OPEN CALL: RADIO-ART LABORATORY

Join the Artistic Project “In the Blink of an Ear: Craiova Frequencies”, an English-conducted radio-art laboratory, 31 August - 5 September 2026

Radio has been declared outdated. It has repeatedly been pronounced a dead medium. Both have happened several times over the course of the past century. Yet radio has always come back to life. Artist Andreea Vlăduț and Swiss composer Cyrill Lim invite you to join the English-language radio-art laboratory “In the Blink of an Ear: Craiova Frequencies”, a new attempt to revive and reclaim the richness of a medium that many of us use less and less.

From 31 August to 5 September, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., GLORIÆ Gallery in Craiova will host a series of artistic activities for 10 participants, all centered around radio as a medium for artistic creation.

The laboratory will end on 5 September with a public event presenting ideas and try-outs resulting from a shared curiosity to create art using a different kind of instrument. The outcomes of the laboratory will be broadcast live in a one-hour programme on 13 February 2027, “World Radio Day”, on Radio FRO in Linz.

About the project

“In the Blink of an Ear: Craiova Frequencies” draws inspiration from the rich history of radio in Craiova. One hundred years ago, one of Romania's earliest radio programmes was transmitted from the city by the Association of Friends of Radiotelephony. A century later, the radio-art laboratory returns to this historical moment, not only to revisit the history of a medium, but also to renew its place in our everyday lives.

Throughout the week, we will build the simplest form of radio: the crystal radio. We will then put our handmade radios to work, communicating, receiving and disrupting the public spaces around us. Radio will become both a creative tool and an instrument of perception.

What do we hear through the radio and how do we hear it? What information does it reveal about our surroundings? How does radio transform our presence in public space? How do we usually behave in public? How do we feel when we are exposed to people, buildings, traffic and the urban environment?

To explore these questions and to activate the essential relationship between body, sound, and space, which lies at the heart of radio as a medium, we will engage in a variety of exercises. We will practice deep listening, movement exercises and sound walks in which the ear becomes our primary sensory organ.

“In the Blink of an Ear” is an interdisciplinary project with a strong focus on sound art that brings together people with different backgrounds, experiences and interests. Because it follows a different model of collaboration and interaction, participants actively shape both the programme and its content. The project is therefore built collectively through everyone's contributions.

Andreea Vlăduț is an artist from Romania, based in Linz, Austria. She graduated from the Time-based Media programme at Kunstuniversität Linz, where she specialized in electronic music, audio-video installations, and performance art. Her work explores the relationship between sound, space and matter, questioning what can be expressed through everyday objects and acoustic phenomena.

Cyrill Lim (b. 1984, Zug, Switzerland) is a visual artist, performer and sound artist. His work takes him throughout Europe, and his projects exist somewhere between music and theatre, art and research, an accumulation of expressive media, and social context. His artistic practice is also concerned with perception and the ways in which different media shape our experience of space, sound, and materiality.

How to apply

Send us an email between 17 July and 20 August at blink@lim.li. Places are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, with 10 places available.

What we offer

Participation in the radio-art laboratory is free of charge. In addition, participants will receive compensation for taking part, as well as meals throughout the day.

Partners

The project is organized in partnership with GLORIÆ Gallery (Craiova), Radio FRO (Linz, Austria), and the Time-based Media Department, University of Arts Linz.

The project is funded by BMKOES, LinzEXPOrt, Kanton Zug und Swisslos, and Pro Helvetia.

Media partner: Radio România Oltenia–Craiova.

*Title inspired by the book: In the Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art by Seth Kim-Cohen.