I am a composer and radio artist working in grassroots contexts.
My research reviews the use of automation in radio broadcasting and how it can be rethought to address voice poverty and media polarisation, by learning from radio art, cybernetics and experimental music. This includes the operation and design of Skylark, a licensed, automated radio station for Dartmoor National Park that plays an algorithmically generated, continuous sound piece, made up of sounds captured within its broadcast range. Dartmoor residents and visitors are invited to submit their own recordings at any time.
In addition to broadcasting full time since October 2020, Skylark has been shared as a sound installation at Dartington Summer School 2021, in Bovey Paradiso Gallery as part of Green 2024, and as one of the selected long form broadcast works for Radio Art Zone as part of Luxembourg European City of Culture 2022.
My radio work began in 2005 with series produced for Resonance FM in London. I then went on to devise, with colleagues, Soundart Radio a licensed community radio station based at Dartington Hall. Soundart Radio has operated since 2006 with thousands of original programmes. It has received grants from Arts Council England, Devon Community Foundation, The Ragdoll Foundation and many other funding bodies, and has mentored and trained people of all ages and backgrounds in radio production and related skills. As a member of Radia, radia.fm it exchanges content, ideas and visits with other experimental radio projects worldwide.
I also work with anthropologist Alice Armstrong as Stellaria Media, a female-led production company that connects research with community media.
I have studied music for most of my life, in a wide range of disciplines, from many teachers including Frank Denyer, Pauline Oliveros and Elvis Costello. I frequently collaborate with other artists and musicians. For my undergraduate degree at Dartington College of Arts I majored in vocal performance. I am also trained in piano, cello and double bass.
Selected work
Publications
Review, Flametti, or the Dandyism of the Poor Hugo Ball/Catherine Schelbert/FGA 2024
Review of audio book and readalong paperback, published on the back cover of the book https://www.fuckinggoodart.nl/fga44_flametti/index.php
Two essays: Some Questions for Community Radio and Radio as Lived Experience in Radio Art Zone, Sarah Washington 2023 https://www.hatjecantz.com/products/65229-radio-art-zone
Mutability and Musicality in Commercial and Community Radio in Transtechnology Research Reader 2021-22
Feedback: A Conversation with Knut Aufermann in Transtechnology Research Reader 2019-21
Radio Revolten Impressions, festival review in Radio Revolten: 30 days of Radio Art edited by Knut Aufermann, Helen Hahmann, Sarah Washington and Ralf Wendt, 2019 https://spectorbooks.com/book/radio-revolten
The Land of Making Invisible Things in Transtechnology Research Reader 2018
Sound Installation
Moor Stories, Autumn 2024
Oral history recordings and multi speaker sound installation at Moor Imagination Centre, Buckfastleigh, telling the stories of the building’s former use as a Methodist Church. Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
St Leaonards Tower, 2023
Recordings of the clock mechanisms and local resident’s experiences of time, installed in St Leonards Tower, Newton Abbot, throughout 2023. Commissioned by Newton Abbot Museum.
Voices of Water at Sono Electro/XMTR 2024
Radio Drama
Everynothing, Spring 2023
Hörspiel using homophones between German and English, commissioned by WDR3. https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/dr_klangendum_689552/
Would you Adam and Eve it, November 2022
Produced at the Klangendum Studio, Rotterdam with Cathereine Guy. Broadcast on Concertzender, in the Netherlands. https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/dr_klangendum_689552/
Confusion, Reflection, Joy, a radio drama in Sonata Form August 2021
Radio drama produced from a workshop at Dartington International Summer School. Broadcast on the Radia network, October 2021.
http://radia.fm2021/10/show-862-confusion-reflection-joy-a-radio-drama-in-sonata-form-soundart-radio/
Space Audacity May-August 2019
Radio drama produced from a workshop at Radiocamp, Bodensee, May 2019. Broadcast on the Radia network, from 2nd September. http://radia.fm/2019/09/show-753-space-audacity-by-soundart-radio/
Plugholes January 2019
Radio drama produced at Klangendum Studio, Worm, Rotterdam in collaboration with Catherine Guy, Fucking Good Art, Lukas Simonis and the Resisters
https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/dr_klangendum_484552/
Glusstar October 2013
Hörspiel commission, WDR Germany. Produced from recordings of artists and composers describing and recreating the sounds of their dreams, including texts by Christina Rossetti.
Nominated by broadcaster for Karl Sczuka Preis, 2014.
https://soundcloud.com/soundart-radio/glusstar-live-on-wdr
An Island in the Moon February 2013
Adaptation of William Blake’s ‘An Island in the Moon’ commissioned by Lukas Simonis (Dr Klangendum) produced during a residency at Klangendum studio, Worm, Rotterdam. Broadcast on Concertzender (Netherlands) 2013 in four parts, and released on cassette as part of the Worm/Klangendum Horspil tape series
https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/dr-klangendum-124/
https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/dr-klangendum-125/
https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/dr-klangendum-126/
https://www.concertzender.nl/programma/dr-klangendum-127/
Radio Documentary
Blue Heart 2022 An overview of how water behaves in and around Eastbourne and south Wealdon. Residents of the area talk about their experiences of flooding, drought and water management, historians explain how things have changed over the centuries, and engineers look to the future and how systems can be managed to build resilience in the face of climate change. https://soundartradio.org.uk/stellaria-media/blue-heart/
Futures on Air 2020-ongoing
Documentary series, communicating research through participatory media. A collaboration with Alice Armstrong, as ‘Stellaria Media’. https://soundartradio.org.uk/stellaria-media/futures-on-air/
Patches of Land 2019
100 short radio features recorded throughout Devon and Cornwall, each revealing one person’s connection to a place. A collaboration with Alice Armstrong, as Stellaria Media, and supported by the Audio Content Fund (DCMS).
