Radio play festival
Wuppertal exhibition on the original audio play is shown in Berlin
The exhibition was curated by Prof Dr Wolfgang Lukas and doctoral students Dana Machwitz and Bastian Politycki. Originally conceived for the Wuppertal University Library and shown there from November 2022 to January 2023, the exhibition has now been invited to the Berlin Radio Play Festival. The occasion is the 100th anniversary of the radio play (1924-2024).
"Meine neue Syntax ist der Schnitt" brings together two of the protagonists of the O-Ton movement: Paul Pörtner (1925-1984) from Elberfeld, who began experimenting with documentary-acoustic material as early as the late 1960s (including "Treffpunkte" 1969), and Paul Wühr (1927-2016) from Munich, who received the prestigious Hörspielpreis für Kriegsblinde for his first socio-critical O-Ton radio play "Preislied" (1971). On display will be analogue and digital material including audio samples and objects from the Paul Pörtner Archive of the Wuppertal City Library and from Paul Wühr's partial estate held at the University of Wuppertal.
Background
The so-called original sound radio play - or original sound radio play for short - is an invention of the 1970s that was made possible by the development of mobile tape recorders, among other things. Authors could now take to the streets themselves and produce original sound recordings, for example by interviewing passers-by and thus giving 'normal' citizens or certain social groups a public voice. Editing and montage thus became central artistic design elements that were realised by the authors themselves in the studio.
