Fortnightly radio show on art and environmentalism, with poetry and field recordings. On Eastside Radio 89.7FM. Produced and presented by Ira Ferris.

This program takes place on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional and ongoing custodians of this land.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

The word 'sympoiesis' is taken from environmental philosopher Donna Haraway who defines it as 'making with'. She writes: “Sympoiesis is a simple word; it means “making-with.” Nothing makes itself; nothing is really autopoietic or self-organizing. [...] Sympoiesis is a word proper to complex, dynamic, responsive, situated, historical systems. It is a word for worlding-with, in company.” (p58 in Staying with the Trouble)

SYMPOIESIS : RADIO SHOW hopes to inspire this interconnectivity and re-kindle our lost relationship with the natural world.

Sympoiesis (radio show) - Eastside Radio 89.7FM

Conversation with Naarm-based artist TANIA LOU SMITH who works in performance, video, and photography to explore feminist and autobiographical themes. Her latest work MOVING FREELY is showing at DrawSpace gallery (Sydney) to expend the notion of what drawing is and consider how movement could be considered a form of drawing.  

More information: https://drawspace.org/exhibitions-and-events/tania-lou-smith

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP51: Tania Lou Smith (DrawSpace)

Conversation with Eora-based poet LUCIA MOON. 

Lucia is an Italo-Australian writer living on Gadigal land. She is a regular reader at venues around Sydney and, in the written form, her works can be found in Riverstone, Sydney Review of Books, and LOR Journal. Lucia’s writing is playful, ecological, and queer. She holds a Master of Research in poetics, and works for an environmental NGO. 

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP52: Lucia Moon (poetry)

Conversation with painter and performance artist KATYA PETETSKAYA whose solo exhibition 'Am I Nature' is showing at Blue Mountains Cultural Centre in Katoomba until 8 October 2023. 

Katya Petetskaya’s works are made through gestural language and expressive mark making. The experiences that are stored in the body are translated into the large-scale abstract paintings that are left to feel alive, vibrating with energy. Her process-driven practice is led by the choice and use of materials, which she treats as collaborators who propose their own ideas and limitations to which she responds.

Katya’s current solo exhibition – Am I Nature – investigates the complex relationship between humans and nature, which we on the one hand feel a part of and equal to whilst also trying to overcome and master. 

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP54: Katya Petetskaya

Conversation with curator, writer, and researcher ANABELLE LACROIX about the project RADIO INSOMNIA, an all-night broadcast for night communities which is interested in the political and poetic forces of waking at night and asks: What is the potential of listening at night when wakefulness is embraced rather than endured?

More info: https://insomnia.radio.fm 

We talk about the unsettling in the body and mind that keeps us awake; whether artists are especially prone to insomnia, the history of sleeping and sleep regimes, porosity between dreaming and wakefulness, the revolutionary prospect of the night time, and the specific type of listening that is available to us at these eerie hours. 

Originally broadcast: 9 October 2023

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

FEATURED TRACKS: 
Into your Dreams - Hector Zazou & Laurie Anderson
Three of a Mind - Pauline Oliveros, Timothy Hill & David Rothenberg
Pasties and a G-String (At the Two O'Clock Club) - Tom Waits

EP55: Radio Insomnia with Anabelle Lacroix

Conversation with sound artist and musician ALEXANDRA SPENCE and installation and visual artist ELIA BOSSHARD. We talk about their recent collaboration on an audio-visual performance EDGE OF A CLOUD presented at the Phoenix Central Park, Sydney in Nov 2023.

EDGE OF A CLOUD explores the dynamic and ephemeral aspects of light and sound to offer breath, movement, and sentience to non-human forms and objects. 

Originally broadcast: 23 October 2023

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

GUESTS:
Alexandra Spence: https://www.instagram.com/alxandraspence/
Elia Bosshard: https://www.instagram.com/elia.bosshard/

FEATURED TRACK:
Intro: Alexandra Spence, Suddenly Silent
Final track: https://alexandraspence.bandcamp.com/track/blue-waves

EP56: Edge of a Cloud (Alexandra Spence & Elia Bosshard)

Conversation with artist Renay Pepita about their Airspace gallery exhibition: 'Untitled (This Too is Beautiful)'.

