The Substation/ Roslyn Oades, Bob Scott/ The Enormous Radio/
Aural content: High
Visual content: Medium
The venue is wheelchair accessible and gender-neutral accessible toilet facilities are available. Seating is provided, and audiences are welcome to move within the space.
$20.00 General Admission
$15.00 Concession
$10.00 First Nations
Hourly sessions, final session at 8pm.
PRESENTED BY THE SUBSTATION, CHAMBER MADE & MELBOURNE FRINGE
Chamber Made's The Enormous Radio is a new large-scale immersive audio experience by artists Roslyn Oades and Bob Scott with collaborators. A ring of old radios replete with glowing dials, crackling speakers and twitchy antennas fill The Substation Main Space. This strange hive has been hacked, revived and repurposed to operate as an interconnected machine-medium capable of seeking, receiving, translating and transmitting uncanny messages from the animal world.
Drawing on Australian wildlife field-recordings, spatialised composition, translation software, and techno-spiritualism, the installation conjures haunted transmissions that speculate on the possibility of interspecies communication. As acoustic ecologists make breakthroughs in deciphering animal languages, this work asks: what if we could tune into the non-human, the endangered, and the wild? What might they say?
In the time of human-made climate emergency, The Enormous Radio stokes our longing to connect and tune into the unknown and the wild.
At the heart of this project is an ongoing collaboration between innovative documentary theatre maker Roslyn Oades and internationally acclaimed sound artist Bob Scott, whose combined skill set spans documentary, sound design, composition, expanded theatre, installation and immersive design. Their previous theatrical installation experience, The Nightline, was presented by Malthouse Theatre in August 2026. On The Enormous Radio they are joined by creative technologist Kevan Atkins, production designer Jenny Hector and text dramaturg Sarah Walker.
ARTISTIC TEAM
Lead Artists: Roslyn Oades & Bob Scott
Creative Technologist: Kevan Atkins
Production Designer: Jenny Hector
Text Dramaturg: Sarah Walker
Producer: Chamber Made
WARNINGS
The Enormous Radio contains flashes of light, loud noise and periods of sustained darkness. It may be anxiety inducing for audiences with sensory sensitivities. Contains mild coarse language. Recommended for 14+ years.
ACCESSIBILITY
The Enormous Radio is a detailed listening experience featuring rich and layered audio content. The work incorporates carefully considered spatial and physical design elements. At this stage, captions and a transcript are unavailable. Front of House staff will be trained in blind and low vision awareness and guiding practices. Additional access information, including details about the experience, venue environment and available accessibility supports, will be published closer to the season.
Tickets/
Photo by Sarah Walker.
The Enormous Radio has been supported by Creative Australia, FRAME Documentary Lab, Abbotsford Convent, Bundanon, and the Robert Salzer Foundation. This project is the recipient of the Voltage commission, a partnership between Chamber Made and The Substation. Chamber Made has multi-year, re-current funding from Creative Australia, Creative Victoria and City of Melbourne. The Substation is supported by Hobsons Bay City Council, Creative Victoria and Creative Australia.
