- Macquarie University, Centre for Media History, Department Memberadd
- Radio Research, Media Art, Auditory Culture, Digital Media, Electronic Media, Media Studies, and 23 moreCommunication, Public Broadcasting, Sound studies, Radio And Sound Studies, Radio, Audio And Radio Arts, Documentary (Communication), Radio History, Radio Journalism, Public Service Media, Media Innovation, Digital media Production, Critical Media Studies, Experimental Media Arts, Audio Arts, Music, BBC Radio Features & Drama, Feature and Radio Documentary, Radio Features, Radio Documentary, Public Service Broadcasting, Radio Feature, History of Radio, Podcasting, and Audio documentaryedit
- Currently I am also co Deputy Director of the Centre for Media History, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University. I am a... moreCurrently I am also co Deputy Director of the Centre for Media History, Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University. I am also Convenor of Radio, teaching, designing and developing radio, podcasting and audio media courses at undergraduate and post graduate level. I also teach in media studies and media history more broadly, with recent specializations in the fields of documentary, and media representations. I am a Supervisor for Higher Degree students (PhD and MRes) across a range of media subfields, including with creative practice components, and have examined many PhD projects/theses.
I am also a writer-producer of documentary and performance audio works for electronic and broadcast public media, working also as sound designer, director and writer.
My research interests span the history of public media and broadcasting in radio/audio internationally to radio’s documentary and audio feature traditions. I have written on sound and radio culture and history in all aspects. I was formerly a features and arts producer with the Australian national public broadcaster, the ABC and one of the founding producers for the ABC's audio arts program, The Listening Room.
I have two major research projects in progress: I lead the ARC funded Discovery project: 'Cultural Conversations: A History of ABC Radio National', a history of the Australian public broadcaster's ‘ideas network’, Radio National, over 90 years of broadcasting.
I am also writing an international account of the 'documentary imagination' in radio from the 1920s to the present. This project charts transnational documentary and 'feature' traditions and the varied forms which have evolved in radio across a number of sites and broadcasters from the UK to France, Germany, Italy, Denmark/Scandinavia, the USA, Canada and Australia. This project draws on research conducted in archives around the world and interviews with significant features and documentary informants for this project in progress, which I hope will deliver a new transnational history of the documentary in its audio form/s. The project has been supported by various small grants from Macquarie University and a Fellowship based at the British Library, London, working with Curator Radio, Paul Wilson. Archival Research has been conducted at the ABC and Australian National Archives; BBC's Written Archives at Caversham; Archives of Radio France; RAI Italy archives; RBB (formerly SFB) radio archives, Berlin, Centre for Media History, University of Hamburg, Hamburg and NDR; Danmarks Radio, Denmark, and various collections on radio and archives in the USA and Canada.edit
Madsen, Virginia (2018). Transnational Encounters and Peregrinations of the Radio Documentary Imagination. In: Golo Föllmer/Alexander Badenoch (Eds.), Transnationalizing Radio Research (83-100). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Online ISBN:... more
Madsen, Virginia (2018). Transnational Encounters and Peregrinations of the Radio Documentary Imagination. In: Golo Föllmer/Alexander Badenoch (Eds.), Transnationalizing Radio Research (83-100). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Online ISBN: 978-3-8394-3913-5; https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839439135-008 or https://www.transcript-publishing.com/author/madsen-virginia-320022251/
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Introduction/chapter to this book/monograph on the work of American radio artist Gregory Whitehead: sous la direction de: Thibault Walter, Christian Indermuhle & Christine Ritter traducteur: Lionel Bize, Laura Daengeli, Samia Guerid,... more
Introduction/chapter to this book/monograph on the work of American radio artist Gregory Whitehead: sous la direction de: Thibault Walter, Christian Indermuhle & Christine Ritter traducteur: Lionel Bize, Laura Daengeli, Samia Guerid, Christian Indermuhle, Christine Ritter et Thibault Walter , Van Dieren Editeur, Paris, 2016.
L’écriture radiophonique accomplit, fausse et manipule deux séparations essentielles – le fait d’isoler l’événement acoustique du temps et de l’espace dans lesquels il s’est produit, et le fait d’isoler un énoncé de l’immédiateté physique de celui qui énonce. Le plaisir d’un texte radio réside dans une sorte d’interruption merveilleuse ; « interruption » qui introduit quelque chose qui n’arrive jamais vraiment, « merveilleuse » parce qu’il n’y a en elle rien de nécessaire.
