On Friday I attended the latest In The Dark listening event which was held at the Folly for a Flyover venue (a peculiar pop-up cinema / art space) in Hackney, East London. What was particularly exciting about this event was that I was having one of my very own pieces exhibited / played and it was very humbling to hear my work alongside those from well established and respected radio producers!
If you've never heard of In The Dark, it's a fantastic organisation which champions and commissions experimental radio pieces. They basically encourage producers to play around with the radio format to create weird, yet wonderfully original audio pieces. If you're a fan of WNYCs RadioLab then this is definitely something for you.
The organisation regularly holds 'listening events' across London, bringing together a community of producers and listeners to hear a selection of audio shorts, curated by founder Nina Garthwaite. Although sitting 'in the dark' with a bunch of people, listening to radio may sound like an unusual way to spend the evening, it really is a great experience and I must say something very unique! Each of the pieces played are stylistically distinct and certainly always thought provoking, so you can never be sure what you might end up listening to.
On Friday, the night was arranged into three parts:
- Fables,
- Structures
- Fragments, Apparitions & Visions.
My piece, entitled 'Adam as machine' (you can read more about it here), fell into the 'Structures' category and followed Leo Hornak's 'All You Can Hear is Breathing' - which explores the insane Empire State Building 'Run-Up' race. Favorites of the night included a piece by Sarah Cuddon called 'The Books' (an extended edit currently available on iPlayer) and the latest Hackney Podcast entitled 'Wild Hackney', produced by Francesca Panetta and Russel Finch (listen to it here).
I've re-posted my piece below if you want to have a listen...
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