TUESDAY 30 MAY
| TIME | WHERE | WHAT |
| 17:00 | Studio Henry Address: Bibliotheek Tweebronnen Rijschoolstraat 4, 3000 Leuven | ARRIVAL Collect your badges and information. Have a drink and settle in. CQ “Is this frequency in use please?” Reach out and find a friendly voice. Location: secret |
| 18:30 | Studio Henry | OPENING OF MIRP 2023 Meet the creative board of MIRP, our partners Het Nieuwstedelijk and Klankverbond. What will MIRP 2023 bring us? |
| 19:00 | DINNER | |
| 20:00 | Studio Henry | Amplifying Our Connections Mingle, guided by Esther and Judith. Esther Schelander & Judith Geffert are audio producers from Germany. During their long walks and talks through the woods of Berlin, they often discuss questions of connection and solidarity in competitive working environments. |
| 21:00 | Studio Henry | CQ/ICQ A live performance on how to connect in divisive times. Created on site for MIRP 2023 in Leuven. A collaboration between indie audio producer John Beauchamp, percussionist and performer Elliot Harrison, audio theatre maker Sara Vertongen, and a ham radio. |
| 21:30 | End (or is it…?) |
TUESDAY 30 MAY
| TIME | WHERE | WHAT |
| 17:00 | Studio Henry Address: Bibliotheek Tweebronnen Rijschoolstraat 4, 3000 Leuven | ARRIVAL Collect your badges and information. Have a drink and settle in. CQ “Is this frequency in use please?” Reach out and find a friendly voice. Location: secret |
| 18:30 | Studio Henry | OPENING OF MIRP 2023 Meet the creative board of MIRP, our partners Het Nieuwstedelijk and Klankverbond. What will MIRP 2023 bring us? |
| 19:00 | DINNER | |
| 20:00 | Studio Henry | Amplifying Our Connections Mingle, guided by Esther and Judith. Esther Schelander & Judith Geffert are audio producers from Germany. During their long walks and talks through the woods of Berlin, they often discuss questions of connection and solidarity in competitive working environments. |
| 21:00 | Studio Henry | CQ/ICQ A live performance on how to connect in divisive times. Created on site for MIRP 2023 in Leuven. A collaboration between indie audio producer John Beauchamp, percussionist and performer Elliot Harrison, audio theatre maker Sara Vertongen, and a ham radio. |
| 21:30 | End (or is it…?) |
WEDNESDAY 31 MAY
| TIME | WHERE | WHAT |
| 9:00 | OPEK Address: Vaartkom 4, 3000 Leuven | Listen Better/Make Better. In this interactive workshop Dennis Funk retunes our ears and sharpens our senses to listen more closely to the world around us. Through games(!), exercises and activities you’ll find ways to make more visceral and authentic sounding nonfiction audio. Assisted by Georgia Walker. |
| 10:00 | OPEK | BREAK |
| 10:15 | OPEK | PARALLEL SESSIONS BREAKOUT 1: Audio & Incarceration Making radio about life in prison or with incarcerated people is a fascinating but challenging niche within audio storytelling and radio documentary. Hadewijch Vanhaverbeke, Ninna Gaensler-Debs and Karim Aït-Gacem come from different parts of the world and want to share and question their specific experiences. The session is informally hosted by Katrin Lohmann, who has a lot of expertise creating audio stories with people in confinement. BREAKOUT 2: Interviewing children: nightmare or delight? Former children’s news journalist and child psychotherapist Goedele Vermaelen shares her insights and experiences about the best ways to interview kids. BREAKOUT 3: How do you build a team? Yannic Hannebohnf runs his own small podcast label in Berlin, and shares his experiences and practices on how to assemble and manage a group of creatives. |
| 11:15 | OPEK | BREAK |
| 11:30 | OPEK | The multi-language issue. A conversation with producers from different languages but with the same concern: Giacomo Dossi & Sara Zarreh Hoshyari Khah, Lotte Van Gaalen & Hadewijch Vanhaverbeke. |
| 12:30 | OPEK | LUNCH WALK TOGETHER TO BIBLIOTHEEK TWEEBRONNEN |
| 14:00 | Studio Henry | East, West and in between. Contemporary radio feature-making in Czechia and Lithuania Why do we prefer journalistic documentaries and sometimes tend to feel uncomfortable telling our own personal stories? What makes investigative reporting especially hard in our countries? And what are special audio experiences to be had in Czech and Lithuanian? A listening session from two audio friends in conversation about the genre they love. With Brit Jensen & Vaida Pilibaityte |
| 15:00 | BREAK | |
