12/04/2025
Tune in this Saturday from 3pm to 4pm for a new episode of The Radio Art Hour! This is Part One of a three episode series on radio airspace and seaspace, produced by 2025 Radio Art Research Fellow Bill Corrigan. Tune in the next two weeks to listen
Marine Navigation Part 1: Hydroacoustics
Radio airspace and seaspace share a problem of mapping, and therefore of control. In 1609, Hugo Grotius accelerated the project of empire by arguing in his Mare Liberum that the sea and the air were alike in the sense that they could not be permanently occupied and were without limit, and that therefore they should be regarded as a commons. A breach formed between the empty expanse of this ideal landscape and the reality of turbulent waters. Waves of broadcast and of water are linked by more than metaphor: when they meet at the surface they produce interference, which can disrupt navigation. These pieces occur within the pattern of that interference and in the space of the breach. Listen in, and don’t worry if you find yourself getting lost.
In this program, Group Ecart enjoy some physical activity and bring listeners along, Gregory Whitehead troubles an extended metaphor through some deceptive proselytization, Alvin Curran meets an accordionist and a lighthouse keeper, and Audra Wolowiec asks a few questions of the depths.
Featured works:�Rowing from One Point to Another on Lake Geneva / Group Ecart�Bread on the Waters / Gregory Whitehead�Maritime Rites: Rattlesnake Mountain / Alvin Curran, Pauline Oliveros, Karen McLean�Water Radio / Audra Wolowiec
Bill Corrigan is a sound archivist, musician, researcher and writer. Starting as a freeform DJ at Ann Arbor’s WCBN-FM, he has been digging into radio stations and archives across the United States, from Detroit’s WDET to Charlottesville’s WTJU, and has undertaken research and preservation activities at the Pacifica Radio Archives and the Library of Congress. He has made sounds for interdisciplinary ensembles Underword and the Llano Estacado Monad Band, and currently performs duets within the Resuscianne group.
Image: A hydrophone used by Jean-Daniel Colladon in the first recorded attempt to measure the speed of sound underwater.
