Radio Österreich 1’s Mobile Ö1 Atelier has been a Festival fixture on Linz’s Main Square for several years now, an art space and discussion lounge prominently situated right in the center of the cityscape. Ö1 has configured this year’s on-site studio Umbrella Radio in accordance with the 2014 Festival theme: C… what it takes to change.

Living Change

This idea is aptly embodied by Simple Home, a nomadic residential living concept developed by Salzburg architect Gerhard Feldbacher. This is a structure designed to facilitate mobility and to keep pace with the constantly changing settings and circumstances of life of the people inhabiting it.

Simple Home
THU September 4-MON September 8, 2014, 10:30 AM, 12:30 PM, 2:30 PM, 4:30 PM, 6:30 PM

Long before German rock band The Scorpions sang about it in 1990 in connection with the fall of the Iron Curtain, the “Wind of Change” had already been blowing on the radio. For totally different reasons and a lot harder—for instance, Sam Cooke’s 1964 rendition of “A Change Is Gonna Come” and Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin,” two immortal classics from the soundtrack of social change.

Daily Radio Ritual

Exactly half a century later at the 2014 Ars Electronica Festival, Ö1, the ORF – Austrian Broadcasting Company’s cultural radio station, will be broadcasting Umbrella Radio in the immediate vicinity of the Mobile Ö1 Atelier on Hauptplatz. At preset times, the Ö1 crew will ring the chimes of change and request favorably disposed festivalgoers to take part in a Change Radio ritual. It starts with the MC chalking a circle on the paving stones around the Mobile Ö1 Atelier to demarcate the broadcast’s reception range. But oddly enough, regular radio gear isn’t enough to pick it up; rain gear is what you actually need.

Under the Umbrella

The programming can be picked up only by visitors on site outfitted with Umbrella Radios. Each of these contributions by the City of Linz’s Lost & Found Office has been equipped with a tiny radio receiver and headphones. Once unfurled, they deliver crystal-clear reception within a rather intimate range. Then it’s time to lend an ear to acoustic jewels from the Ö1 Archive, a playlist selected in accordance with the Festival theme and Ö1’s autumn “Places in Transition” series: excerpts from legendary radio features and talks about change in the broadest sense of the word, complemented by Ars Electronica Festival audio productions about social activism in digital communities.