Gregory WHITEHEAD a créé plus d’une centaine de pièces radiophoniques, d’essais et d’aventures acoustiques pour la BBC, Radio France, Deutschlandradio, ABC Australie, NPR et autres. Entrelaçant les matériaux documentaires et fictionnels dans des récits malicieusement irrésolus, l’esthétique de Whitehead se distingue par son engagement envers la radio comme médium de navigation poétique et d’association libre. Dans ses œuvres vocales et texto-sonores, il explore la tension entre une forme de pulsion continue et l’irruption de discontinuités soudaines, ou encore entre l’entropie et la décomposition linguistique. 978-237466-003-5 • 144 pages.
L’écriture radiophonique accomplit, fausse et manipule deux séparations essentielles – le fait d’isoler l’événement acoustique du temps et de l’espace dans lesquels il s’est produit, et le fait d’isoler un énoncé de l’immédiateté physique de celui qui énonce. Le plaisir d’un texte radio réside dans une sorte d’interruption merveilleuse ; « interruption » qui introduit quelque chose qui n’arrive jamais vraiment, « merveilleuse » parce qu’il n’y a en elle rien de nécessaire.
Gregory WHITEHEAD a créé plus d’une centaine de pièces radiophoniques, d’essais et d’aventures acoustiques pour la BBC, Radio France, Deutschlandradio, ABC Australie, NPR et autres. Entrelaçant les matériaux documentaires et fictionnels dans des récits malicieusement irrésolus, l’esthétique de Whitehead se distingue par son engagement envers la radio comme médium de navigation poétique et d’association libre. Dans ses œuvres vocales et texto-sonores, il explore la tension entre une forme de pulsion continue et l’irruption de discontinuités soudaines, ou encore entre l’entropie et la décomposition linguistique. 978-237466-003-5 • 144 pages.
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This article explores the roles of some of the key women producers, broadcasters and writers who were able to work within the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from their foundational... more
This article explores the roles of some of the key women producers, broadcasters and writers who were able to work within the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from their foundational periods to the 1950s. Despite the predominantly male culture of radio broadcasting from the 1920s to the 1970s, this article considers the significance and long-term impacts of some of these overlooked female pioneers at the forefront of developing a range of new reality and ‘talk’ forms and techniques. While the article draws on primary BBC research, it also aims to address these openings, cultures and roles as they existed historically for women in the ABC. How did the ABC compare in its foundational period? Significantly, this paper contrasts the two organisations in the light of their approaches to modernity, arguing that BBC features, the department it engendered, and the traditions it influenced, had far reaching impacts; one of these relating to those opportunities opened for women to develop entirely new forms of media communication: the unrehearsed interview and actuality documentary programmes.
Research Interests: Media History, Sound studies, Public Service Broadcasting, Radio History, Public Broadcasting, and 15 moreAudio And Radio Arts, Australian History, History of Radio, Documentary, History of Broadcasting, Australian media history, Radio documentary production, Women and Media, History of the BBC, Radio Documentary, Public Service Broadcasting, Radio Feature, women in the BBC, women in broadcasting, history of the BBC, Radio Broadcasting, Feature and Radio Documentary, BBC Radio Features & Drama, and Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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Inspired by the more than 20 years of radio/audio documentaire de creation workshops conducted in France by Kaye Mortley. Textes de Mehdi Ahoudig / Thomas Baugmgartner / Zwonimin Basjic / Edwin Brys / Alexandre Castant / Andréa Cohen /... more
Inspired by the more than 20 years of radio/audio documentaire de creation workshops conducted in France by Kaye Mortley. Textes de Mehdi Ahoudig / Thomas Baugmgartner / Zwonimin Basjic / Edwin Brys / Alexandre Castant / Andréa Cohen / Daniel Deshays / Jürgen Ellinghaus / Barbro Holmberg / Harri Huhtamaeki / Virginia Madsen / Alain Mahé / Pierre Marietan / Marie-Madeleine Mervant-Roux / Laetitia Mikles / Emilie Mousset / Götz Naleppa / Marie-Hélène Nicolas / Yves Nilly / Dominique Petitgand / Florence Pezon / Jean-Pierre Rehm / Delphine Saltel / Larry Sider / Sean Street / Romain Vallée
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Research Interests: Music, New Media, Digital Media, Gesture, Multimedia, and 20 morePoetry, Spatial Audio, Embodiment, Narrative and Design, Bakhtin, Sound studies, Sound, Machinima, Performance, Reading, Acoustic Ecology, Sound Design, Dialogism, Art and technology, Virtual Worlds, Sound Art, Cyborgs, Game Spaces, Interactive / Reactive Sculpture, Sound Sculptures, Installation Art, Video Art, Live Video Mixing, Motion tracking, HCI, Interactive / Reactive Lighting, and Spatial Story Telling
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A reflection on an ecology of darkness, the dark space of radio, the night sly, and the mysteries and revelations that come with the dark. At the centre of this meditation on dark rooms and dark matter is a room in the Desert Inn in Las... more
A reflection on an ecology of darkness, the dark space of radio, the night sly, and the mysteries and revelations that come with the dark. At the centre of this meditation on dark rooms and dark matter is a room in the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, inhabited by a man who may, or may not, resemble the late, reclusive American billionaire, Howard Hughes..