Originally aired: 11 Dec 2023 on Eastside Radio

EP57: Renay Pepita (Untitled: This Too is Beautiful)

Conversation and reading with poet Renay Pepita.

Renay is reading a selection of poems from their 2022 book 'Untitled [Notes for Blue]' as well as the more recent poems that will be published in 2024 as 'Untitled [The Un-forgetting of Air]'.

In between the readings we are unpacking the process behind writing each as well as Renay Pepita's overall working methodologies. 

Originally broadcast: 28 August 2023

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

GUEST: https://www.renaypepita.com

everywhere i go my body goes with me

EP 53: Renay Pepita (reading poetry)

Conversation with dancer, performer, choreographer, educator, and a ball of positive energy Azzam Mohamed. We talk about his move from Sudan to Australia, from street dance to contemporary choreographic works, his dance video 'Katamat' and the program 'Sculptured Riddims' he has put together for the 2024 Sydney Festival. 

Check him out here: https://www.instagram.com/shazam_jr/

Sculptured Riddims: https://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/sculptured-riddims

Watch Katamat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDZoKO86P84

Originally aired: 25 Dec 2023 on Eastside Radio

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

FEATURED TRACK:
Jill Scott, Golden
St Germain, How Dare You
Lady Alma & The Rainmakers, Let It Fall (Harlum Mix)
Heavy-K & Ami Faku, Andikayeki

EP58: Azzam Mohamed (Sculptured Riddims)

Conversation with choreographer and dancer Emma Harrison about her solo dance work Wolverine, showing as part of 2024 Sydney Festival.

Transformation, eruption, and melting of rage and joy - Wolverine sits between dance, cabaret, and performance art to explore and subvert feminine archetypes, mythology, wolves, pop culture, and self-defence. 

We talk about many layers of the work - from its cinematic influences, to the relationship to the moon and deep blue, skin and fur.

More about Emma's work: https://emmaharrison.info

Originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM on 8 January 2024.

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP59: Emma Harrison (Wolverine - Sydney Festival)

Conversation with the Artistic Director of The Living Room Theatre, Michelle St Anne, about their latest work THE SEEPING WOMAN. 

The LIVING ROOM THEATRE has been in existence for more than 20 years and is known for giving voice to the unspoken and unseen. They create works that are non-linear and composed through movement, light, sound, and atmosphere – rather than the rigidity of the given language. 

In making the Living Room Theatre works, Michelle St Anne often reaches out to collaborators who come from diverse art disciplines. This time – for The Seeping Woman – she is collaborating with digital artist LINDA DEMENT, dancer ANCA FRANKENHAEUSER, and musicians MARY RAPP & NIKI JOHNSON.

The Seeping Woman is described as a site-specific work that focuses on gestures both human and digital held within the seepage of fluids, fabric and observations.

For more about The Living Room Theatre works see: https://livingroomtheatre.org

This conversation was originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM on 1 April 2024.

EP61: Michelle St Anne, The Living Room Theatre (The Seeping Woman)

Conversation with artist and writer Ju Bavyka about their latest work – REST YOUR IDENTITY – currently on at TILES gallery in Lewisham, Sydney (till 20 April 2024).

REST YOUR IDENTITY is a part of Ju Bavyka’s long-term project ‘On Rest’. This most recent iteration involves a performative facilitation practice that leans on meditation, where you are invited to identify parts of your identity that require a little rest, revision, and kind re-integration on better terms. 

More about Ju's work: https://www.instagram.com/ju_bavyka/

Originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM on 15 April 2024.

