2017 Season
Constellations began as a small collaboration between us, Michelle Macklem and Jess Shane, in the first half of 2017. We were working at a public broadcaster at the time, surrounded by tight deadlines and fast paced workflows. There was intense pressure to keep up with podcasting and radio culture in our industry, and even though we loved working with sound, we were left wondering, were we really listening?
Our friends and artists we admired were making works in sound that didn’t fit the mold of any kind of broadcaster or podcaster at the time, links scattered across soundcloud accounts, forgotten pages on websites and back pages of artist catalogues. Constellations started as a way to centralize these short works. We asked for pieces from these people, added a bit of an intro and outro, then popped it on an RSS feed. As the season progressed, some artists and producers wanted to make work for us, so our podcast started featuring original works as well.
Coarse and Janky
Aleksandra Bragoszewska
December 27, 2017
"PEOPLE have been THINKING too long that ART is a PRIVILEGE of the MUSEUMS & the RICH. ART IS... "PEOPLE have been THINKING too long that ART is a PRIVILEGE of the MUSEUMS & the RICH. ART IS NOT BUSINESS ! It does not belong to banks & fancy investors ART IS FOOD. You cant EAT it BUT it FEEDS you. ART has to be CHEAP & available to EVERYBODY . It needs to be EVERYWHERE because it is the INSIDE of the WORLD. ART SOOTHES PAIN ART IS LIKE GOOD BREAD"
06-32-24
Craig Desson
December 15, 2017
I love the work of the 60s era NFB experimental filmmaker Arthur Lipsett and so I wanted to try... I love the work of the 60s era NFB experimental filmmaker Arthur Lipsett and so I wanted to try and do what he does. The piece is also an exploration of the digital subconscious that exists on my MacBook. It's made up of sounds on my hard drive that I recorded over the last year that just felt right together.
We Are The Transcribers
Andrew Bateman, Veronica Simmonds
December 1, 2017
"What's a transcriber, you ask? Well, it's a human who listens to words and then writes them down... "What's a transcriber, you ask? Well, it's a human who listens to words and then writes them down for other people. It's a dying art that we were trying to capture. In the making of this piece we were trying to cultivate the monotony, drudgery, brutality of transcription work which we were both doing a lot of at the time."
Broken English
Janet Rogers
November 17, 2017
This piece distorts language in a way that feels simultaneously playful in its musicality, while... This piece distorts language in a way that feels simultaneously playful in its musicality, while also awkward and violent. It's so true to the way language and language barriers fail and frustrate us. We loved listening a couple times in a row, sinking into the jarring cadence of the reader's cropped syllables.
Anatomy of the Road
Ellie Gordon-Moershel
November 3, 2017
I was driving down the 401 which I normally find to be very uninspiring, but then I was thinking... I was driving down the 401 which I normally find to be very uninspiring, but then I was thinking about all the breakthrough moments I've had in cars, whether its been me alone thinking of something and coming to a conclusion, or being on a road trip with someone else and us having our first real bonding moment or big fight. And I was thinking about how that's kind of like therapy.
Is this an Exercise?
Julie Shapiro
October 20, 2017
"Back in the 80's I sneak-watched a TV movie with highly disturbing content (about nuclear war)... "Back in the 80's I sneak-watched a TV movie with highly disturbing content (about nuclear war) and it's been passively haunting me ever since. I discovered a lot of my friends had the same experience with this movie, and are also still lightly traumatized, so asked them all about it."
No Event
Miyuki Jokiranta
October 6, 2017
"Time functions asymmetrically in a doctor's waiting room. Our bodies keep their own time, which... "Time functions asymmetrically in a doctor's waiting room. Our bodies keep their own time, which is rarely calibrated to half hour appointments, and we feel we're often left waiting. The smallest procedure can stretch to fill a day, and a year on waiting list, a lifetime. No Event is a plastic moment in a waiting room."
Ode to my Last 10 Years of Dating
Michelle Macklem
September 22, 2017
OTML10YOD is an audio short story that charts the familiar sequences of romantic relationships.... OTML10YOD is an audio short story that charts the familiar sequences of romantic relationships. It stems from a personal experience, but embraces common feelings of closeness, connection, difficulty, love and loss. Let your mind wonder and project how you will.
Migraines & Tsunamis
Adriene Lilly
September 8, 2017
"The comparison between migraine and tsunamis comes from how I think about my own experiences.... "The comparison between migraine and tsunamis comes from how I think about my own experiences. Migraines are different for everyone, but in my case there are a couple of warning signs that I tend to get in the hours or days before an attack. They are things like horrible dry mouth, I can’t stop yawning and become very depressive. I think about them as the ocean drawback that can happen before a tsunami."
Blinking
La Cosa Preziosa
August 25, 2017
"Blinking is about a feeling anyone who's ever lived the experience of emigration will recognize.... "Blinking is about a feeling anyone who's ever lived the experience of emigration will recognize. That of returning to your native country to find that what you see is different, sometimes clearer and sharper than it ever was while you were there. It's also about a sense of loss, rootlessness, and searching."
Lazaro's Dream
Angela Shackel
August 11, 2017
Lazaro's Dream is an audio walk that mixes history and fiction into a surreal dreamscape and... Lazaro's Dream is an audio walk that mixes history and fiction into a surreal dreamscape and guides listeners through the Danforth area in Toronto, Ontario. Press play and enter a character's dream.