| 15:15 | Studio Henry | Creating a different narrative while podcasting Club Magie brings stories from and by the people, our aim is to connect people and change social narrativesIn this conversation we’ll talk with the podcast lead of the collective (Alvaro) and Eli (one of the founders), their unique approach and future goals. Moderated by Jade Yorks. |
| 16:15 | Studio Henry | BREAK |
| 16:30 | Studio Henry | Challenging the classic story structure. The three act structure has become so prominent that we often rely on it without thinking twice about it. Ideas like exposition, arena and turning points permeate how we think and talk about story. But the three act structure is also a very Western and some say even masculo-sexual framework.Dennis Gaens and Lucas Derycke challenge the traditional fiction and documentary formats by proposing different ways of thinking about story. |
| 17:30 | BREAK | |
| 17:45 | Studio Henry | Making the Past: Some of the things we’ve done (and some of the things we’ve struggled with) while making podcasts by/for/about oppressed and silenced communities Isabel Cadenas Cañón and Nemo Martin both make narrative podcasts – fictional and non-fictional – that unsilence the manipulations of history that have been used to oppress communities to this day. In this talk they unpick some of the ethical and structural methods they’ve used and struggled with while making their podcasts, and wonder how they, and we, can continue to do better. |
| 18:45 | DINNER | Individually. |
| 20:30 | Studio Henry | A performance/listening session on [ sound music audio storytelling ] Inne Eysermans will look into a range of (practice-based) approaches and perspectives on the use of sound and music in audio storytelling, emphasizing a dynamic and fertile exchange between those practices. We will explore listening, space, and place within this context. |
| 21:15 | Studio Henry | A somatic, sensual, embodied listening experience. By Tess Davidson & Kristina Loring. |
| 22:00 | END |
THURSDAY 1 JUNE
| TIME | WHERE | WHAT |
| 9:00 | OPEK | PARALLEL SESSIONS BREAKOUT 1: Dramaturgy in audio. What does a dramaturg do? Katherina Lindekens has been a dramaturg in music, opera and audio for years, and still has no bite-size answer to that question. Dramaturgs are shapeshifters, redefining their elusive role in every new creative constellation. The more interesting question may be: what can a dramaturg do for you? Moderated by Wederik De Backer, who has a lot of experience working with dramaturgs, and Katharina Smets, who has both been a dramaturg and worked with one (the other Katherina — we know, it’s confusing). Bring your own experience working with dramaturgs or being one. BREAKOUT 2: The challenges and successes of finding stories and pitching.Scott Gurian is a New York-based public radio veteran who now reports sound-rich stories from around the world for his podcast Far From Home. He’s found that his favorite stories are often hard to pitch to editors, cause they might be really interesting, but don’t have strong news hooks. How to navigate this? This session is intended as a two-way dialogue with participants. You’re encouraged to come with your own examples of pitches that worked, pitches that didn’t, and short clips of tape of the final piece you produced. Plus we’ll discuss creative strategies for finding fascinating stories in the first place! BREAKOUT 3: New tools, new problemsDoes AI help you produce your best work? What could happen when ChatGPT is doing your writing or research? Let’s talk about the benefits and drawbacks of AI in audio production, and work out a preferred future for audio storytelling in the age of AI together.Thomas Reintjes and Pieter Blomme share their secrets and frustrations. |
| 10:00 | BREAK | |
| 10:15 | OPEK | Reporting the stories that no one wants to hear Best practices for developing accessible, engaging narrative audio on challenging topics such as climate change, human nature and the hope for a better planet.With Morgan Childs & Justine Paradis. |
| 11:15 | OPEK | BREAK |
| 11:30 | OPEK | Building solidarity between freelancers. A conversation about unionization, lobbying and the need for a network. With Lotte Nijsten, This Wachter, Caroline Prévinaire & Karim Aït-Gacem. |
| 12:30 | OPEK | LUNCH |
| 13:30 | OPEK > BUS | ON THE BUS TO AMSTERDAM Landscapes and Distances. A meditative music-listening session consisting of pieces inspired by landscapes, distances, and travels. By sound and music producer Martin Klusák. |
| 14:30 | BUS | Jonathan Zenti takes the microphone. |
| 16:30 | Brakke Grond | ESTIMATED ARRIVAL IN AMSTERDAM |
| 18:00 | Brakke Grond | DINNER |