Ghost Wolf

Joan Schuman (US 2023)

13 min

The sovereignty of bodies is conjectured through a shuffle of voices across the scaffold of hollow spaces—the mouth, pelvis; curled fists and open heart.

These voices spin and blur into an invitation to listen beyond the exacting stories we find comfort in. Imagine the wolf, hunted almost to extinction across centuries in the U.S. and their ever-strident returns. We fear them as we conjecture dreamscapes from their howls.

These spectral creatures and their autonomous nations fiercely compel some communities to seek their annihilation; others strive for management.; some are satisfied in the certainty of their hidden slinking. It’s a mirror to contemporary political dogfights over bodily dominion, of conviction and control. In a poetic mix of voices, in the barely sung utterance, in barking and yipped snarls, there’s a swirl of imaginary wolves inside the body’s cavities.

There’s also an urgency to stray across landscapes of narrative around fears and survival. We contend with a tension of opposites. The same person who absolutely values the sovereignty of reproductive rights for women might be the person who falls easily to the sway of another faith—a solid belief in government control of disease and culture, bodies and politics, scientific literacy and objectivity.

Like the metaphor of unseen wolves, there is a trope of hysteria that is palpable depending on the bodies and the faith in them. Can these disparate stories about sovereignty be open to debate? Felt in the body itself? Formed in another kind of skulking, a striding low across the loamy, forest floor?

Written, vocalized and composed by:: Joan Schuman

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This I is Made of Paper

The Paris Review (US 2023)

21 min

Pulitzer Prize winner Sharon Olds discusses sex, religion, and writing poems that "women were definitely not supposed to write,” in an excerpt from her Art of Poetry interview with Jessica Laser. Olds also reads three of her poems: “Sisters of Sexual Treasure” (Issue No. 74, Fall–Winter 1978), “True Love,” and “The Easel.”

Production and Sound Design - John DeLore
The Paris Review

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XMTR Radio Hour Ep26 : Steve Urquhart's Audio World

Produced by Social Broadcasts (UK 2023)

63 min / Episode 26 of 26

This Transmitter Radio Hour is a selection of audio works chosen by award winning Glasgow based radio producer and sound artist Steve Urquhart. He joins Lucia to discuss why these works inspire, make him laugh and more importantly break the rules and conventions of radio making. Steve has worked for local radio in Cumbria, National Prison Radio and made many many documentaries and shorts for BBC Radio. 

Works featured: 

1. LEAVING A MARK
Produced by Emily Hsaio for Transom Story Workshop, 2013
https://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/feature/leaving-a-mark

2. THE HOT DOGS
BBC Radio Cumbria, circa 1999/2000. Presenter: Alan Smith. Producer: Steve Urquhart 

3. RABBLE ROUSERS (extract)
Produced by Sarah Boothroyd, 2012
https://soundcloud.com/sarah-boothroyd/boothroyd-rabble-rousers

4. PRISON WALK (unedited)
Recorded by Chris Impey inside HMP Brixton, London, 2011

5. LYN AND MARY (extract)
The Listening Project, BBC, 2013
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p6rz3

6. THE FURNITURE SUPPER CLUB
Produced by Clara Lou, 2017
https://www.claralou.net/work/the-furniture-supper-club

7.  BUMP (from ‘Time Constraints AKA the 32Megabyte Mixtape’)
Produced by Alan Bryden, 2017
https://soundcloud.com/listentosteve/alan-bryden-bump-from-time-constraints
https://linktr.ee/alan_bryden

Produced by Lucia Scazzocchio

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Listening Not Knowing

Hannah Kemp-Welch (UK 2023)

miaaw.net · Listening Not Knowing

23 min,

Part of a series about listening in participatory art practice.

Albert Potrony’s website describes him as “an artist with a participatory practice examining ideas of identity, community and language. Potrony is interested in generating social spaces through his projects, and participation from diverse groups and individuals is a key element of his work.” In this conversation with Hannah Kemp-Welsh he introduces his participatory arts practice, describing a recent project with young fathers in Gateshead and former members of an anti-sexist men’s group. Albert and Hannah talk about collaborative practice in detail, and the role of listening within this.

Produced by Hannah Kemp-Welch

Made for Miaaw.net a platform dedicated to conversations about community, creativity, cultural democracy and the commons 


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Generative Engine

Joan Schuman (US 2022)

10 min

Sounds and stories, like dreams, elude our grasp towards a future deemed to be untouched, untarnished.

