Onassis Radiophonics - Episode 3

Episode 3

Can news become the prime matter of a radio play? This question is answered by the play "NEWS", which comprises the “re-editing” of the most important news of the weekly agenda. As we are found immersed into a mishmash of news (as well as fake news) on a daily basis, how much do we really absorb? How easy is it to direct our attention? Words are packed and smashed, and they leave with a bang. This trajectory of information is captured by the mechanism of the play "NEWS".

Dramaturg: Nikolas Hanakoulas
Text processing, sound design: Gavriil Kamaris
Puredata coding: Fotios Kontomichos
Production Management: Delta Pi
Produced by Onassis Stegi

The work deals with the conflict between two types of discourse: the radical poetic discourse, on one hand, and the hate speech, on the other. Initially, we encounter a verbal assault condition. The two voices reenact this assault from two different perspectives; the perspective of the eyewitness and the one of those being targeted. Their main concern is to decode the ‘hate speeches’ in order to claim space for empathy, creativity, and resurrection – through the ashes of victimization and coercion. Gradually, they unify their voices-powers, not only to organize their resistance, but also to be able to exist beyond the realm of hatred.

Credits
Concept: Dimitra Ioannou (text), Stratos Bichakis (music)

1st Voice: Valisia Odell
2nd Voice: Dimitra Ioannou

Mix & Mastering: Iraklis Vlachakis
Sound Engineer: Anthony Georgou

Duration: 30 mins

The starting point of “How Poems-Cities” was the rise of hate speech, as it was – and still is – manifested in everyday life, the political discourse, and the social media. The work explores means of resistance to this phenomenon by the progressive poetic language, while also contributes to fight it down, awakening consciousness and cultivating a fertile ground to develop counter-dynamics. Because, maybe, as the American poet C.D. Wright once remarked, “the poets remain the most ‘stunned by existence.’ the most determined to redeem the world in words.”

A source creation of a fully artificial environment through modular synthesizers was employed for the sound composition. Sharp sounds are born and lost as a pure response to the words being listened, with no intention of performing or accompanying the text, but just out of their need to exist. The sounds provide the poem with the extra dimensions of space and time, while the consistent sonic background serves as the starting point of a parallel narrative.