Åsa Ståhl

Sweden, b. 1976. Works in Sweden and internation-ally.

BA in political science, Lund University, 2000.

MA in Radio, Goldsmiths College, University of London, 2001.

First sound art work: Superman E2. 2000.

I am currently working as an artist, journalist, lecturer and researcher surrounding issues of story-telling, participatory situations and collaboration. My sound based art has grown our of my radio journalism practice.

My driving force is to make room for voices that are usually not heard in the public space and debate. The Tape Salad project is ongoing since 2001. It is a collection of discarded cassettes that myself and others find in public spaces. I wind up the magnetic tapes onto new cassettes and make it possible to listen to them again. To me, these cassettes are a symbol of all the peripheral voices that are excluded in public conversations. The project is also a way to try to make something as elusive and perishable as sound become tangible.

In (visklek) – a Chinese whispers game on answering machines - Kristina Lindström and I wanted to explore how oral storytelling can make people collaborate as well as hear how information is transformed and rules negotiated with sounds. Our collaboration continues under the name of å+k. (visklek) was done in 2004 within the framework of the Interactive Institute and Växjö konsthall.

Since 1998 I am part of a group of sound art romantics, Laika, that reside on www.laika.nu and elsewhere. Laika has done radio shows, a sound magazine on the web, installations, concerts, performances and since 2005 we do a quarterly podcast called Viktigt meddelande! (Important message). It is an idea derived from the warning signal to the public to go inside and listen to the radio.

asastahl@hotmail.com

Links:

http://aok.el-ljud.se

http://www.laika.nu