Chapter 3: Radio as Collective Improvisation
How Radiophonic Aesthetics of Care Emerge from Ethics of Relation and Experimentation
Radiophonic Values
Because they are not truly separate, it is not a simple thing to demarcate the values of automation and prescription and the values of improvisation, nor to connect them strictly to corresponding aesthetics. Instead, I spend this chapter focusing on a small (and certainly not definitive) selection of values that have recurred in conversations with my WFHB colleagues and in my own WFHB listening experiences and which I assess as having clear impacts on station ethics and aesthetics. Specifically, I examine these values in relation to ethics of relation and experimentation and these ethics’ audible on-air consequences in radiophonic contexts. Before moving into the specifics of how these ethics manifest in community radio, I offer here some of my preliminary thoughts on relation and experimentation in improvisatory contexts, drawing on philosophies articulated by musical iconoclasts that I have found especially influential in my personal experiences with improvisatory musicking.