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP62: Ju Bavyka (Rest Your Identity)

Conversation with visual artist and curator BEATA GEYER about the CHAIR exhibition, showing at Articulate Project Space until 28 July 2024. This group exhibition includes 25 artists who look at the CHAIR not only as an object but also as an image and a text.

https://www.articulateprojectspace.org/project/24-07-DU

Originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM on 22 July 2024.
Interviewer: Ira Ferris 

This program airs from the Gadigal Land of the Eora nation.

EP66: Beata Geyer, curator of CHAIR exhibition (Articulate Project Space)

Conversation with performance artist BRIAN FUATA about STORY SENT – a live and mediated performance he is presenting as part of CEMENT FONDU’s exhibition – TOO MUCH INFORMATION – throughout June and July 2024. 
https://cementfondu.org/tmi-too-much-information/

Partly an email performance, partly a live improvisation, STORY SENT explores repetition, references Authentic Movement, and finishes on a 20-minute timer. 

Originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM on 8 July 2024.

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP65: Brian Fuata (Story Sent, Cement Fondu)

Conversation with artist Belinda Yee about her coming solo exhibition INCREMENT at the Wentworth Galleries (Pitt St, Sydney) 7 to 10 November 2024. 

An exhibition of large-scale drawings, plus a live movement-based performance, INCREMENT explores the notion of temporality as reflected through the cold stone media – such as marble, graphite, sandstone – and soft tissues of the human body. 

Belinda’s work stands as an embodiment of time passing, with fugitive materials that reflect the fragility and impermanence of existence itself. 

More about Belinda's work: http://belindayee.com/index.htm

Originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM on 28 October 2024.

FEATURED TRACKS 
1) Roj Osa, Tu Si Di Si (album Azbetsni Krovovi) https://kopatonrecords.bandcamp.com/album/azbestni-krovovi
2) Truth ≠ Tribe, Bi ne Bi (album LIVE AT VINYL FACTORY)
https://truthtribe.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-vinyl-factory 

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP67: Belinda Yee (INCREMENT, Wentworth Galleries)

Conversation with walking-artist and curator MELINDA HUNT talking about the group exhibition WALK WITH ME, taking place at Drawspace in Sydney from 28 November to 22 December 2024.

WALK WITH ME gathers nine local and international artists-researchers who utilise walking as part of their practice, encountering and mapping the walking sites and terrains through the medium of drawing. These drawings are not only reflective of the sites seen, but also the sites felt or experienced through the multisensory phenomena and the biodynamics of the walking body. 

Some of the projects included in the exhibition also foreground responses to habitat loss and species extinction, connection with urban ecologies, and the colonial project.

More about Belinda's work: drawspace.org

Originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM on 25 November 2024.

FEATURED TRACKS
1) Nicolas Jaar, Etre 
2) Tune-Yards, Es-So

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP68: Melinda Hunt (WALK WITH ME, Drawspace)

Conversation with performance artist Alan Schacher who works across the terrain of dance and installation, with an interest in architectural experiences and the performativity of public space. His performances “attempt to eke out the essence of site, materials and objects in relation to and with the performer’s body, the situation, and memory of place.”

From Friday 27th to Sunday 29th of December, Alan will take a performative drawing residency at Drawspace gallery in Enmore. The project is titled CHASING SHADOWS and in this residency, Alan will capture the outlines of shadows and reflections as they fall onto and into the DRAW space. 

More about Alan's work: https://alanschacher.net 

Originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM on 23 December 2024.

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP69: Alan Schacher (Drawspace, Chasing Shadows)

Conversation with artist Carolyn Craig about their most recent solo exhibition – ALGEIC INTENT – on at Firsdraft gallery (Sydney) until 15 March 2025. ALGAEIC INTENT investigates the ways in which Algae thrive in the wreckage of capitalism. The work intermingles breathe, sound, image and desire through diffractive echo, to leak affect and challenge conventional narratives around social responsibility that isolate bodies as discrete entities that sustain the meritocracy myths of capitalism.

Carolyn’s practice operates through conceptual ideas of how power is embedded within material exchanges – between bodies, objects and at a quantum level. They see material practices as a relational act connected to political spaces and the broader arts ecology, and have founded artist run space SCHMICK Contemporary in Haymarket with this ethos in mind. Carolyn is a lecturer at the National Art School, and a member of research group Intermedial Composition Network at the University of New South Wales.

