Breakfast@Goethe with Matti Aikio, 2 November 2023

A group of people sit around a long white table. They are facing two figures at the far end of the table who are obscured by arching microphone stands. Bhind them is a screen with a video projection showing a web browser opened on YouTube.

Goethe-Institut Finnland [Instagram] hosted fugitive radio and Sámi artist, reindeer herder and political representative, Matti Aikio [Instagram] for a breakfast event, 2 November 2023. It was live broadcast on πNode and lumbung radio/Station of Commons.

We began by recalling Matti’s visit to Sydney, Australia in 2000 as a representative of the Finnish Youth Parliament and then went on to range over issues that overlap art and politics, such as: settler colonialism in Finland and the Nordic States—notably so-called “Green Colonialism”—alongside the appropriation and weaponisation of Sámi culture by the tourism industry. We also discuss our mutual interests in music; the horrorcore rap of Inari language activist Amoc and the intricacies of Sámi joiking. Given we both DJ, Matti also shed some light on the underground techno scenes in the North.

Many thanks to Lena, Petra and Ville-Veikko from Goethe-Institut Finnland for organising the event. Also props to Timo Tuhkanen, Eddie Choo Wen Yi, Constantinos Miltiadis, Irina Mutt, Mathilde Palenius and Essi for their generous contributions to our conversation, and to Goethe-Institut Finnland and Jakub Bobrowski for the fotos [all links on Instagram]!

Media used in this broadcast:

fugitive frequency, season 3, episode 8: “Risky Business” with Mariam Elnozahy

Sumugan Sivanesan and Mariam Elnozahy in the foreground, with their backs to the camera, are seated at a table in front of a laptop. In front of them is the vegetable garden of the Jan van Eyck Academie. People are gathered here in the sunshine during open studio, 2023.

This month’s episode “Risky Business” is a conversation with curator, writer and researcher Mariam Elnozahy, recorded during a live broadcast at the Jan van Eyck Academie’s Open Studios, 24 June 2023. Our discussion takes its cues from a statement issued from Jan van Eyck participants concerned with the unclear expectations and “unacceptable conditions of labour” that shaped this much anticipated three day public event. It circulates around issues of artistic production, professional practice and the commodification of identities with reference to exhibition making. Furthermore, this podcast demonstrates how a practice of fugitive radio can offer a counter-platform to circumvent the well established trope of institutional critique in contemporary art.

The podcast begins with the voice of Rose Nordin from an earlier podcast, “NightShift: ‘Creative Labour’” that connects issues of work, artistic practice, sociability and the other intangible processes that contribute to professionalised arts. Interspersed in the podcasts are segments of electromagnetic noise made with Kim David Bots and computer riddims available on fugitive productions [bandcamp].

<a href="https://fugitive-productions.bandcamp.com/track/language-it-s-really-hard-to">language (it’s really hard to) by fugitive productions</a>

<a href="https://fugitive-productions.bandcamp.com/track/os-rdm">OS_RDM by fugitive productions</a>

image: “fugitive radio: outside inside open studios, with Mariam Elnozahy. Live broadcast from the Jan van Eyck Academie vegetable garden, 24 June 2023.” foto: Tessa Zettel.

The Fabulous Books are Bridges Art Book Fest, 8 & 9 July 2023

A hand coming from the left of the frame holds the top edge of a poster promoting The Fabulous Books are Bridges Art Book Fest. In the background is a bushy plant with flowers.

Presentations by Nazir Fadzilah of SVARA art journal and Tintabudi Bookshop (Kuala Lumpur), Priya Jay of Future Commons and STUART and Beatrix Pang of Zine Coop and Small Tune Press (Hong Kong). The panel was organised by Rose Nordin of STUART and Rabbits Road Press (London) and hosted by PrintRoom (Rotterdam).

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fugitive radio is broadcasting live from The Fabulous Books are Bridges Art Book Fest, 8 & 9 July, organised by PrintRoom Rotterdam.

With: antoine lefebvre editions /Art Zines / Hon Books (Paris), Artists in Solidarity (Rotterdam), Beatrix Pang/ Zine Coop/ Small tune press (Hong Kong), Bebebooks (Gent), Bur-Rose (The Hague), Colorama (Berlin), Eleanor Vonne Brown / The Nose (Walton on the Naze), F.G.A.(Rotterdam), Futura Resistenza (Rotterdam/Brussels), Gloria Glitzer (Berlin), Good Neighbour (Amsterdam), Heiba Lamara /OOMK (London), Jap Sam Books (Prinsenbeek), Jesse Presse (Amsterdam), Knust (Nijmegen), Limestone Books (Maastricht), Lu Lin / Not just a collective (Arnhem), Mono Rhetoric (The Hague), Nazir Fadzilah/ SVARA art journal/ Tintabudi Bookshop (Kuala Lumpur), Onomatopee (Eindhoven), Other Forms Berlin/Chicago, Pei-Ying Lin (Taiwan/Eindhoven), PrintRoom (Rotterdam), Roots to Fruits (Arnhem), Rose Nordin / STUART/Rabbits Road Press (London), Sarmad Magazine (Rotterdam), Stefanie Leinhos (Leipzig), Tender Hand Press (Glasgow), Teuntje Fleur (Schiedam), The Eriskay Connection (Breda), This was a project… (Rotterdam), Unformed Informed (Rotterdam), Valiz (Amsterdam) and more.

fugitive frequency, season 3, episode 4: NightShift, “Creative Labour”

A group of people with their backs to the camera are crowded around a shopfront entrance on a chilly night.

