World Heritage Radio
Audio project · 2021
Heritage without a monument.
World Heritage Radio grew from the ambition to portray heritage through sound and words. Directed by podcast and radio makers Jesper Buursink and Eli Guerrero, it brought together audio collected and presented by volunteers around the world.
The project was both an archive and an experiment. Interviews, poetry, storytelling, readings and soundscapes placed the emphasis on how heritage is heard, remembered and communicated in everyday life—often beyond official boundaries and designations.
A place can be recognised in a voice, a rhythm, a language or the sound of daily life.
How does your heritage sound?
A call, a workshop,
a shared broadcast
The project made low-threshold recording a method for community collaboration.
Notice the sound of place
Participants were invited to hear heritage in speech, music, work, ritual, weather and everyday environments.
Use what is available
A practical workshop showed how to record and edit audio in the field with accessible tools, including a mobile phone.
Build an audio commons
Contributions in different languages and formats formed a public space for heritage beyond official narratives.
Audio forms
Many ways of being heard
The archive was designed to remain open to different media, languages and relationships to place.
Interviews
People speaking from lived knowledge, memory and professional or community experience.
Stories
Oral histories, readings and personal narratives connecting heritage to everyday life.
Soundscapes
Environmental and social sounds that communicate the character and rhythms of a place.
Creative work
Poetry, music and experimental audio making heritage present without fixing it in one form.
Listen for heritage beyond the official frame.
Audioenquiry