The Question of Genre in Experimental Radio Art in Serbia

Abstract

This paper explores potential issue of genre determination in experimental radio art in Serbia. Radiophonic works, first introduced within the framework of Radio Belgrade, have come a long way in defining their appearance. They began primarily as a literary genre, radio drama, originating from the idea of radio theater, that is the adaptation of a theater play for broadcasting on the radio. It involved the change of aesthetics in the works of Arsenije Jovanović, Ivana Stefanović and Vladan Radovanović and the idea of multimedia synthesis, as well as the work of dramatis Neda Depolo and the establishment of the Radio Belgrade’s special series Sound Workshop, where sound itself is affirmed as the primary mode of communication with the listener, and the literary text remains in the background. This evolution culminates in contemporary productions that can be defined as electronic compositions intended for radio performance. Considering the long-standing challenge in defining the genre, in accordance with the new technical possibilities that significantly influences the changes in aesthetics, the question arises as to whether contemporary radio art can be understood through the prism of acousmatics, and electronic music especially in the context of listening practices. The focus of this paper will be on the question of whether listening to a certain radio work in different contexts – radio broadcast, concert performance, streaming platforms – can reflect on the duality of the genre of contemporary radio art.