Making Waves

Produced by Darren Copeland.

This monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

  1. Aug 8

    20260808 - Returning To Voice of the Water with Eric Powell - Making Waves

    On today’s show we are revisiting Voice of the Water, a sound sculpture made by Eric Powell. We featured it on Making Waves in July of 2025 when it was very close to being exhibited. The piece uses a rotary telephone for visitors to individually access field recordings of various lakes and rivers near South River, Ontario, Canada. The recordings were made by community members and they were done from both an underwater and above water perspective. Eric also composed soundscape études in response to each recording which can be accessed through a special secret mode. Today on the show we will move around the telephone dial to sample some of the original soundscape recordings and the compositions that Eric made in response to them. Eric Powell is a sound artist, composer, teacher, and tinkerer. His practice brings together maps, interactive technologies, and field recording to create unique interfaces for exploring both rural and urban sound environments. His work invites users to listen in new ways, challenging them to rethink the role of sound in their daily lives. He is a founding member of several media arts organizations, and has served on the board for both the Canadian Association for Sound Ecology and the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. Eric regularly collaborates with other artists and academics, enabling him to share his work around the world. Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

  2. Jun 13

    20260613 - Pride Concert with Barry Truax and Kat Estacio - Making Waves

    On today’s episode of Making Waves we are playing back electroacoustic pieces and discussion from a concert that took place in-person and online as part of Pride celebrations on June 6, 2026 in South River, Ontario, Canada.   Last month we included an interview with Barry Truax and we listened to his piece What the Waters Told Me from his Elemental Trilogy. We will play from this concert the other two pieces in the Trilogy, which are How the Winds Caressed Me and When the Earth Mourned for Me.   The second half features the Toronto-based soundmaker and researcher Kat Estacio. They draw on their Tagalog ancestry in their work. Estacio’s performance begins with traditional repertoire from the Kulintang, which is an Indigenous gong ensemble tradition from Mindanao in the Southern Philippines. They transition from that to a sonic exploration of the gong sounds along with sounds of rice being dropped into a metal sculpture that was fabricated by Estacio. Following the performance we will listen to a Q&A with the artist facilitated by the concert host Victoria Fenner. Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

  3. May 9

    20260509 - What the Waters Told Me with Barry Truax - Making Waves

    Today’s episode focuses on the pioneering work of composer, author and educator Barry Truax, who recently received the Order of Canada. He will lead us through his personal artistic history linking his early work in computer and electroacoustic music with his role in soundscape studies and the World Soundscape Project. These strands came together in the 1990’s with his implementation of sampled sound in Granular Synthesis. They were later explored in his use of the convolution signal processing techniques that were developed by Tom Erbe for his program Soundhack. A good portion of host Darren Copeland’s discussion with Barry Truax will be reserved for the piece What the Waters Told Me. Truax will play samples of it and explain how he uses those techniques to transform the sounds of water into sounds that are latent with a sense of voice and emotional resonance. Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

  4. Feb 14

    20260214 - Anju Singh on Material Transmissions - Making Waves

    Part of last month’s show included Anju Singh playing her interactive electromagnetic sound sculpture Material Transmissions. On today’s show we will talk to Anju Singh more about the sound sculpture and intersperse that conversation with more performances on it.  Some of those are made by audience members who attended the exhibition opening back on January 8th. Through the sound sculpture visitors explore the sounds of a sewing machine through electromagnetic pickups and contact mics. A set of four tactile transducers playback whispered vocals in the exhibition space that are emitted through a series of four suspended hand-made dresses. Material Transmissions is part of her MECHANICAL HYMNS project, a series of works exploring the relationship between machines, industrial materials, and mechanical elements through sound, noise, and transmitted audio.  Anju Singh is a Vancouver media artist and noise musician. Along with industrial materials she uses space, volume and texture as the main tools in her sound palette. She pushes extreme dynamics and unconventional sonic applications to build installations and compositions for immersive sonic experiences. To see the installation you can also experience this episode of Making Waves on the NAISATube YouTube channel. Making Waves is a one hour program about radio art and sound art produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

  5. Jan 10

    20260110 - Deep Wireless 20 Album and Anju Singh performing Material Transmissions - Making Waves

    Today's episode plays pieces from the 2026 Deep Wireless Festival of Radio and Transmission Art. To begin, Anju Singh performs her new sound installation Material Transmissions, an electromagnetic sound instrument which the audience can also play.  The recording was made for the opening of the festival on January 8th, 2026. Following that the remainder of the show consists of pieces from the 20th Deep Wireless radio art compilation. The album includes sound art and radio art works that respond to the theme Sound Culture.  We will hear (in this order) Diviso in due by Cristian Gabriele Argento, Transcription: LoveLanguageLoss by Linda Rae Dornan,“¿Aún recuerdas mi voz?” by Marco Neri, The Loud Mechanical Hum that Seems to Be Getting More and More Frequent by Haley Sheppard, and finally, Liquid Polyphonies by Landforms (who are Lotte Nijsten and Gillis Van Der Wee). This monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

About

This monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/