Radio That Matters

Notwithstanding the attention given in the last decades to the necessity to ensure people with disabilities the same rights to a full personal, social and cultural life, much has still to be done on a practical level. In particular, audiences, arts professionals, and artists with disabilities all report significant barriers to full participation in cultural production and realization processes, worsened the recent pandemic. In this framework, the cultural community has been investigating new forms of cultural creation, distribution and realization, with the support of innovative or renewed tools and practices. These developments find reference in the concept of Acoustic Justice defined by the artist and writer Brandon LaBelle, which recognizes the urgencies around hearing and being heard.

Starting from this research, Radio That Matters gathers together local and international institutions to develop innovative practices and discursive platforms aimed at exploring relationships between the performative and the acoustic which can contribute to guaranteeing greater accessibility.

RTM searches for ways to open new spaces for encounter within regimes of aurality today.

Radio That Matters is an innovative European project led by AREA06 / Short Theatre (IT) together with Errant Sound / The Listening Biennial (DE), Paralèlle (FR), Baltic Circle Festival (FI), PAV s.n.c. (IT) ASP S. Alessio - Margherita di Savoia (IT), AL.Di.Qua Artists (IT) and Radio Papesse (IT) as Associated Partner.

WHAT’S RADIO THAT MATTERS?

Radio That Matters is a «Creative Europe» small scale project aimed at investigating the crossroads between disability / sound research / performing arts and seeking to design new methodologies for accessing art on behalf of blind and visually impaired persons specifically. Starting from the notion of Acoustic Justice, RTM will explore how acoustics can be a tool for strengthening a cohesive and accessible society. Furthermore, it brings focus to research on the possibility for the performing arts to be experienced via sound as a new form of presence and participation which can assist in enhancing approaches to disability.

WHAT RADIO THAT MATTERS DOES?

Radio That Matters brings together cultural and social operators, artists, and people with and without visual disabilities in an in-depth and layered pathway, involving different levels: the theoretical and practical recognition on the state of participatory art practices, accessibility of culture, and the possibilities inherent in sound and acoustic languages; the definition of a shared methodology to make artistic work accessible and sustainable both from the point of view of production and its realization and communication; trainings and pedagogies to raise awareness on the topic of accessibility and acoustic justice for artists, professionals, and audiences, providing a framework in which to experiment with community and exchange knowledge.

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Radio That Matters concluded as a project in April 2025. Resulting in new artistic performance creations developed by Alessandro Bosetti, Mia Takula & Ellen Virman, and Maud Blandel, and presented at participating festivals Short Theatre (Rome), Baltic Circle (Helsinki) and Parallèle (Marseille), the works sought to engage questions of accessibility for the visually challenged.

This has included workshops, public conversations, performances, radio and installation formats – thanks to the close dialogue between the artists, the festival curators, and the communities of blind and visually challenged people who took part either actively as co-creators or as part of attending audiences. In addition, the project explored questions of translation, and in what way creative audio works can be made meaningful across different languages as well as how performance festivals in Europe can offer greater flexibility and conducive working conditions for the diversely abled. These are all topics that will be further researched and worked on through future iterations of the project.