Observation from Jen Seyderhelm
“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.”
These are the now legendary words of Irish Rugby player Brian O’Driscoll, ahead of Ireland’s Six Nations clash with England in 2009, about playing with head coach of England, Martin Johnson.
Later, much later, and this totally could be an on-air challenge, O’Driscoll said it had been a bet with his centre partner Gordon D’Arcy that he couldn’t insert them into a press conference. He did. D’Arcy lost (very painfully apparently) and the quote is folklore.
There are generally considered to be seven types of art. They are:
- Painting.
- Sculpture.
- Literature.
- Architecture.
- Cinema.
- Music.
- Theatre
Radio, broadly speaking, plays music (around commercial obligations) and features theatrical and spoken segments that both are and aren’t pre-planned and/or scripted.
Podcasts, well what the hell are podcasts?
Here’s my take.
Knowledge is knowing podcasts are art.
Wisdom is knowing that if you google podcast art and art podcasts, neither will celebrate the art of podcasts.
In 2020 I was engaged by the ACT Government to create a podcast called RISE Canberra to support the local arts community devastated by the effects of Covid. I didn’t want to mention that C word here at the end of 2022, but I have, and like the arts was encouraged to, let’s move on.
The podcast was ostensibly to show what the seven different arts varieties and mentioned above, and their offshoots, were doing to adapt to a pandemic.
Instead, I saw people whose outlet and sense of themselves had been forcibly taken away. We could only Zoom so much, or Facebook Live.
I had already done a conversational podcast (https://twentydashforty.buzzsprout.com/ – for those who feel like checking it out) prior to RISE. When I was presented with the entirely not commercial radio opportunity of a long form chat with arts people, I could ask not just “what are you doing?” but “how are you going?”
I believe people have a public self, at home self and a secret self.
Our public self is what my podcast was supposed to show. It’s what Tik Tok, Insta and Facebook (including BeReal) specialise in.
Your home self is what you are behind closed doors. Parent. Cat lover. Messy. Pyjama clad, Nutella from the jar kind of stuff.
Your secret self is complex. Part are the bits of yourself unrealised or unprocessed. We all have it. The voice in your head when your public self is active saying, “if they only knew…..”
Artists were angry and hurting during RISE. After our chats, which covered their public and secret selves, some approached me wanting to sanitise the bits that didn’t “fit” their public persona.
Later I taught podcasting to a wonderful group of humans including a Philosophy Professor losing his sight. He said that at night he would put his earphones in and engage with podcasts on topics both within his vast comfort zone and outside it. He said it made him feel like he was never alone.
This is what music (NB: Artform 6) has always done for me. There is always a song that describes how I’m feeling – public, at home or private self. No matter how many songs I know, there is always more to be released or discovered.
Radio is current and immediate. It is essential to the news cycle.
Podcasts are not.
They tell stories, solve crime, allow you to absorb opinions and ideas contrary to your lived experience, provide information, be a part of conversations and dissect songs, sports, science and even reality TV.
Podcasts are the tomatoes of the fruit bowl, the most versatile of all fruits. Without them we don’t have bolognaise, or pizza.
If we can have pineapple on a pizza, then podcasts should be considered part of the artistic landscape. And we, audio artists.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and look forward to our audio adventures in 2023.
Read more articles by and about Jen Seyderhelm here.