Staff record for Research Data Managemen
Research Interests: Media Studies and Art
Virginia Madsen explores experimental radio practices in Australia broadcast via community stations such as 2MBS FM, 3AR, 3PBS with indepth discussion of programs by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation such as Sunday Night Radio 2,... more
Virginia Madsen explores experimental radio practices in Australia broadcast via community stations such as 2MBS FM, 3AR, 3PBS with indepth discussion of programs by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation such as Sunday Night Radio 2, Surface Tension and The Listening Room. She also looks at some of the many experimental radio formats such as auteur documentaries and features providing tastes of key artists work such as Kaye Mortley, Moya Henderson and Paul Carter, as well as raising concern for the future of experimental radio in the digital age
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As soon as I heard my own voice I couldn't make the piece. It was a truly shocking experience. I had come to view these recording experiences as a type of connection to the environmental sound. [By speaking] I was violating that... more
As soon as I heard my own voice I couldn't make the piece. It was a truly shocking experience. I had come to view these recording experiences as a type of connection to the environmental sound. [By speaking] I was violating that connection which I was trying to make with the sound. It makes me feel quite emotional to think about it even now. But this had happened and I didn't know it had happened.
Review(s) of: Key concerns in media studies: Public service broadcasting, by Hendy, David, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2013, ISBN 9 7802 3023 8954, 160 pp., US$25.00.
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Review(s) of: Key concerns in media studies: Public service broadcasting, by Hendy, David, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2013, ISBN 9 7802 3023 8954, 160 pp., US$25.00.
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"Where has the Wild gone? What do we lose when the wild things vanish, leaving only a faint trace of fear in our dreams? The Menagerie of the Jardins des Plants in the heart of Paris is the oldest zoo in Europe. The contemporary zoo... more
"Where has the Wild gone? What do we lose when the wild things vanish, leaving only a faint trace of fear in our dreams? The Menagerie of the Jardins des Plants in the heart of Paris is the oldest zoo in Europe. The contemporary zoo seeks to create the illusion of a national environment, in which the spectator might imagine the captive animals somehow "at home". Yet the Paris Menagerie still retains the self-conscious artifice of an earlier era. The animals are framed by their enclosures much as paintings in a gallery, framed specimens of ‘the wild’. At first the Menagerie seems archaic, a kind of prison. But perhaps the sadness of the animals is more a projection of a sense of loss felt by the spectator - the loss of our own wildness, our own sense of being part of the natural world. In this meditative feature, we meet the people and the animals who inhabit this strange zoo in the middle of Paris. Performances by Susan Lyons reading from Aline Reyes story of a love affair with a bear, Lucie's Long Voyage, and from Animal Nature by Collette. Other performances were by Peter Kowitz, Ivanka Sokol and Julie Weaver. Recordings at the Paris Menagerie by Virginia Madsen and Tony MacGregor."
