A world of music

"Online radio is this ancient technology in a way. So we decided to use it as a sort of navigational tool."

This is a neat map and music project: Radio Garden.
Click the map and find radio stations all over the world.

Drag the map and hear the static as the radio retunes to the next available station….
This was my local one that it started playing straight away…. Radio West Norfolk.
The website uses ESRIs mapping and was produced by Jonathan Puckey at @studiopuckey

Why not provide a list of cities, and ask students to find them (reinforcing geographical knowledge as to where they are) and also assess the extent to which the music they find there is global and recognisable. What language is spoken by the DJ?
If there is more than one station in a city they are listed in the bottom right, and clicking switches between them.
Where are the 'quiet parts' of the world where there are few stations?
Do they correspond to a map of population density? Use the wonderful CityGeographics map that I blogged about a few days ago.

This Atlantic article also makes the connection with the Golden Record on the Voyager spacecraft, which I have used as a motif in my work with the Global Learning Programme. It also describes the idea of connectedness.

Perusing Radio Garden, you begin to imagine the people listening to music as they make coffee, the people sitting in offices and in waiting rooms, the people dancing at the bar after last call, the people cooking dinner for their families, and the people driving to work before dawn. Some of these people look like you. Some do not. Some of them know different truths and have different values. Some live in the lands of your ancestors, but speak languages you cannot understand. Though you may never meet these people, you can begin to know them this way—by listening to what they hear.

Thanks to Fred Martin for reminding me of the potential of this interesting map project. Find out more about it here.