Abstract
Wilson reveals the value of the podcast medium when rendered both as a mode of participatory performance, or performative audio, and as a research tool. The chapter shines new light on traditional podcast forms by considering examples that operate at the fringes of the medium. Using his own creation, Wandercast, as a model—in comparison with other notable examples—Wilson explores how performative podcasts employ the portability and aural intimacy of the medium to invite dynamic interaction between listener and environment. When listeners engage with these artworks, Wilson argues, new modes of perceiving, performing, and being can result. Wilson’s analysis uses ecological and phenomenological lenses in combination. Together, they foreground performative podcasts’ capacity to both exemplify perceptual processes and recalibrate listeners’ relationships with their environments.
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Notes
- 1.
Affordance is a technical term coined by James J. Gibson (1966) to denote the range of actions permitted by environmental elements relative to a particular organism.
An example of a playful affordance would be that a bollard affords vaulting:
Photo 1: Dad vaults bollard.
- 2.
Specifically, Wandercast constitutes practice-as-research (PaR). PaR refers to research whereby (predominantly artistic) practice is the chief methodology. See Nelson (2013) for a key reference text.
- 3.
Before reading this chapter, you might want to undertake a Wandercast (or more than one) for yourself, as there are significant aspects of any fundamentally embodied, kinetic experience which cannot be put into words. You will find more details and download information here http://ludicrouspilgrim.co.uk/wandercast-2/, or search ‘Ludicrous Pilgrim’ on iTunes.
- 4.
Headphone Adventure Playground is more or less self-explanatory. I guide listeners through various tactics for playful environmental interaction whilst conducting those same tactics myself and recording my endeavours. The tactics have ludicrous names such as ‘The Kerb-Hop’ and ‘The Swing-King.’ There are also interjections from me ‘in the studio,’ which give extra information and context.
- 5.
In Attenborough’s Imaginarium, I accompany listeners on a journey through three environments within David Attenborough’s imagination, inviting imaginative and physical interaction between: listeners, the sonic environment (created through soundscape), and the environment through which listeners wander.
- 6.
The concept of performativity is a mutable and vexed one (see Shepherd and Wallis 2004: 220–224). Here, I use the term performative in its general sense of instigating action or performance. There is also the sense, with which listeners might identify, of engaging in action which connotes performance. Whether or not any action associated with Wandercast can be objectively categorised as performance is less important than whether it bears some of the hallmarks of performance.
- 7.
For a discussion of the oppositional forces at work in digital media ecologies , see Jenkins and Deuze (2008); for a view on the implications of social media for professional artists, see Manovich (2009); and for an analysis of prosumer capitalism, see Ritzer and Jurgenson (2010). I propose that an investigation into factors limiting the uptake of the podcast form by participatory performance artists would make a valuable research project.
- 8.
This was at a ResCen Research Seminar at the University of Middlesex, 3 February 2015. Miller presented on the life of Linked since 2003.
- 9.
- 10.
I am being a little playful here; just to be clear, I am not suggesting that performative podcasts constitute therapy, only that they may be viewed as therapeutic within the specific context that Kershaw (2007) outlines.
- 11.
For a more lyrical account of the mingling of the senses, see Serres (2008).
- 12.
- 13.
For the avoidance of doubt, I reject the drawing of a distinction between any event and ‘real life,’ since reality encompasses all events. Therefore, I do not describe Wandercast as taking place in the real world, whilst staged theatre takes place somehow outside of it.
- 14.
Ironically, this could include ‘traditional’ podcasts, as well as music mp3s or streaming services.
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Selected Performative Audio Artworks
Selected Performative Audio Artworks
And While London Burns, Platform (2007–present)
Operatic thriller in the form of an audiowalk.
Listener-participants: 1
Site-specific: City of London
andwhilelondonburns.com (download available)
Guide to Getting Lost, Jennie Savage (2010–present)
Instruction-based audiowalk incorporating aural overlay of field-recordings.
Listener-participants: 1
Site-non-specific
www.jenniesavage.co.uk/ (no download, but hosted on Soundcloud)
Linked, Graeme Miller (2003–present)
Analogue radio audiowalk in the form of a treasure trail.
Listener-participants: 1
Site-specific: route of the M11 link road
www.linkedm11.net/ (no download, but facilitated by Artsadmin)
Memory Points, Platform 4 (2012–2015)
Participatory promenade theatre piece dealing with Alzheimer’s.
Listener-participants: up to 6
Site-specific: various performance venues
www.platform4.org/ (no download)
Remote X, Rimini Protokoll (2016)
Instruction-based, responsive, cinematic audiowalk, which develops in each new city.
Listener-participants: up to 50
Site-specific: various major cities
www.rimini-protokoll.de/ (no download)
The Quiet Volume, Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells (2010–present)
Instruction-based exploration into the act of reading.
Listener-participants: 2
Site-specific: various libraries
www.anthampton.com/ (no download)
Walking Stories, Charlotte Spencer Projects (2013–present)
Choreographic audiowalk designed for green open spaces.
Listener-participants: up to 22
Semi-site-specific: parks
charlottespencerprojects.org/projects/walking-stories/ (no download)
Wondermart, Silvia Mercuriali and Matt Rudkin (2009–present)
Instruction-based investigation into the supermarket environment.
Listener-participants: 2
Semi-site-specific: supermarkets
silviamercuriali.com/ (no download)
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Wilson, R.Z. (2018). Welcome to the World of Wandercast: Podcast as Participatory Performance and Environmental Exploration. In: Llinares, D., Fox, N., Berry, R. (eds) Podcasting. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90056-8_14
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