BBC Short Cuts - Segment: "FIELDS" by Ariana Martinez (8 mins)

An experimental first-person segment from gifted sound artist, Ariana Martinez

Episode Summary: “A private empty gravel lot transforms into a community beach in the pandemic and an invitation to step inside a work of art.”

A still captured from Ariana’s video companion piece © Ariana Martinez

Recommendation Type: Segment

Length: ~8 minutes

Format/Style: Experimental

Release Date: January 10, 2023

Publication: BBC Short Cuts Radio 4

This episode of the much-loved Short Cuts is presented by audio legend Josie Long and features “short documentaries about worlds turned upside down.” That’s exactly how I felt listening to Ariana’s segment about their personal experience in a medical office.

With multidimensional soundscapes and descriptions, this piece transported me to another place. Like a sculpture for my ears. Ariana is a gifted artist working in visual and audio arts. Their work is vulnerable, insightful, and highly visual. This piece is extra special for including personal storytelling and video! (Check their website for more)

To hear directly from Ariana about their vision and creation process for this piece, head to this post of Producer’s Notebook (paid subscribers only).

Piece description (from Ariana’s website): “The technician seats me in front of a luminous hollow, as if a wide, wide bowl had been turned on its side, its open mouth spilling soft, white light. From this perspective, it’s as if my entire world is the luminous field—swaths of fresh snow, or sun-bleached prairie, or silver sand. In the field, a faint, black cross is joined by tiny, glowing apparitions. Points (each no bigger than a lentil, with a golden center and soft edges) flicker in and out, weave through my field, ask me to chase them. I log each one with a frantic press of my thumb. Thumb to controller, controller to computer, computer to technician. Me, in the field. The computer has generated data from my time in the field: what I caught and what I missed, a ratio of light to shadow. I return to the field every few months to trace its contours, to check that I’m not losing ground.”

Segment Listen Link: https://www.arianamartinezstudio.com/fields

Full Episode Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001gwz8

Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jGBLcAsgbdL5-zB4q8lEATwDLNFzUZ6Q/edit

Credits (from the transcript):

Presented by Josie Long

Original music by Ariana Martinez

Produced by Ariana Martinez

Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft

Series Producer: Eleanor McDowall

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4