∏Node

Π-Node (pronounced Pi-Node) is an artists’ collective, an experimental web streaming platform, and a non-commercial French community radio station specializing in sound art, radio art, digital arts, improvised music, and other experimental practices.

The collective was initially formed in 2013 with the creation of a streaming platform, first activated during a performance at Club Transmediale in Berlin.

At the end of the 2010s, supported by the Circulaire association, the collective obtained DAB+ frequencies for its radio: channel 11 in Mulhouse and channel 9 in Paris. The station broadcasts mainly in French, with occasional programs in English or other languages (such as Alsatian).

The radio airs themed programs, conferences on sound art, and experimental music concerts, live or recorded. It also relays shows broadcast by other stations, such as Epsilonia (from Radio Libertaire) and La Croche Oreille (from CKRL).

On its website, the main stream mirrors the DAB+ broadcast, while secondary streams are self-managed channels that may switch to the main stream during artistic, academic, or social events. The station has hosted specific projects such as Radio Free Assange, linked to the movement calling for the release of Julian Assange.

Unlike the fixed programming of most community radio stations, Π-Node continuously adapts its schedule according to the proposals of contributors, festivals, academic seminars on sound art or experimental music, and current social and political events. For example, from March to June 2020, during France’s first COVID-19 lockdown, it launched Antivirus, described as an “open radio program for deconfinement.”

To encourage exchange and build bridges between producers and listeners, the station’s website provides a permanent chat, extensive written documentation, detailed archives, and self-training tutorials on audio and digital technologies. The Raspberry Pi nano-computer, commonly used in DIY audio technologies, reflects the station’s experimental and accessible technological ethos.

Π-Node adopts a fluid program schedule, negotiated by those involved, open to inventive formats and grounded in social and political current events. Its organizational model aims to remain as open and democratic as possible. As one founding member explains:

“How can we work collectively in a horizontal way? One answer is to build an ambitious project in which everyone naturally finds their place. Instead of defining roles and assigning tasks hierarchically, we create a context where each person develops their own research while contributing to the collective.”

The radio thus becomes both a practical critique of mainstream media and a tool for democratizing access to the media sphere. Π-Node experiments with and questions radio simultaneously as a technology, as content, and as an organizational model.