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1:00 PM-9:00 PM

Return Signal Radio

Sonic Lecture|Reimagine the library as an experimental, participatory broadcast and performance space. One that honors the library’s role in archiving and knowledge sharing; while expanding its sonic and cultural possibilities.

  • Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, Johannesburg

  • Language English

Event poster for “Return Signal Radio” on 29 November 2025 at Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, featuring a neon green vintage radio device. © Septober Energy

Event poster for “Return Signal Radio” on 29 November 2025 at Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, featuring a neon green vintage radio device. © Septober Energy

Return Signal Radio reimagines the library as an experimental, participatory broadcast and performance space. One that honors the library’s role in archiving and knowledge sharing, while expanding it’s sonic and cultural possibilities.

It reflects on 30 years of Democracy in South Africa and 100 years of Radio through speculative radio, sonic collage, improvisation, archival media, and collaborative practice.

Return Signal Radio will explore how sound – music, Djing, radio, noise, and silence – has shaped black life, survival, and imagination across segregated and transitional nurturing spaces.

It aims to create transient sonic interventions that challenge the dominance of club and arena culture, fostering instead decentralized, inclusive and critical listening environments. This intervention will combine analogue and digital forms, activating the space with set design, photography, field recordings, film, zines, and sonic installations.