Don’t forget to tune in on December 11 at midnight (CET). My Hörstück, »Interferenzen: Koloniales Scheitern im Radio« will premiere on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. This Hörstück is about failure and colonial interferences.I spoke with radio scholars and historians Elizabeth Enriquez, Vincent Kuitenbrouwer, and Teilhard Paradela.

I sampled historical sounds from colonial archives in Germany, the Netherlands, and the US, and I reflected on recorded sounds that remain inaccessible. In creating this piece, I was interested in the history of how radio technology was used by colonialism. And how it was used by the colonized. In this process, I was also interested in how through decades of radio listening our ears have been trained to specific aesthetics of listening. In most listening practices, we have removed the different forms of “interferences”. In taking out technological, cultural, and psychological disruptions, we wanted to ensure unimpeded transmission. But have we really removed them? Is this the colonization of the ears?

»Interferenzen: Koloniales Scheitern im Radio« is a production of Deutschlandfunk Kultur / Studio für Elektroakustische Musik der Akademie der Künste Berlin.