March 27, 2026 Spring 2025
Intro
Radio Radius: Mini FM and DIY Networks was created to share our interests in the electromagnetic spectrum and sound sculpture, to consider methods of production that may offer a counterpoint to globalized networks, and to encourage critical engagement with radio technologies.
The course was hybrid – we met between Creative Time (East Village) and online (Zoom). We oscillated between remote and in-person meetings, workshops, and guest visits. Our 21-person cohort joined from New York, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, California, Canada, and Germany. Technical backgrounds ranged from years of experience to first timers, and we were joined by guests working in sound culture, community radio, and site-specific sculpture. Over the course of the workshop, participants developed a “Narrowcast” based on Mini FM circuits and principles.
Below is an abbreviated log of the 7-week course.
Week 1: Introductions, Sound Walk, in person and online
Map showing New York City and surrounding areas with red and blue dots identifying antenna locations. Water bodies, parks, and major neighborhoods are labeled and color-coded. Image of antennasearch.com.Map of all antennas in a 3-mile radius from downtown Manhattan. To begin the “Narrowcast” project, an initial assignment called “Sit Spot .MP3” prompted each participant to do a sound walk and a brief audio response. Informed by the work of Pauline Oliveros, this exercise was meant to train our ears and awareness for listening.
Week 2: Sound and the City, online with Geng PTP
Screen recording of Geng PTP’s live overdubbing of Stations of the Elevated (1981) with his project SHOOK WORLD (2023). This album – about chosen family and honoring the lineage of the land – is composed of field recordings and stems from the Atlanta-based band Algiers’s SHOOK.
Week 3: Radio Electronics Workshop Part 1, in person and online
Bryant assisting a participant soldering at a workshop table, with another participant in the foreground, wearing black masks and focusing intently. Transmitter materials and tools lay on the wooden table. Photograph by Kedrick Walker.The course’s first and primary workshop focused on understanding how to solder and assemble a Mini TX, considered the most basic FM transmitter. What we designed and built was adapted from schematics by Tetsuo Kogawa, Art Swan, Harry Lythall (SM0VPO), and Practical Electronics, fig 3.94, using an assembly technique called Manhattan Style.
Week 4: Radio and Community, online with Babette Thomas
A community service announcement excerpted from a 1950s-era broadcast by WDIA in Memphis. In this piece, the announcer shares the story of a local man who lost his false teeth while walking home, asking listeners to help look for them, and noting where he lives to return them. In class, Babette noted that “it’s actually Black women, like Mary D. Dudley (the first Black DJ to go on the air in the U.S.) who pioneered and popularized the heterogenous model of radio programming that we’re all so familiar with today, where we have this combination of news, music, and community affairs, all at once.” Courtesy of Babette Thomas.
Week 5: Radio Electronics Workshop Part 2, in person and online
A group of people, wearing masks, work together around a large table in a bright room with high ceilings. A projected screen displays the Zoom interface.Our last workshop was an open time for participants to develop their “Narrowcast” projects, checking in and sharing feedback as a group. Creative Time’s space provided room for in-person and remote participants to work in parallel.
Week 6: Site-Specificity, online with Lina Chang
A black spiral line with an arrow at both ends, drawn on a grainy gray background. An "X" marks the center, indicating a starting point or focus.Lina shared this spiral drawing to illustrate her perspective on the life of audio. She expounded upon this, explaining: “When making a piece of work with audio it doesn’t follow a linear path … it has a strange relationship to time. You’re immersing yourself in that location recording – there might be things that you’re seeing or noticing, and things in the past that brought you to that place, as well as a lot of history surrounding that area that came before you. You might be recording something now, but once you record it then play it in the future, it’s already in the past tense. So you can also play with the idea of time.”
Week 7: Narrowcast and Reflection, online
Thumbnails on a black background depict diverse scenes, including digital audio files, outdoor settings, radio transmitters on tables, and hands using radio receivers and transmitters.A gathering of work created throughout the course of Radio Radius, and presented in our last session. Thank you to everyone who participated:
Amanda
Daniel
Dawn
esther
hannah
Iris
James
Kate
kelechi
Kt
Liting
Max
Maybe
neta
Priya
Samil
Sean
Tatianna
Vishal
Yufeng
yétúndé
Outro
You can view the extended log and syllabus at rr25.daemon.earth.