No medium has had a more lasting influence worldwide on listening over the past 100 years than radio. Therefore, the complexity and influence of the medium is revealed only by looking around the world. By juxtaposing different approaches and experiences with broadcasting and listening, new insights can be gained, changes in perspective can be made possible, and conventional concepts of communication can be understood in a new way. How can maps of transcultural listening be drawn? How does listening transcend geopolitical boundaries to create new territories?

In order to explore the impact of radio in its transcultural interconnectedness, the Experimental Radio of the Bauhaus University Weimar collects international projects, initiatives and audiovisual content around the topic of radio and listening and gathers the materials on the Transcultural Listening Map. Since radio waves transcend territorial boundaries, the projects found are often interconnected. The interactive knowledge platform invites its visitors to explore these connections in a playful way. This makes it possible to identify parallels and differences in the radio histories and listening cultures of different world regions and to establish international networks within the radio and listening community.

At HKW, a preview of the website is presented for the first time, with the initial results of the Bauhaus.Listening.Workshops in South America (Montevideo) and Southeast Asia (Sagada/Manila), as well as the first projects from the Middle East and South Africa. The website can be experienced interactively via touch screens on site as well as via QR codes for retrieval with own devices. The final launch of the Transcultural Listening Map is planned for October 2024, and will then be accessible to everyone from everywhere.

listeningmap.de (during the event and finally from October 2024)

Credits:
Artistic Director/Editor: Nathalie Singer, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Concept and editing: Lefteris Krysalis, Frederike Moormann, Nathalie Singer
Project coordination: Sandra Rücker, Vitalis Neufeld
Sound/Editing: Tilman Victor Böhnke

The Transcultural Listening Map is a project of the professorship ‘Experimental Radio’, with the financial support by the Creative Fund of the Bauhaus University Weimar.