Tangible Radio: Deaf studies and sound studies coalitions

Abstract

As a medium for information, entertainment and communication, radio had taken precedence over television for decades, at least in terms of its accessibility in all households. Television and later the internet never completely annulled its aural condition, while its form altered to keep up with developments in terms of asynchrony or subject areas. Today it is considered the predominantly ‘cool medium’. Recent developments in television and the internet’s ways of operating render it a more detached medium than the alternative, given that a medium can change ‘temperature’ over time depending on the use (Levinson 2001: 108). But what about its accessibility to d/Deaf and Hard-of-hearing groups? Are these communities excluded by default from radio programmes and artistic creation through radiophonic media? In this article I analyse a case study, ‘Tangible Radio – Class on Air’ workshop, as part of B-AIR Creative Europe programme, as well as the convergences of sound art and the deaf experience in terms of co-creation, participation and educational processes. I will argue that radio as a medium can very successfully include the d/Deaf and Hard-of-hearing communities if relevant methodologies and technologies are encompassed to its processes.