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Broadcast Sunday Night Feature, Radio National, Thursday 22 July 2004"The Rats Came Over The Roof" written and produced by Virginia Madsen and it is an evocative nocturnal sound memoir of the composer's grandmother's... more
Broadcast Sunday Night Feature, Radio National, Thursday 22 July 2004"The Rats Came Over The Roof" written and produced by Virginia Madsen and it is an evocative nocturnal sound memoir of the composer's grandmother's deserted home
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Radio's history has been one of survival, resilience, expansion and continuing re-invention. While in the present no less than in the past, radio's innate flexibility and adaptability to new technology will ensure its ongoing... more
Radio's history has been one of survival, resilience, expansion and continuing re-invention. While in the present no less than in the past, radio's innate flexibility and adaptability to new technology will ensure its ongoing relevance as a medium, this article considers the particular significance of specialist traditions and production cultures unique to a public service broadcasting "form" such as ABC Radio National (RN). Drawing on rich seams of historical and comparative research, and on past investigations of "cultural radio" developments and forms since the 1930s, the article examines the particular ecology of RN, and the role and legacy of journalists, producer-broadcasters, "creatives" and engineers who contribute to re-invention and innovation in media forms, radiophonic expression and content. In doing so it also reveals the historical tensions between information and culture in the national broadcaster, and in the mix between creative and more narrowly defined journalistic practices.13 page(s
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No. 152 — August 2014 film. The frequent allusions to true crimes, along with an autobiographical introduction, add weight and context to her scene-by-scene analysis. However, while there is plenty of cultural context, there is little... more
No. 152 — August 2014 film. The frequent allusions to true crimes, along with an autobiographical introduction, add weight and context to her scene-by-scene analysis. However, while there is plenty of cultural context, there is little production context: director McLean is never mentioned, and readers interested in the conception, production and reception of the film will need to look elsewhere. Regardless, Hartnett’s analysis of Wolf Creek is very engaging, highly subjective and taps into archetypal neuroses. – Ben Kooyman, Learning and Teaching Unit, University of South Australia
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This article explores the roles of some of the key women producers, broadcasters and writers who were able to work within the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from their foundational... more
This article explores the roles of some of the key women producers, broadcasters and writers who were able to work within the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from their foundational periods to the 1950s. Despite the predominantly male culture of radio broadcasting from the 1920s to the 1970s, this article considers the significance and long-term impacts of some of these overlooked female pioneers at the forefront of developing a range of new reality and ‘talk’ forms and techniques. While the article draws on primary BBC research, it also aims to address these openings, cultures and roles as they existed historically for women in the ABC. How did the ABC compare in its foundational period? Significantly, this paper contrasts the two organisations in the light of their approaches to modernity, arguing that BBC features, the department it engendered, and the traditions it influenced, had far reaching impacts; one of these relating to...
Research Interests: Sociology, Media History, Sound studies, Public Service Broadcasting, Radio History, and 15 morePublic Broadcasting, Audio And Radio Arts, Australian History, History of Radio, Documentary, History of Broadcasting, Australian media history, Radio documentary production, Women and Media, History of the BBC, Radio Broadcasting, Sound Studies, Feature and Radio Documentary, BBC Radio Features & Drama, and Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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We must see with our ears; think with our ears; write with our ears. Peter Leonhard Braun [The feature's] task and its destiny is to mirror the true inwardness of its subject, to explore the bounda...
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Research Interests: Engineering, New Media, Technoculture, Ethnography, Radio And Sound Studies, and 15 moreDigital Media, New Media Arts, Video Games, Facebook, Radio Research, Radio History, Online Journalism, New Media Studies, Google, Everyday Life, Digital Marketing, Digital Story Telling, Iphones, Paywalls, and Microethology
... Podcast available via http://www.abc.net.au/rn/radioeye/stories/2007/2054787.htm In February this year documentary maker Virginia Madsen went to visit her brother Robert in Cambodia, where he is a social worker in the provincial city... more
... Podcast available via http://www.abc.net.au/rn/radioeye/stories/2007/2054787.htm In February this year documentary maker Virginia Madsen went to visit her brother Robert in Cambodia, where he is a social worker in the provincial city of Battambang -- one of the poorest areas ...
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Macquarie University ResearchOnline.
