Villa Aurora X Lookout FM Radio - Episode 5 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 5
Part I
In this week’s episode of “if the house could speak” we air
The Auroras by Laurie Schwartz
recorded on June 16, 2024 at Villa Aurora
composed by Laurie Schwartz
performed by Laurie Schwartz and Tim Leanse
recorded and edited by Sam Rowell
Laurie Schwartz is a composer, intermedia artist, and curator. Her works bring together field recordings, spoken fragments, choreography, and video, interwoven with instrumental, vocal, and electronic sound. She is also the founder and curator of itinerant interludes, a multi-disciplinary performance series presented in galleries and art spaces throughout Berlin.
Regardless of the media Schwartz is exploring, her curiosity is a main motivator. During her 2024 residency at Villa Aurora, she collaborated with members of
LOOKOUT FM to create this recording of the Villa’s pipe organ. The organ is an architectural feature as much as a musical one. The whole of the house resonates when it is played. To capture this sonic effect, microphones were placed throughout the Villa: in the upstairs writer’s room, inside the fireplace, along the main stairway, and in the library, grand salon, and the mechanical room that houses the organ’s pipes, keys, and bellows. These recordings were then edited and layered into a single composite piece to create a soundscape that evokes the experience of hearing the organ from every part of the house at once.
Part II
In this episode we hear the final pieces performed as part of Feuchtwanger Refreshed “The Fire Last Time.” Written and performed by student playwrights of the MFA Dramatic Writing Program at USC, these dramatic vignettes present different perspectives on what it means to be home, and the way that definition of home can create sanctuary for people in exile.
Remind Me of Someone by Mayookh Barua
A Whole Life In… by Nena Martins
Feuchtwanger Refreshed is an ongoing collaboration between USC's School of Dramatic Arts MFA Dramatic Writing Program, USC Libraries, and Villa Aurora through which graduate playwrights and their instructors present short scenes inspired by archival holdings and writings from USC's Feuchtwanger Memorial Library.
The edition “The Fire Last Time” was organized by USC Feuchtwanger Memorial Library and Villa Aurora, performed at the Glorya Kaufman Community Center at the Wende Museum on April 29, 2025.
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.