Radio Craftperson’s Toolbox 2014
Sound library of field and recordings and interviews with Devon craftspeople at work. I devised, fundraised for and produced this project, with Soundart Radio in partnership with the Devon Guild of Craftsmen
http://www.soundartradio.org.uk/services/projects/the-radio-craftpersons-toolbox/
High Cross House Living Memories 2013
Oral history, radio and sound installation project, working with people who have lived and worked in High Cross House, an iconic modernist building at Dartington Hall. In partnership with the National Trust.
http://www.soundartradio.org.uk/high-cross-house-living-memories
http://www.soundartradio.org.uk/said-we-think-feel-this
Life and Landscape 2010-2013
Oral history projects with farmers, conservationists and others working in the
South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
http://soundartradio.org.uk/programmes/estuary-tales/
http://soundartradio.org.uk/programmes/living-off-the-land-2/
http://www.goldendays.org.uk/immerse-yourself-in-the-sounds-of-south-devon/
Apples of the A38 2012
Documentary commissioned by BBC Devon researching the provenance of the apple trees in the roadside verges.
http://soundartradio.org.uk/programmes/apples-of-the-a38/
Campaign and policy work
I advocate for media plurality, and transparency of media ownership and infrastructure.
Media Transformed 2023-25
Facilitating grassroots media development, with the Media Reform Coalition
https://www.mediareform.org.uk/blog/how-do-we-imagine-a-transformed-media
Community Media Association 2014-2018
As Chair of the Community Media Association (CMA) I produced, curated and opened the annual Community Media Conference with colleagues at the CMA, with the themes of ‘Creativity, Diversity, Wellbeing’ in Birmingham, 2016; ‘Voices in a Changing World’ in Bristol 2017; and ‘We are the Future’ in Sheffield, 2018. I also wrote policy documents and responses, and met regularly with stakeholders to discuss CMA members’ interests, including representatives of Ofcom and DCMS and sat on the advisory board of the British Library’s Save our Sounds project.
http://www.commedia.org.uk/
Performance
The Meadow Verse, ongoing composition and performance project, setting texts by 17th C. poet Robert Herrick to music. Live performances at SOAK, Plymouth, Dean Prior Church and Soundart Radio, Moor Imagination Centre, and Centrala, Birmingham in 2024.
Performances at Worm, Rotterdam, various years.
Recorders and recorders ongoing
Devised, live performance practice with small, transient ensemble, using recorders (Blockflöte) and tape recorders. Aller Park studios, August 2019, Soundart Radio studio, July 2019, Exeter Phoenix Centre ‘Music is Murder’ August 2018.
A Song for Europe 2017
An hour long, live improvisation on Kunstradio, ORF1 (Austria) consisting of vocal sounds looped through the station’s webstream, drawing on traditional music especially funeral song.
http://soundartradio.org.uk/programmes/a-song-for-europe/
http://www.kunstradio.at/2017A/02_04_17.html
Feldversuch #1 2017
Live performance at Feldversuch, Vienna with Lale Rodgarkia-Dara, broadcast on Radio Orange.
http://feldversuch.weblog.mur.at/2017/04/07/doku-feldversuch-1-rillenschlange-live-eins/
Radio Revolten Festival 2016
International radio art festival in Halle (Saale), Germany. I delivered tape recording workshops for school children in the Stadtmuseum; assisted with studio; broadcast live improvisations and created a participatory closing ritual for the festival, involving mobile broadcast, folk song, costume and mobile phones.
http://radiorevolten.net/en/lucinda-guy/
The Third Policeman 2011
I sang the role of ‘Joe’ in Ergo Phizmiz’s opera, at Tete a Tete festival and touring.
https://www.tete-a-tete.org.uk/event/the-third-policeman/
Teaching
Guest lecturer, Dartington Arts School, Plymouth University
Long form sound installation, Radiocamp, Germany, May 2024
Everybody Counts, Soundart Radio 2023-25. Maths/music community workshops
Experimental radio drama, Dartington International Summer School, 2021-22
Reviews
Guy’s beautiful voice rings out to the audience, but it wouldn’t be her and her art if we weren’t too included. Contrary to conventions we are encouraged to put our mobile phones on, pick a number and open the channels to the worlds beyond the festival. Review of ‘A Ritual for Revolten’, Gabi Schaffner
https://radiorevolten.net/en/bride-of-radio-art-stays-true-to-her-darling/
The most beautiful, most touching thing to come out of the Brexit process
Review of ‘A Song for Europe’, Mia Eidlhuber in Der Standard, 03/04/2017
https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000055324208/besingen-sie-europa-kunstradio-radiokunst-auf-oe1
Lucinda Guy is the ” artistic director ” of Soundart Radio, a term which in her case is a little bit too bold because she is free of any pretence and bragging… she has perhaps the most weird british radio station. Lukas Simons