Live Ecological Radio

Tune into Slow Boat for a live ecological radio broadcast from Ikon Youth Programme members, collaborating with artist Mort Drew.

Working collectively as artists, broadcasters and listeners, the group transform Slow Boat into a temporary DIY radio station, experimenting with sound as a way of engaging with the water, our boat and the wider canal environment.

Using contact mics and live transmission technologies, Ikon Youth Programme tune into the hidden vibrations, resonances, frictions, and movements of Slow Boat. Offering an alternative sonic vision of the canal and its surroundings.

Mort Drew is a sound artist and creative technician working on flat listening and collective broadcasting through experimental ecological radio practices. Their work explores ephemerality, activist radio, and alternative modalities of being with one another, working primarily with live field transmitters and prototypical tools.

About Ikon Youth Programme (IYP) & Slow Boat 

Ikon Youth Programme (IYP) is a group of emerging artists, designers, writers, photographers and policy makers (16–21yrs).

With the support of Freelands Foundation, over six years (2021-27), Ikon Youth Programme  (IYP) navigates the waterways on board by producing a programme of workshops, exhibitions and live events on Slow Boat, a heritage canal boat that tours the West Midlands. We collaborate with national and regional artists by sharing resources and regularly exchanging ideas and knowledge.