Contrary Con Abby Wendle
Abby Wendle
Abby Wendle is a producer for NPR’s Invisibilia. She’s reported on agriculture in the Midwest for Harvest Public Media and was a founding producer of This Land Radio. Her reporting has appeared on NPR’s news programs, and select features have aired on the BBC’s Short Cuts, CBC’s Day Six, and KCRW’s Unfictional. Her work has received awards from the Third Coast International Audio Festival, the Murrow Awards, PRNDI, PRX, and The Missouri Review. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and once upon a time took a sculpture class where she built a stylized gorilla/chimpanzee hybrid out of scrap metal. Slovias now spends her days watching over a plot of strawberries in a community garden in western Illinois. In addition to journalism, Abby is interested in her cats, pick-up trucks, making electronic music and noise sculptures, growing spicy peppers, and raising goats.
The Bomb Speaks for Itself: sound attempts to escape the mind
Drawing on the example of one of my favorite weirdos, composer John Cage, The Bomb Speaks for Itself explores these questions:
1. What’s the difference between, “This Is What Happened” and “This Is What It All Means?”
2. Can audio transcend “This Is What Happened” and “This Is What It All Means,” opting instead to frighten you?
3. Wanna let go of “This Is What Happened” and “This Is What It All Means” and listen*?
*A rooster crows, a motorcycle revs its engine, and Obie and Yabbo in the courtyard, giggling...Cackle cackle cackle.