Along a series of voiced ‘book pages’ echoing from Joan’s creative sonic archive of more than 20 years ago, comes an intersection generated with material lifted up from the unconscious. Collisions of narrative are reconsidered along the timescape of dreams. It’s very much of the now and of a past that appears in the present. What is spoken and whirled emits a barely linear story accessing the cycles of death, but also the collective symbology of end-times and freedom.

This melding is driven by an energetic stirring of borrowed lines from the poet-theorist, Nicole Brossard, and the theorist-philosopher Gilles Deleuze—from texts produced in the early 1970s (A Book by Brossard and Negotiations by Deleuze). These ‘pages’ comprised a sonic engine originally played in a gallery space and ceded over to the machine’s shuffle mode. Now, in present time, both a past and a future unfurl. The ship of the night floats through turgid waters. A neat continuum of story is interrupted within itself swirling like an invertebrate, horizontal and regenerate. The underworld knows no time. Sounds, like dreams, elude our grasp towards a future deemed to be untouched, untarnished.

Vocals + mix: Joan Schuman
Texts + Words: Nicole Brossard + Gilles Deleuze
Composition: Joan Schuman derived from Creative Commons licensed freesound

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Folxlore - Stuck

Tin Can Audio (UK 2020)

13 min Episode 1 of 9

Folxlore tells the stories of queer people living literally and figuratively between two worlds. In one sense, we try to live normal lives while the world tells us we are not normal. In another sense, our normal lives are interrupted by a very not-normal rift opening up between our world and another plane of existence filled with nightmarish horrors. This pilot series deals with themes of first romance, hate crime related trauma, and queer parenthood Folxlore is rooted in everyday Glasgow, where monsters are always on the edge of your periphery.

Written and performed by: Ross McFarlane Syd Briscoe Bibi June ​
With additional voices by Hannah Raymond-Cox
Recorded and produced by David Devereux
A Tin Can Audio Production

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XMTR Radio Hour Ep25 : A Field Trip to Edmonton

Produced by Social Broadcasts (UK 2023)

60 min / Episode 25 of 25

This show is dedicated to the joyful chaos that is Angel Edmonton in Enfield, North London. Once an industrial hub attracting factory workers and their families, the area has been neglected for decades as factories gave way to warehouses and social housing fell into decay.  Today it's a multicultural crossroads undergoing massive redevelopment. Echoes of Angels produced by Social Broadcasts takes us on a trip down the main artery - Fore Street, guided by local residents and business owners. 

Echoes of Angels a Social Broadcast by  – Lucia Scazzocchio 

Commissioned by Fore Street for All 

Next we join Enfield People’s Theatre with local producer Soveks Lo behind the scenes of their latest production Bread and Roses - a community play recounting the 1915 Edmonton Rent Strike and the community action (led and won by local women) drawing parallels with the current housing crises.

Produced by Lucia Scazzocchio

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Childcare Voices: Stay and Play

Eva Freeman / On The Record (UK 2023)

26 min, Episode 1 of 4

People on the frontline of the childcare crisis share their stories and investigate the historical roots of the problems they face. As they look into the past, will they find solutions to the problems of today? Eva, a single mum, artist and designer talks about stay and plays.

Stay and Plays are often volunteer-run groups, found in church halls. They are places people looking after very young babies and children can go, to play with others, have a cup of tea and a chat, and maybe even make friends. An experienced play facilitator herself, Eva first discovered the value of stay and plays when she was a new parent. They were, she says, life saving and gave her a community that has lasted. If they are so vital, why then does no one talk about them?

Produced by Eva Freeman
Sound design by Hannah Kemp Welch

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Mexico City Travelogue

Julia Mitrić (US 2023)

13 min

The narrator collects sounds on the streets of Mexico City and weaves them into an audioscape about music and the experience of traveling while recovering from illness.

Produced by Julia Mitrić

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Euphoric Transformations

Charlotte Morlie (US /BE 2023)

11 min

Charlotte Morlie is a Belgian audio producer living in Brooklyn, New York. In her first non-narrated piece, she uses both interview and archival tape to convey a story of transness and queer joy. 

Produced by Charlotte Morlie
Special Thank You to Em Panetta 

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