LMH’s Organising Tutor in Music and Chair of the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Music, Dr Jacob Downs, wrote and recorded an episode of BBC Radio 3’s ‘The Essay’, titled The Intimacy of Radio, which was broadcast on 28th March.
Dr Downs' Essay explores the intimate sounds of radio and how we, as listeners, might put on the radio for company. It is a dialogue with a 1939 essay by the critical theorist Theodor Adorno, who was also thinking about the power of radio—for good and for ill. A would-be composer and philosopher, Adorno played classical piano and came up with influential studies of authoritarianism, antisemitism and propaganda. He also wrote about the experience of listening to a radio voice. In his Essay, Dr Downs reflects on his insights, and how far they remain relevant in a time of headphone listening, smart speakers and AI voices.
Dr Downs’ Essay forms part of his work as one of the BBC and Arts and Humanities Research Council’s New Generation Thinkers, a group of 10 of the best up-and-coming arts and humanities academics whose ideas could appeal to BBC radio audiences.