“Creative Labour” is the first audio fanzine documenting NightShift, an all night publishing-performance-happening occurring over March 2-3, 2023, at Limestone Books in Maastricht [Instagram] and made in collaboration with Rose Nordin. We streamed live for six hours straight on πnode and {openradio}.

In order of appearance “Creative Labour” features the voices of:
Riar Rizaldi whose film Becquerel (2021) screened before the broadcast, Maud van den Beuken who gives a live audio description followed by Merien Rodrigûes (São Paulo) [Instagram] and Anastasia Diavasti (Athens) [Instagram] who dialed in their audio descriptions. Chen Jehn, one of the proprietors of Limestone Books discusses their ideas for the shop with prompts from book artist Michiel Romme and Kim David Bots, who also contributed live improvised music. There is a brief excerpt from a pre-recorded interview with Jo Frenken who established the print studio at the Jan Van Eyck Academie and Rose Nordin gets in the last (delirious) word. Wen Hsuan Chang’s audio piece Paper Ripping Paper can be heard in the background, alongside the music of the Commodores.

Foto: Maud van den Beuken

NightShift at Limestone Books Maastricht, 2–3 March 2023

NightShift at Limestone Books, Thursday March 2, 11pm – Friday March 3, 6am. Broadcasting live from midnight on http://p-node.org.

Set your alarm clocks! Maastricht art book store Limestone Books [Instagram] opens for 24 hours on the first Thursday of each month. On March 2 it will be joined by Rose Nordin and fugitive radio [Instagram], installing a print salon, radio studio and screening room for the NightShift.

At 11pm we will watch Riar Rizaldi’s short film, Becquerel (2021), and host a Q&A with the director. Between midnight and 6am (March 3) we will collectively design and print a zine, Transcription from the night waves, for participants to take home at dawn. Simultaneously we will broadcast a live durational “audio fanzine” on http://p-node.org.

For the insomniacs, Maud van den Beuken [Instagram] will entrance us with audio descriptions as Kim David Bots [Instagram] prompts improvised musical interludes. Guests are invited to generate written transcriptions (in any language) and interpretive illustrations to be printed with a Gestetner, typewriter and drawing tools. Songs, chatter, recordings, musical objects and other sound-making matters are all welcome contributions to the radio.

We propose that voices from far and wide punctuate the night air. We encourage callers from local farms, South East Asian book stores and North American mountains to summon their surroundings in a communal dream to be documented and interpreted in print and across networks. Please send your texts and voice messages via WhatsApp: +49 1525 7610023.

Feel free to bring along sleeping bags, pillows, pyjamas, hot water bottles and whatever else you are comfortable to work in. Tea, coffee and nibbles will be provided.

Limestone Books
Grote Gracht 63, Maastricht
https://linktr.ee/limestone_books

Special thanks: Erwin Blok, Jo Frenken, Jan van Eyck Academie, Paul John, πNode

fugitive frequency, season 3, episode 2: “speakeasy”

A view from above of a studio space in the Jan van Eyck Academie. A group of people sit along the permeter walls and watch a figure operating equipment set on a central table. In the foreground are the legs of a figure dangling over a loft from which the image was taken.

This month’s episode is an (amended) audio document and re-broadcast of a live “speakeasy” event fugitive radio hosted at the Jan van Eyck Academie on a snowy friday evening, January 20. It was also the first in a series of monthly live broadcasts fugitive radio is producing on πnode, a decentralized radio infrastructure streams online and broadcasts on DAB in Mulhouse and Paris. It featured contributions from Jan van Eyck artists-in-residence, in order of appearance [Instagram]: Cristina Flores, AZOOR, Zahra Malkani, Kim David Bots, Juan Pablo Pacheco Bejarano, Alicja Wysocka and Arpita Akhanda. Foto: Dayna Casey.

The speakeasy was convened as a space for experimentation, spontaneity and improvisation, although it ended being a tightly packed schedule that ran a little over time. A theme of “songs” emerged in the days beforehand, but was not a requirement. The event was broadcast live with the proviso that it would only be documented internally and not be archived online. In the following days, all participants agreed to re-broadcast and upload with some minor amendments to account for time restrictions and sound quality. Many thanks to all who participated, attended and tuned in!

“speakeasy” on πnode

During its time at Jan van Eyck Academie fugitive radio will host a monthly “speakeasy”, as a testing ground for emergent radiophonic formats. These might include sound art, music, poetics, conversation pieces and other forms yet to be discovered and named. fugitive radio seeks to make a space for experimentation, spontaneity and improvisation.

In the coming months the speakeasy will broadcast live at irregular times and from different geographic locations, but always online at TTnode, a decentralised network of servers, antennae and DAB+ (digitial audio broadcasting) boxes scattered around France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The inaugural speakeasy will occur on Friday 20 January 2023 from studio 111 at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht NL. You’re welcome to join from 17.00 and we will go live between 18.00–19.00.

Constant: “Techno-Cul-de-Sac” in MARCH

A close up image of four DIY radio transmitters rendered in lo-res gif. A tangle of copper coils, metal plates, electronic components and wires

fugitive radio attended the “Techno-Cul-de-Sac” worksession, November 20–25, 2022, organised by Constant in Brussels. Co-convened by members Martino Morandi and Peter Westenberg it proposed a collective encounter with Brussels via an investigation of zoning, infrastructure, and technology, bringing together artists, architects, and urban researchers. While the worksession was not about radio per se, radio was the medium that underpinned our activities, concluding as a live “alleycasting” broadcast assisted by Radio Panik and p-node.org. My report for MARCH, “Techno On the Radio” is here. Notably, materials used are licensed with Copyleft 2022 Constant: you may copy, distribute, and modify this material according to the terms of the Collective Conditions for Re-Use (CC4r) 1.0.