“Radio hovers between fantasies of transmission, of sonic emanation, of airy imagination, and the possibilities of making concrete such projections through ideas of nation and community” (LaBelle 2010: 207).
I went on a clear day in March to record inside and around the Avala tower. I used the transducer to sonify the electronic equipment that makes this place run. This buzz becomes the soundmark, the backbone of the space. In this sound image, the sounds of birds and water emerge from the drone like an illusion or hallucination. The jangling of my keys anchors the listener to a certain distance. We hear the room noise differently when through the transduced sounds of its electronic flows; sound is transmitted through the material of the electronic equipment that stores, creates, or receives it. Radio captivates the imagination, and the places of radio production become iconic. Yet, this process becomes smoothed over in the usual listening experience. Here, in contrast to our normal mode, we listen to the ambient electrical and architectural backdrop for the production of radio fantasies.