Vera Wyse Munro (1897-1966) was a pioneering New Zealand ham radio broadcaster, improviser, and sonic experimenter. Her primary media were amateur radio broadcasts, Morse poetry, and sono-topographical scores. Via her broadcasts, which were frequently received by amateur radio operators as far afield as the United States and Europe, Munro initiated some of the earliest telematic performances, in which she would perform prepared violin in structured improvisations with other musicians broadcasting from elsewhere in the world. Munro’s work was often necessarily clandestine, as a result of legislation curbing amateur radio activity in New Zealand. As a result of this, as well as the absence of extant documentation about her life and her ephemeral practice, Munro’s work is only now starting to be regarded amidst New Zealand's cultural history. [read more]




A radio séance for Vera Wyse Munro
first broadcast on the Radia network, curated by Sally Ann McIntyre


News

// 2017.12.11-17 // Vera Wyse Munro broadcast worldwide on the Radia network, with Keir GoGwilt & Alex Taylor, curated by Sally Ann McIntyre
// 2017.04.15 // Celeste Oram, with violinists Keir GoGwilt (San Diego) & Alex Taylor (Auckland), present a radio séance: a trans-Pacific broadcast between California and Auckland re-enacting VWM's experimental radio improvisations, at UC San Diego, presented by UCSD Springfest
// 2016.10.29 // Celeste Oram, with violinists Keir GoGwilt (San Diego) & Alex Taylor (Auckland), present a radio séance: a trans-Pacific broadcast between California and Auckland re-enacting VWM's experimental radio improvisations, at CCRMA (Stanford University) and Radius Gallery (Santa Cruz), presented by Indexical
// 2016.08.14 // Radio One 91FM in Dunedin, New Zealand, broadcasts a short radio documentary on Vera Wyse Munro, in partnership with the Audio Foundation, Radia, & Artbank
// 2016.08.09 // Alex Taylor & Celeste Oram present 'New Zealand: Is It A Hoax? An Unauthorized History of New Zealand Music', including biographical information about Vera Wyse Munro, at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, Germany
// 2016.07.05 // Celeste Oram presents a talk about New Zealand ham radio history & Vera Wyse Munro's experimental broadcasts at the Vu Symposium on Experimental, Electronic, and Improvised Music, Park City, Utah
// 2016.05.22 // 95bfm, independent radio in Auckland, New Zealand, broadcasts a mini-dcoumentary on Vera Wyse Munro
// 2016.04.29 // Celeste Oram presents a conference paper on Vera Wyse Munro and early amateur radio in New Zealand at Inertia: Momentum - a Conference on Sound, Media, and the Digital Humanities at the University of California Los Angeles
// 2015.02.28 // Celeste Oram presents a conference paper on Vera Wyse Munro and early amateur radio in New Zealand at the Intercultural Music Conference, University of California San Diego
// 2015.11.22 // Munro's Skywave Symphony (1940) will be premiered in Auckland, New Zealand, by the hear | say ensemble. More event details here.