Rotherhithe and Work Shop 1 in Loughborough Junction, with members in Glasgow, Berlin, Yorkshire, Crete and The Netherlands. We are interested in diy infrastructures that can move live sounds between places and situations, and give attention to less heard human and non-human communities. Our work appears as live transmissions, workshops, sound devices and events.