More about Carolyn's work: http://www.carolyncraig.com

Originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM on 17 February 2025.

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP70: Carolyn Craig (Algaeic Intent, Firstdraft)

Conversation with choreographer and dancer EMMA HARRISON about HIGH OCTANE, her latest choreographic work premiering at Campbeltown Arts Centre on 27 March 2025. 

HIGH OCTANE is a super-charged dance work that reflects on the forces that drive us. This electrifying performance challenges us to rethink our relationship with success, power, and the relentless pursuit of more. In a world fuelled by competition, HIGH OCTANE takes us on a high-speed ride through ambition, self-identity, and the price of making it to the top.

More about Emma's work: https://emmaharrison.info

Originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM on 17 March 2025.

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP71: Emma Harrison (High Octane - Campbelltown Arts Centre)

Conversation with artist THOMAS THORBY-LISTER about his solo exhibition SITE ACTIONS showing at Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf from 9th of April. to 11 May 2025

SITE ACTIONS is an exhibition of site-responsive paintings that engage with the natural environment that surrounds Woollahra Gallery. The landscape acts as an active participant in the creative process, with elements such as rain, wind, sun and water leaving marks on the sheets of linen, which are eventually rendered in subtle monochromatic tones to reflect the natural hues of the environment. 

Allowing the natural forces to shape and imprint their textures onto the fabric, Thomas Thorby-Lister relinquishes a part of his agency to give a greater voice to nature and engage in the collaborative process of ‘making with’ more-than-human. 

More about Emma's work: https://www.thomasthorbylister.com

Originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM on 31 March 2025.

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP72: Thomas Thorby-Lister (Woollahra Gallery - Site Actions)

Conversation with dancer and choreographer JASMIN SHEPPARD about PREPARING GROUND – a new dance work that invites us to join First Peoples’ care of Land as an urgent act for our shared future.

PREPARING GROUND is a First Nations-led dance work co-directed by pioneering indigenous artist Marilyn Miller, alongside Jasmin Sheppard and Katina Olsen. It dances of the future Future—a world where care for Country and community continues generationally. It reminds us that our survival depends on an enduring relationship with the land, and that the path forward is one we must walk together.

More about this work: https://www.blakdance.org.au/articles/preparing-ground

Also featured on the show, a music from SOUND THE ALARM, a 16-piece ensemble led by double bassist Clayton Thomas, in response to the genocide in Palestine. 

The track was recorded during their live performance at Johnston Street Jazz (June 2024). The music is a composed improvisation, described by Clayton as “a sonic allegory and a simple way to collect human energy in the right place for the right reasons.”

All the proceeds from the album go towards humanitarian aid in Gaza: https://claytonthomas.bandcamp.com


Originally aired on Eastside Radio 89.7FM on 12 May 2025.

The track featured at the very beginning is by Samuel Pankhurst who is a sound designer on PREPARING GROUND. 

Sympoiesis radio show is produced on the Gadigal land of the Eora nation, traditional custodians of this land. We pay our respect and gratitude to the elders past, present, and yet to come.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sympoiesisradioshow
Instagram: www.instagram.com/sympoiesis_radio_show

PRESENTER/INTERVIEWER: Ira Ferris (www.instagram.com/artemisprojects)

EP73: Jasmin Sheppard (Preparing Ground)

PODCAST-CONVERSATIONS with artists and art theorists, from visual to performing arts, discussing conceptual frameworks and philosophical outlooks. Also some SOUND-COLLAGES, assembled together on variety of themes, such as: sleep, silence, intuition, collaboration, failure, and more. 

Available via iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/artemis-projects/id1462300886

PRODUCER & HOST: Ira Ferris (https://www.artemisprojects.com.au/projects-ira-ferris)

Sympoiesis (radio show) - Eastside Radio 89.7FM

Artemis Projects