Abstract: The importance of distinctive radio form and platform, 'cultural radio' is addressed not only as the key format within postwar (radio) public broadcasting in Europe, but also as a 'genius loci' of the public... more
Abstract: The importance of distinctive radio form and platform, 'cultural radio' is addressed not only as the key format within postwar (radio) public broadcasting in Europe, but also as a 'genius loci' of the public broadcasting project in radio in the contemporary context. The social, ...
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My first formal interview with Kaye Mortley occurred over ten years ago. Although she was still a regular contributor to ABC Audio Arts and Features on Radio National at that time, she no longer was living in her country of birth. After a... more
My first formal interview with Kaye Mortley occurred over ten years ago. Although she was still a regular contributor to ABC Audio Arts and Features on Radio National at that time, she no longer was living in her country of birth. After a few crucial years producing for the ABC's national ...
Research Interests: Engineering, Radio And Sound Studies, Media History, Media Arts, Radio, and 14 moreMedia, Radio History, Audio And Radio Arts, Auteur Theory, Theory of Documentary, Australian Radio HIstory, Radio documentary production, Feature and Radio Documentary, Radiophonic Arts, Radio Drama / Hörspiel / Sound Art, Experimental Sound, Women Auteurs, French radio studies, and Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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This article considers the rise of discourses emerging with the digital ‘content revolution’ at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), in the context of severe budget cuts and restructures since the emergence of Brian Johns’ 1996... more
This article considers the rise of discourses emerging with the digital ‘content revolution’ at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), in the context of severe budget cuts and restructures since the emergence of Brian Johns’ 1996 ‘One ABC’ policy. The article explores key decisions, rhetorics and thinking surrounding the radical dismembering of ABC’s unique ideas and cultural outlet Radio National (now ‘RN’) from 2012 onwards, as it was forced to jettison core parts of its programming and shed specialist and experienced staff. The article seeks to identify how – under the influence of an infectious complex of ideas and discourses associated with ‘digital convergence’, neo-liberalism and managerialism – conditions were in place that favoured the expansion of platform-agnostic journalism and of related topical ‘content’ across the ABC at the expense of other forms and understandings of this ‘rich mix’ network. Core aspects of the ‘project’ as it had evolved over decades were e...
Research Interests: Media and Cultural Studies, Australian Studies, Public Service Media, Public Service Broadcasting, Radio Journalism, and 10 moreRadio History, Radio studies, Managerialism, Cultural Institutions, Radio Studies, Australian Journalism, New Forms of Public Service Media, ABC Analysis, Digital Disruption and Organizational Transformation, and Australian Broadcasting Corporation
This article considers the rise of discourses emerging with the digital ‘content revolution’ at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), in the context of severe budget cuts and restructures since the emergence of Brian Johns’ 1996... more
This article considers the rise of discourses emerging with the digital ‘content revolution’ at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), in the context of severe budget cuts and restructures since the emergence of Brian Johns’ 1996 ‘One ABC’ policy. The article explores key decisions, rhetorics and thinking surrounding the radical dismembering of ABC’s unique ideas and cultural outlet Radio National (now ‘RN’) from 2012 onwards, as it was forced to jettison core parts of its programming and shed specialist and experienced staff. The article seeks to identify how ‐ under the influence of an infectious complex of ideas and discourses associated with ‘digital convergence’, neo-liberalism and managerialism ‐ conditions were in place that favoured the expansion of platform-agnostic journalism and of related topical ‘content’ across the ABC at the expense of other forms and understandings of this ‘rich mix’ network. Core aspects of the ‘project’ as it had evolved over decades were endangered and diluted. Drawing on important historical and comparative research, the article argues that RN is relinquishing its historic ‘special status’ as a media leader in ideas and cultural broadcasting in Australia.
