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Radio Arts Space project not only opens a debate into possible future developments of radio frequency as a gallery space but also into the relationship between contemporary art production and the public domain. The impressive number of artists responding to the open call indicates the large, yet unrecognized, potential of radio space in the current frame of cultural exchange. On the other hand the variety of the techniques, skills, approaches, ideas and methods used and explored by artists creating these audio pieces points to wide-ranging development in the international sound-art scene.

Having been invited to curate a playlist from submitted works I decided to focus on those audio pieces that are using strategies which are traditionally identified as visual art practices, for example: documentarism, research, participation, engagement and public interventions.

So what was so significant about these chosen works? It is the decision of artists to use sound as their only tool. It is their decision to create pieces that can be exhibited, displayed, played within the radio space, and it being only there, on the air, where they reach their full potential. It is only in the situation where the work is played and heard, where the sound overtakes the physical and mental space of the audience where the piece can be fully comprehend.

Mark Vernon, like a dedicated archeologist, has excavated examples of radio broadcasts used within the movie industry and has recomposed them into a unique sound archive, creating an historical narrative within it’s original radio format. Cantos' piece, created through the dialogues between artist Renata Padovan and randomly chosen people who emigrated to Brazil, objectifies the individual voices, creating an environment filled with personal histories and fragile memories.

A number of issues linked to the current state of the Arctic Circle have been addressed by a variety of artworks around the globe, but usually, seduced by the images and landscapes, those works have remained within the frame of representation. Avoiding the mediation of images, the sonic documentary created by Magali Daniaux and Cédric Pigot directs us, the listeners, to experience the Barents area of the Arctic through the dynamic of different thoughts, dilemmas and issues being expressed alongside collected sounds of surrounding environment.

The collaboration between artists Carlos Noronha Feio and Ergo Phizmiz have resulted in the sound piece 3, 2, 1, 0 A A and away 1, 2... It explores the potential of the translation of ideas from one format to another, from handmade rugs to sound. Luke Munn’s piece Dead Air deconstructs the very character of the radio space; isolating its silence and capturing the air movement. Through the play of errors, gaps and mistakes, the listener becomes aware of the power of the media. This brief review of different strategies employed by artists within this selection of artworks points again to a rethinking of the radio as gallery space. Each of these works could be exhibited (and some of them already have been) in galleries and museums. But would you change the radio frequency in your car for example, if you were to encounter one of those works? Would you listen to the broadcast on the Internet while checking e-mails or resting at home? Can these pieces become part of public domain, which intervene in the private spaces of the listeners? Composed by sound, and all attempting on some level of engagement, these selected works rely on the culture of listening. This demand for listening is what distinguishes these works and stimulate us to rethink current exhibiting strategies. How to intervene in the public space and make people listen? Is listening a radical activity in today’s world … and is there such a thing as dead air? Hopefully, Radio Arts Space will start the debate on some of these topics and maybe offer some possible solutions for the growing international sound-art scene.

- Milica Pekić