Nicholas Beauchesne (he/him) is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Alberta who specializes in twentieth century occult literary networks and modernist “little magazines.” Nick is an aspiring skáld, a teller of runes. He is also a vocalist and synthist performing under the pseudonym of Nix Nihil. His visionary concept album, Cassandra’s Empty Eyes, was released on the spring equinox of 2022 (Dark StarChasm Noise Theories Records).
Authors | Nicholas Beauchesne
Articles on Amodern by Nicholas Beauchesne
A VOICE OF THEIR OWN
Polyvocal Feminist Curation in 1980s UAlberta Radio
This multimedia essay “re-sounds” Voiceprint, a 1980s University of Alberta campus radio show created by students Jars Balan and Terri Wynnyk. First, we provide a historical overview of the series alongside the circumstances of its rediscovery, digitization, cataloguing, and curation. Second, we examine how the showrunners mobilize polyvocality – foregrounding discord and disharmony – as both an eco-acoustic aesthetic and political strategy. In articulating a feminist (and anarchist) ethos of plurality, diversity, and social justice, Voiceprint helped foster emerging activist communities, much like how scholarly podcasts do today, through its contributions to contemporary debates surrounding gender and language. Our “unarchiving” of Voiceprint demonstrates how curatorial interventions can unfold across space and time, allowing sonic events to reverberate well beyond their original moment.