Michelle Macklem
sound designer
and mix engineer
Documentary
Podcast producer work
Film
Art
Writing and talks
About
sound designer
and mix engineer
Documentary
Podcast producer work
Film
Art
Writing and talks
About
Writing and talks
The Oxford Handbook of Radio and Podcasting
Chapter 14:
Noisy Feeds: Reciprocal Listening, Decolonial Struggle, and Play in Podcasting
by Michelle Macklem
Release date:
August 21, 2024
“This volume offers newly commissioned chapters giving readers a wide-ranging view of current critical work in the fields of radio and podcasting, employing specific case studies to analyze sound media's engagement with the arts; with the factual world of news, talk, and documentary programming; as a primary means of forging community along with national, transnational, and alternative identities; and as a subject of academic and critical research.” (Oxford University Press)
The research in my chapter is primarily based on interviews I conducted with a selection of artists from Canada, the United States, and Europe who are using the podcast space artfully to build community and create social change through a shared, often intimate, approach to sound making. The questions that compelled me in this research were: 1) how can we use the podcast space “artfully,” especially when the medium is increasingly corporate and homogenous? 2) when we set aside these conventions for a moment and see the space more clearly, what new creative and political possibilities can podcasting make available?
The Art of Noise: A history of experimental radio
Third Coast Talk
What does it mean for a podcast or radio story to be “innovative” or “experimental”? Is it in the writing? The structure? The use of sound?Andrew Leland and I spoke on the topic at the Third Coast Festival in 2018. We traced the roots of narrative audio from some of the form’s newest producers back through radio history to the medium’s original innovators, with an emphasis on underrepresented and underheard artists. Andrew and I made a case for the future of experimentation by exploring a treasure-trove of work that has shaped, and weirdened, the way narrative audio sounds.
listen and read our notes here
Working with Sound: Michelle Macklem
Australian Audio Guide
In this edition of Working with Sound, I wrotes about my style, rhythm and approach; the importance of play and joy; and my bratty mixer alter-ego.
read here
Empathy, ethics and aesthetics in Love + Radio
RadioDoc Review
March 1, 2017The podcast Love + Radio thrives on cultivating a kind of emotional tightrope, where the listener wavers from curiosity to contempt to empathy. The episodes “Jack and Ellen” and “The Living Room” have stark differences, particularly in terms of sound design, but their aesthetic and production values have a coherency that is exemplary of Love + Radio’s style.
Through “Jack and Ellen” and “The Living Room” in particular, Love + Radio crafts a tone that leaves the listener continually questioning the role of story in relating to other people, a force that continues to distinguish the show in the now over-abundance of confessional first-person driven podcasts.
read here