In Volume 42, Number 2, 1 November 2020, pp. 243-260(18)
In Volume 42, Number 2, 1 November 2020, pp. 243-260(18)
Research Interests: Media and Cultural Studies, Australian Studies, Public Service Media, Public Service Broadcasting, Radio Journalism, and 8 moreRadio History, Radio studies, Managerialism, Cultural Institutions, New Forms of Public Service Media, ABC Analysis, Digital Disruption and Organizational Transformation, and Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Radio's history has been one of survival, resilience, expansion and continuing re-invention. While in the present no less than in the past, radio's innate flexibility and adaptability to new technology will ensure its ongoing relevance as... more
Radio's history has been one of survival, resilience, expansion and continuing re-invention. While in the present no less than in the past, radio's innate flexibility and adaptability to new technology will ensure its ongoing relevance as a medium, this article considers the particular significance of specialist traditions and production cultures unique to a public service broadcasting " form " such as ABC Radio National (RN). Drawing on rich seams of historical and comparative research, and on past investigations of " cultural radio " developments and forms since the 1930s, the article examines the particular ecology of RN, and the role and legacy of journalists, producer-broadcasters, " creatives " and engineers who contribute to re-invention and innovation in media forms, radiophonic expression and content. In doing so it also reveals the historical tensions between information and culture in the national broadcaster, and in the mix between creative and more narrowly defined journalistic practices.
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This essay is an exploration and critical sounding of the multi-award winning radio feature Children of Sodom and Gomorrah: why young Africans flee to Europe (ARD 2009/ABC 2011) by the Berlin radio author/journalist and director Jens... more
This essay is an exploration and critical sounding of the multi-award winning radio feature Children of Sodom and Gomorrah: why young Africans flee to Europe (ARD 2009/ABC 2011) by the Berlin radio author/journalist and director Jens Jarisch. The reviewer, Virginia Madsen, finds something close to a dialectic approach in this unforgettable and searing ‘radio film’, but also the resonances of what she explores as ‘allegorical thinking’. Jarisch, even if unconsciously, appears to have dug down deep into the modern-day ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah, a ‘no place’ in Accra, Ghana where children eke out a living, forfeiting their childhoods and risking death to recycle our computer waste, before they flee to find a better life in Europe. This program takes on mythical fabular proportions while offering a journalistic ‘investigation’ based on actual field recordings and the witness of Jens Jarisch in his role as ‘reporter’ and writer. But what is discovered here goes far beyond everyday journalism and reportage, Madsen argues. Offering her reflections of this ‘radio fiction’ documentary or ‘acoustic film’, and drawing on references and dislocations experienced from her listening and research, she encourages us to tease out this tapestry of voices coming as if from an ‘underworld’, and surfacing from the depths and pandemonium to disturb our western ‘paradise’.
Madsen understands and imagines this program as a pilgrim’s journey between heaven and hell and purgatory as she sounds out key correspondences and dislocations the program evoked for her. Madsen was on a journey of her own when she first encountered this dream of paradise in Africa, an epic tale (Old Testament yet contemporary) of the blessed and the damned. Her essay speaks of the phenomenology of listening in that encounter, the underestimated power of a writing with the microphone and of the history of ‘radio feature’ culture, especially in Germany. Madsen responds to the depths this program sounds out as it invokes the voices of the dead and of the living, of hope, despair and longing in the face of overwhelming silence and noise. The interweaving of voices in this ‘impossible dialogue’ and ‘play for voices’ succeeds in writing itself onto our memories like a fable. And even if we remain fearful that nothing changes, the reviewer finds here something of great value and power that challenges us to listen beyond paradise. (And then maybe to act?) This is not quite Dostoevsky although he is invoked (as are Virgil, Dante and Breugel), but perhaps we come close to something that sounds like ‘evidence in a trial’: one of the many ‘wild ideas’ offered by great feature making traditions in radio.
Madsen understands and imagines this program as a pilgrim’s journey between heaven and hell and purgatory as she sounds out key correspondences and dislocations the program evoked for her. Madsen was on a journey of her own when she first encountered this dream of paradise in Africa, an epic tale (Old Testament yet contemporary) of the blessed and the damned. Her essay speaks of the phenomenology of listening in that encounter, the underestimated power of a writing with the microphone and of the history of ‘radio feature’ culture, especially in Germany. Madsen responds to the depths this program sounds out as it invokes the voices of the dead and of the living, of hope, despair and longing in the face of overwhelming silence and noise. The interweaving of voices in this ‘impossible dialogue’ and ‘play for voices’ succeeds in writing itself onto our memories like a fable. And even if we remain fearful that nothing changes, the reviewer finds here something of great value and power that challenges us to listen beyond paradise. (And then maybe to act?) This is not quite Dostoevsky although he is invoked (as are Virgil, Dante and Breugel), but perhaps we come close to something that sounds like ‘evidence in a trial’: one of the many ‘wild ideas’ offered by great feature making traditions in radio.
