Akoo.o-The End of an Era - Walter Benjamin - B-Air@Portbou

“Dear invisibles” This is how Walter Benjamin called the listeners. Benjamin wrote about radio and for the radio. In late 1920s, he worked for a public radio in Berlin and Frankfurt. He loved the popular dimension of this new media with endless possibilities, including the staging of everyday life. More specifically, he produced a series of programs “for children”, which are also aimed at adults. For Benjamin, the radio was the place par excellence of the practical applicationon of his reflections on means of technical reproducibility. He even sketched a theory of radio. As part of our B-AIR research group, we propose to revisit Benjamin's writings and radio plays to question the use and potential of radio today. With radio, through the prism of sound creation and philosophy, we will continue to question how the world sounds and how we can make it sound. Our 2-day seminar will take place in Portbou (Spain) where every 2 years a meeting dedicated to the work of Walter Benjamin brings together researchers, artists,architects and philosophers to debate and experiment with his work. The seminar will alternate between lectures followed by discussions, readings, sound creations and sound walks.