Media
Dr Virginia Madsen
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Lectureremail: virginia.madsen@mq.edu.au phone: 61 298502180 fax: (02) 9850 6776 location: Y3A 191J |
BACKGROUND
Virginia Madsen is an established radio producer and writer whose works have been broadcast and commissioned by the major public broadcasting institutions in Europe and Australia. She has worked for many years both on staff and as an independent producer for ABC Radio National (RN) and ABC Classic FM, commencing her career in radio at 2SERFM, Sydney. With an extensive body of work in radio and sound performance, Virginia has also been recognized for her achievements with international prizes and invitations to conferences and festivals. She has directly represented the ABC with a number of her performance and feature works, in particular at the International Features Conference (IFC), the Prix Futura (now known as the Prix Europa) and the Third Coast International Audio Festival (Chicago).
Virginia was one of the founding producers of the ABC Audio Arts program, 'The Listening Room'. In her role as a producer (and working collaboratively with other artists and radio producers) she has written and directed radio features, documentaries, dramas and experimental radiophonic or music works, a number of which have been broadcast in the USA, the UK, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, France, Croatia and Germany.
Madsen has also produced sound designs for theatre, film and museum contexts. As part of the collaboration 'Audiodrift' she was commissioned to produce the sound design for the 'More than Dinosaurs' exhibit at the Australian Museum, Sydney, (1995 - 2003). Her short film (co-directed with Philippa Harvey and Lynette Wallworth), 'Dark Room: Nocturne' was commissioned for the SBS "Still Moving Series"(1997), and was also screened at the Sydney Opera House (in 'The Studio', April 14, 2003).
Virginia is also a researcher and teacher of media. She joined Macquarie Media Dept. in 2008. Previously she taught media (radio and sound) at the University of Technology, Sydney and at the College of Fine Art (COFA) at the University of NSW (UNSW). In 2002 she was awarded a prestigious Vice-Chancellor's Post Doctoral Research Fellowship at UNSW and commenced working in the field of radio/auditory cultures history/theory. From 2005 she continued at UNSW as a Visiting Research Fellow. This is her second year with MMCS Macquarie, as Convener Radio.
Virginia has a DCA, Doctorate of Creative Arts (UTS, 2001), a B.A. Communications (UTS 1983) and a Post Grad. Dip. Arts (French, Sydney University, 1993). She has also studied in the Dept. of Education (Human Sciences, Macquarie University).
TEACHING
MAS223 - Radio Production
MAS224 - Advanced Radio Broadcasting
RESEARCH AREAS
Virginia’s academic research interests span sound and radio theory and history, auditory culture studies and acoustic ecologies from natural soundscapes to podcasting, new audio media and audio arts, and the history of public broadcasting radio with a particular emphasis on ‘cultural radio’ forms and their specific development in Europe and Australia. Madsen has specialist interests in exploratory cultural radio programming from the 1930s to the present, and documentary as an expressive form. She has undertaken research in this field at the BBC (London), ARD (Berlin), Danmarks Radio and at France Culture, Radio France (Paris) specifically investigating the development of the 'atelier de creation radiophonique' (1969 -). She is currently researching and writing (Book): 'The Other New Wave: Filme Sonore and the Documentary Imagination'.
PUBLICATIONS
Most recently, Madsen's essay 'Radio and the Documentary Imagination' appeared in Ed. Andrew Crisell's major reference work, 'Radio' (New York, NY, Routledge, 2009).As a member of the ABC's premier Audio Arts program, 'The Listening Room' (1988-2003) Virginia has also continued to have a strong interest in the development and practice of radio art and radiophonic experiment. Her 'Experiments in Radio' in this field appears in the book, 'Experimental Music: Audio Explorations in Australia', (Ed. Gail Priest, UNSW Press, 2009).
'Cantata of Fire: Son et Lumière in Waco, Texas, auscultation for a shadow play' is a critical essay exploring sound and power and sound as weapon, and includes excerpts from Madsen's radio music theatre performance work, 'Cantata of Fire' (in 'Organized Sound', 14 (1), Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp89-99).
Forthcoming (with John Potts): 'Voice cast: the distribution of the voice via podcasting' in 'The Grain of the Voice in Digital Media and Media Art'(Eds. Norie Neumark, Ross Gibson and Theo Van Leeuwen, MIT Press, 2010).
Madsen has published on 'cultural radio' in 'Southern Review' (Vol. 39/3, 2007) and on radio documentary and features in 'The Radio Journal' (Vol. 3/3, 2005).
Other significant academic publications include: keynote essay for the European Broadcasting Union's historic 30th Anniversary 6 CD collection of documentary radio features ('The IFC Collection', Geneva, 2004) and a chapter on sound design and acoustic ecologies in 'Uncertain Ground: Essays Between Art And Nature', (AGNSW, Sydney, 1999).
Virginia is an active radio documentary/performance writer & producer. 'Life and Death in Battambang: Children's Stories from Cambodia' went to air on Radio Eye, the premier ABC Radio National features program in Nov 2007. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/radioeye/stories/2007/2054787.htm (This documentary was then shortlisted in the 2008 Third Coast International Audio Festival, Chicago, and is now available for audition through Re:Sound at http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/resound_2008_october.asp).
Another recent documentary recorded in Cambodia for the ABC, 'In Search of the Mekong Blues': 'Into The Music' (ABC RN, 2008). See http://www.abc.net.au/rn/intothemusic/stories/2007/2017261.htm
And 'Cantata of Fire', a performance work for voice and 'sonic assault' was broadcast on ABC RN's 'Airplay' in 2008. See http://www.abc.net.au/rn/airplay/stories/2008/2267059.htm (Airplay is ABC Radio National's weekly program of new Australian radio writing and performance).