Kate Donovan, M.A.

Kate Donovan is a Doctoral Fellow in the interdisciplinary program 4A Laboratory: Art Histories, Archaeologies, Anthropologies, Aesthetics (August 2023–January 2024). She is a researcher and practitioner whose work focusses on listening, ecologies, the more-than-human aspect of radio, and re-thinking/working dominant histories. Her doctoral thesis “Radio as Relation. Listening and the More-than-Human” deals with an expanded theory of electromagnetic frequencies in/of the Anthropocene and was written within the context of the research group SENSING: The knowledge of sensitive media at ZeM – Brandenburg Centre for Media Studies in Potsdam.

Much of her practice takes place together with others and circles around knowledge exchange and experimentation. She is part of many collectives, including Planetary Listening, Shortwave Collective, Archipel Stations, Free Radios Berlin Brandenburg and is also the co-founder of Radio Otherwise, an artistic research project motivated by the many knots which art, knowledge-making/sharing and communication encounter.

She has made many works for and with radio stations, art organisations, and festivals, most recently: Spree~Channelsea Radio Group (a Cultural Bridge exchange project funded by British Council & Fonds Soziokultur), Struer Tracks Biennial for Sound & Listening / PixelFest /  Radio Art Zone (with Shortwave Collective); Sonic Acts Biennial (with Soundcamp); (In)tangible Transmissions (with DJ Schlucht); Werkleitz Festival (with Birgit Schneider); Soundart Radio (with Jan Verberkmoes); Radio Papesse/Lucia Festival, Florence; Movement Radio, Athens; the Museum for Communication, Berlin and Frankfurt.

Her writing appears in various online and print publications, including Versorgerin (AT), Explore Dance Journal (DE), Fusion Journal (AU/UK), Seismograf (DK).