Dr. Klangendum

by GABI SCHAFFNER & DIY CHURCH (ERNST MARKUS STEIN)

“In the form of a radio logbook the ‘conductor’ (Gabi Schaffner) & the DJ (DIY Church) make their way through hand-picked corridors, filled with devices. In the radio studio, little doors are opened, devices are drafted, shattered and discarded. Mean machines are exposed. Whole corridors of them […] You can already hear it from afar. A straightener, a chin strap… Access over or through foreign territories. Sovereign domains, high-frequency paradise apples, singing machines. One day it was there, the industrial revolution! Memorable things, more like sights to be seen. Stealing a berry from the neighbor. Searching for… a radio is playing somewhere. Entrance to healthy paranoia – just a pinch. A wind blows once through the corridor – an elongated connecting space in the first half of some century. And no, or was it actually in the museum for selfie sticks? That’s where the expedition began. Luckily, there was a writing tool…” (G.S./E.M.S.)

Gabi Schaffner works as an interdisciplinary sound artist and curator.
Her artistic practice is determined by the methods of poetic ethnography in connection with fluxus-like mise-en-scènes, radio-making and sound art performances. Much of her work originates from journeys. Next to her radiophonic productions, Schaffner creates speculative musical genres and inserts them into music history in order to raise awareness for cultural, gender-related and/or geographical conditions.

GABI SCHAFFNER & ERNST MARKUS STEIN
Since 2020, GABI SCHAFFNER and ERNST MARKUS STEIN have been working together.
They have created several DATSCHA RADIO iterations, most recently in September 2026 as RADYO PARFÜM in Frankfurt/Main. In 2026, they founded the No-Fashion label U5E.L3ss.
Their joint exhibition “Batteries are not included,” together with Mathias Deutsch and Thomas Lüer, ran from August 14 to September 13, 2026 at Kunstverein Familie Montez in Frankfurt/Main.

2. Cul-de-sac Show

Radio Atatakai is a radio art project and station run by artists Tata Frenkel and dr. Jan Glöckner. Jan’s research interest is choreographic potential of fungi and humans, with a focus on biotechnology, deep tank fermentation, radio and dance. And Tata’s artistic practice encompasses radio, radio-acoustic instruments, diagrammatic drawings, and performative narratives in which the limits of articulation, themes of health and care, and the communication physics intertwine. Radio Atatakai calls itself a tiny intergalactical station that runs two big sub-programs called “Autonomous education for radio spectrum” and “Fundamental principles of permanent fun”. But maybe that’s the least interesting thing about it. Jan lives with rapidly progressing ALS, while Tata is Jan’s main caretaker. Hence the radio exists in the routine of palliative care. Since the beginning of the Radio Atatakai, it has been transmitting through the high resistance of medical crisis, it was and still is bringing meaning, ground and freedom to create, communicate, share and just to stay yourself when the disease takes one’s ability to participate physically. Radio Atatakai wants to emphasize voices, unseen bodies, radio sky that belongs to everybody. Palliative arts is something that cares for the end, doesn’t ignore it, doesn’t mystify it, it is about care in multitude of its forms. At the same time, for us, it mainly affects the framework, the flexible curation of the transmissions – station is completely adjusted so it’s good for one’s condition, so it’s fun without any damage to energy levels, a producer is also a caregiver, we totally live by unpredictability, by easying the symptoms.

In this show, we have a small restrospective trip that happens somewhere outside. Music and editing by Tata Frenkel. Voices: Jan Glöckner and Tata.