Abstract: A "workshop for radiophonic creation", the Atelier de creation radiophonique (ACR) has been broadcast as a weekly program on Radio France since 1969. For over thirty years, under the Directorship of Rene Farabet, this... more
Abstract: A "workshop for radiophonic creation", the Atelier de creation radiophonique (ACR) has been broadcast as a weekly program on Radio France since 1969. For over thirty years, under the Directorship of Rene Farabet, this pioneering space has been dedicated to the ...
Research Interests:
Macquarie University ResearchOnline.
Page 1. The Radio Journal International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media Volume 3 Number 3. © Intellect Ltd 2005. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/rajo.3.3.189/1 Radio and the documentary imagination: thirty years of... more
Page 1. The Radio Journal International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media Volume 3 Number 3. © Intellect Ltd 2005. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/rajo.3.3.189/1 Radio and the documentary imagination: thirty years of experiment, innovation, and revelation ...
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Macquarie University ResearchOnline.
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In this feature Virginia Madsen goes in search of Cambodia's great musical traditions – and finds them against all the odds – surviving on the streets and in the slums of Phnom Penh. We meet the remarkable Kong Nai, the 'Ray Charles of... more
In this feature Virginia Madsen goes in search of Cambodia's great musical traditions – and finds them against all the odds – surviving on the streets and in the slums of Phnom Penh. We meet the remarkable Kong Nai, the 'Ray Charles of Cambodia' and one of few surviving masters of the chapei, which is both a musical instrument (an ancient two-stringed guitar unique to Cambodia) and a style of music that sounds remarkably like the American Delta blues.
The New York Times recently described Phnom Penh as 'the next Prague', rising from the ashes of 30 years of war and conflict. But such descriptions gloss the everyday reality and it's easy to forget the terrible Khmer Rouge years when one in four Cambodians died and a rich culture was almost extinguished forever.
The New York Times recently described Phnom Penh as 'the next Prague', rising from the ashes of 30 years of war and conflict. But such descriptions gloss the everyday reality and it's easy to forget the terrible Khmer Rouge years when one in four Cambodians died and a rich culture was almost extinguished forever.
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In 2007 documentary maker Virginia Madsen went to visit her brother Robert in Cambodia. He is a social worker in the provincial city of Battambang, one of the poorest areas of Cambodia. Robert works in one of the many shelters for the... more
In 2007 documentary maker Virginia Madsen went to visit her brother Robert in Cambodia. He is a social worker in the provincial city of Battambang, one of the poorest areas of Cambodia.
Robert works in one of the many shelters for the abandoned and 'trafficked' children of Cambodia. Virginia was soon swept up in stories of lost childhood and terrible poverty, as well as stories of survival and hope.
Produced and written by: Virginia Madsen
Sound engineer : Mark Don
Additional narration: Lina MacGregor
Recordings Virginia Madsen and Tony MacGregor
Translation: Neary Rath
Location assistance: Robert Madsen
Assistance: Director of Komar Rikreay, Madam Prom Kim Chheng.
Robert works in one of the many shelters for the abandoned and 'trafficked' children of Cambodia. Virginia was soon swept up in stories of lost childhood and terrible poverty, as well as stories of survival and hope.
Produced and written by: Virginia Madsen
Sound engineer : Mark Don
Additional narration: Lina MacGregor
Recordings Virginia Madsen and Tony MacGregor
Translation: Neary Rath
Location assistance: Robert Madsen
Assistance: Director of Komar Rikreay, Madam Prom Kim Chheng.
Research Interests:
In 1861 a young man set out from his village in Denmark and embarked upon a series of accidental adventures that took him around the world. On his 90th birthday in 1933 Hans Madsen sat down to write a brief autobiography, half a dozen... more
In 1861 a young man set out from his village in Denmark and embarked upon a series of accidental adventures that took him around the world. On his 90th birthday in 1933 Hans Madsen sat down to write a brief autobiography, half a dozen hand-written pages addressed to his descendants. Like many such documents, it lay unread for 50 years. In her radio feature, Virginia Madsen weaves together her own memories and imaginings and fragments from this recently recovered document.
In 1994 she travelled to Denmark to find the old manor house Hesselmed, and traces of her great-grandfather, Hans Madsen. Against this immigrant history Virginia shares more recent memories and experiences of the land north of Sydney where her father grew up, and where she frequently returns.
In 1994 she travelled to Denmark to find the old manor house Hesselmed, and traces of her great-grandfather, Hans Madsen. Against this immigrant history Virginia shares more recent memories and experiences of the land north of Sydney where her father grew up, and where she frequently returns.
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Have you looked up at the night lately? The universe is going away, gone already for many... the dark skies our ancestors knew have disappeared, swallowed up by the bright mercury glow of city, held at bay of the never-dark flickering... more
Have you looked up at the night lately? The universe is going away, gone already for many... the dark skies our ancestors knew have disappeared, swallowed up by the bright mercury glow of city, held at bay of the never-dark flickering lights of the screens we seem unable to turn away from.
In this series of three linked stories for radio, writer critic and radio producer Virginia Madsen invites us to reflect upon on the place of 'the dark' in our collective imagination, and the mysteries and revelations that come with the dark. These stories also form a meditation on a very particular space – the radio, a space of reveries, memory, dreaming, creativity, a quality of space (and time) which is under threat from the spreading of industrial light.
And at the centre of this triptych - a room in the Desert Inn motel in Las Vegas, inhabited by a man who may (or may not) resemble the late, reclusive American billionaire, Howard Hughes.
In this series of three linked stories for radio, writer critic and radio producer Virginia Madsen invites us to reflect upon on the place of 'the dark' in our collective imagination, and the mysteries and revelations that come with the dark. These stories also form a meditation on a very particular space – the radio, a space of reveries, memory, dreaming, creativity, a quality of space (and time) which is under threat from the spreading of industrial light.
And at the centre of this triptych - a room in the Desert Inn motel in Las Vegas, inhabited by a man who may (or may not) resemble the late, reclusive American billionaire, Howard Hughes.
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Where has the Wild gone? What do we lose when the wild things vanish, leaving only a faint trace of fear in our dreams? The Menagerie of the Jardins des Plants in the heart of Paris is the oldest zoo in Europe. The contemporary zoo seeks... more
Where has the Wild gone? What do we lose when the wild things vanish, leaving only a faint trace of fear in our dreams?
The Menagerie of the Jardins des Plants in the heart of Paris is the oldest zoo in Europe. The contemporary zoo seeks to create the illusion of a national environment, in which the spectator might imagine the captive animals somehow "at home". Yet the Paris Menagerie still retains the self-conscious artifice of an earlier era. The animals are framed by their enclosures much as paintings in a gallery, framed specimens of ‘the wild’.
At first the Menagerie seems archaic, a kind of prison. But perhaps the sadness of the animals is more a projection of a sense of loss felt by the spectator - the loss of our own wildness, our own sense of being part of the natural world.
In this meditative feature, we meet the people and the animals who inhabit this strange zoo in the middle of Paris.
Performances by Susan Lyons reading from Aline Reyes story of a love affair with a bear, Lucie's Long Voyage, and from Animal Nature by Collette. Other performances were by Peter Kowitz, Ivanka Sokol and Julie Weaver. Recordings at the Paris Menagerie by Virginia Madsen and Tony MacGregor.
The Menagerie of the Jardins des Plants in the heart of Paris is the oldest zoo in Europe. The contemporary zoo seeks to create the illusion of a national environment, in which the spectator might imagine the captive animals somehow "at home". Yet the Paris Menagerie still retains the self-conscious artifice of an earlier era. The animals are framed by their enclosures much as paintings in a gallery, framed specimens of ‘the wild’.
At first the Menagerie seems archaic, a kind of prison. But perhaps the sadness of the animals is more a projection of a sense of loss felt by the spectator - the loss of our own wildness, our own sense of being part of the natural world.
In this meditative feature, we meet the people and the animals who inhabit this strange zoo in the middle of Paris.
Performances by Susan Lyons reading from Aline Reyes story of a love affair with a bear, Lucie's Long Voyage, and from Animal Nature by Collette. Other performances were by Peter Kowitz, Ivanka Sokol and Julie Weaver. Recordings at the Paris Menagerie by Virginia Madsen and Tony MacGregor.