a few weeks back, I was able to switch my schedule at work and go
downtown to the Goethe Institute for their “Hear Now” program
http://www.hearnowradio.org/ featuring Simon Elmes, Creative Director,
Features and Documentaries, BBC
it was a bit strange sitting in a small theater with a screen ahead,
without watching anything. the event was showcasing some radio
programs from BBC radio but also served as an exercise to focus on
listening to sound samples to see how it creates an environment
visually on our own as opposed to images, still or moving, provided
for us.
I was really glad I got to go and it’s been something that’s triggered
a new excitement in regards to radio and sound. He didn’t get to play
all the clips he wanted to, but he did provide the outline of the
program he was presenting to us that night. all the clips he played
for us were great, but a few stood out for me, but I really liked this
one:
The Refuge Box- part of the Between the Ears series
it aired on Radio 3 in 2007 and sadly isn’t available for online
listening anymore.
the synopsis:
Half way between Holy Island and the mainland of Northumbria, a flight
of steps leads to a wooden cabin on stilts.
It is the Refuge Box, built to save people cut off by the tide from
being swept away and drowned.
This is the focus of a new radio poem by Katrina Porteous, whose
poetry, recorded all over Holy Island and in the Refuge Box itself,
is interspersed with other voices, including island fishermen who
remember rescues and tragedies, the coastguard and lifeboat crew,
the bird warden, the Franciscan vicar of Holy Island, and a refugee
who fled her West African homeland to seek sanctuary in Britain.
Beyond the human voices is the poetry of the place itself, the seals singing,
the wheeze of swans flying over Holy Island, sudden jet fighters
protecting this sanctuary yet violating its peace and, always, the
wind and the sea.
listening to the program made me want to visit there:
http://www.lindisfarne.org.uk/
looks like an interesting place, and they make their own Mead!
here’s some photos I found online: