Villa Aurora X Lookout FM Radio - Episode 18 of "if the house could speak"
In January of 2025 the Palisades Fire came within feet of Villa Aurora. Miraculously, the house survived, and with it the radio transmitter that broadcasts from there throughout the Santa Monica Mountains and the beaches below.
This series explores the voices, past and present, that reverberate at Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger’s former home. For the past 30 years, Villa Aurora has been an artist residence, a place where exile and expression meet, where history and contemporary events converge.
During the process of rebuilding and awaiting our artists’ return, we will be broadcasting newly produced, archival and historical footage for you to listen to and maybe wonder: Is this really only a house or, like Carl Jung suggests, can the composition of a room induce the realization of new truths?
Each episode of if the house could speak will be broadcast on a loop for 24 hours with no interruption starting at 12 PM Pacific Daylight Time. For our listeners across the world, that corresponds to 7 PM Coordinated Universal Time and 9 PM Middle European Time.
Episode 18
SONIC ACTIVATION - LABOUR
Episode 18 features a program curated by LABOUR — the Berlin-based sonic duo of Farahnaz Hatam and Colin Hacklander — gathering six of their own recent works.
LABOUR creates work based on sound and its relation to space. The name LABOUR is inspired in part by an early definition by Marx that gives ontological significance to the realm of work, as articulated by the philosopher Christopher J. Arthurs, defining labour as “the ontologically fundamental productive activity in and through which one becomes what one is.”
Since 2018, the Berlin-based artist duo LABOUR has been creating immersive "sonic activations". These performances transform architectural spaces into active, acoustic environments. They map out both the central rooms and interstitial spaces of a building by combining digital sound synthesis, acoustic instruments, and unamplified sounds. The audience is invited to physically move through the space, led by sound from one location to the next.
The opening piece, "sonic activation, villa aurora" was created by LABOUR during their residency at Villa Aurora in 2021–2022. Transforming the house into an instrument using digital sound synthesis, psychoacoustics, the local pipe organ, and live kamancheh, they are able to draw connections though space and time connecting both the past and future of Villa Aurora.
sonic activation: villa aurora (2022)
more heat than light, petite dome (2025)
Talisman (2022)
Talisman — CEM Egg of the King remix (2022) — CEM & LABOUR
etu keur gui — LABOUR & The Family Ndiaye Rose
etu keur gui pt II — LABOUR & The Family Ndiaye Rose
Run time 1:00:00
About LOOKOUT FM
LOOKOUT FM is a West Coast terrestrial radio home for the broadcast of "transmission art:" experimental audio composition, modern serials, data sonification, radio plays, multi-day compositions, and radio-centric performances. Their licensed stations in Burbank, Hollywood, and Pacific Palisades function as FM exhibition spaces where radio art is presented without regard to constraints of time, structure, or commercial consideration.
