Phonurgia Nova ? For 35 years, it has been a must for those who choose to explore the possibilities of radio art. Attentive to transmitting creative radio, the Arlesian association publishes its classics (Welles, Schaeffer, Paranthoën, Cocteau, Giono, Farabet, Mortley, Meylan), publishes pedagogical works, and accompanies through workshops organized throughout the year, the authors eager to engage in a creative relationship with sounds.
Initiated in 1986 with the complicity of Pierre Schaeffer, the association teaches this radio that moves away from everyday radio to something else: fiction, documentary, sound art sometimes. Radio, podcast or live performance? No restrictions. Whether from Arles, Paris or now Dinard, Phonurgia Nova propagates a multifaceted sound art and invents manifestations to its measure to conquer new ears. Its influence is national and international.

Where did the name Phonurgia Nova come from? This was originally the title that the German Jesuit Father Athanasius Kircher gave in 1673 to an amazing book in which, well before the time of their technical realization, he imagined astonishing acoustic architectures. There is an extensive online documentation of his “talking statues” and other speculations about “communication machines”.