Photo by Siavash Kheirkhah 

Karen Werner’s artistic research PhD project, re- radio, is about relationality in radio articulated through three durational artworks: SkottegatenFM (2021), a three-month mini-FM neighborhood radio station based in the artist’s Nordnes apartment; Radio Multe (2021-ongoing), an experimental city-wide AM, FM and online radio station in Bergen with an accompanying shadow station and Seijo & her Soul (2024), a nine-evening performance installation at USF’s Visningsrommet. re- radio situates the artworks in the contexts of mini-FM and community radio practices, radio art, theories of relationality, relational aesthetics and dialogical aesthetics. Karen Werner charts the move from broad questions, such as what is relationality? What is community? What is communication? to more specific realizations: that the radio station as an artistic form can foster an immersive, collective subjectivity that supports many forms of unlearning and learning with and that on-air conversation can be an artistic material.

Bio:
Karen Werner is an artist and sociologist working with radio, text, story, music, voice and performance. Her recent focus has been on living installations and experimental radio stations of various scales and forms. Karen’s work has been exhibited at/ commissioned by USF Visningsrommet, Tonspur Kunstverein Wien and Maribor, Kunstradio, Australian Broadcast Corporation, Wave Farm, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, studio das weisse haus, Hemera Foundation, MAG3, Kone Foundation and others. In Fall 2025, Karen will begin a position as Professor of Artistic Research at the Mozarteum’s Institute for Open Arts in Salzburg, Austria. 

Karen Werner has been working with “re- radio” since 2020 under supervision of Professor Brandon La Belle, Professor Ciara Phillips and Associate Professor Anna Friz.

Assessment committee:
Professor Trond Lossius (UiB), committee leader
Professor Michelle Teran, Willem De Kooning Academy, Rotterdam
Professor Ingvild Holm, Østfold University College, Norwegian Theatre Academy