B-Air. Art Infinity Radio. Creating Sound Art for Babies, Toddlers and Vulnerable Groups

Today’s artistic radio production (radio plays, sound art and radio art) is facing a challenging situation. It is competing with fast-moving visual information, trying to adopt new technologies and attract new audiences. B-Air Art Infinity Radio is a collaborative project between nine European radio houses, artist collectives and academic institutions that contributes to the revitalisation of sound-based creativity and communication. The network includes national radio stations as well as artists’ online radios, care institutions from children’s hospitals to old people’s homes. The project provides a collaborative platform for experimental radio production. The aim is to create a radically new kind of radio as a creative medium. The project is led by Radio Slovenia.

The Finnish partner in the project is the School of Humanities at the University of Eastern Finland. The sub-project, led by professor Heikki Uimonen and professor emerita Helmi Järviluoma is investigating the recollection of sounds and the narration of sound memories based on the Äänien ilta (Evening of Sounds) radio format broadcast on Yleisradio (Finnish Broadcasting Company) Radio Suomi since 2013. The project is developing Europe as an electroacoustic community and creating Evening of Sounds to collaborative format. B-Air is collaborating with Central European radio houses and retirement homes inhabited by  elderly people in their third and fourth age.