XYL is a term used by amateur radio operators to refer to an unlicensed woman, usually the wife of a male radio operator, as ex-young lady. The Sisters Akousmatica have reclaimed the phrase to refer to piracy, freedom and space for women on the airwaves. They have commissioned 13 sound artists to contribute to a 13 km sound walk broadcasting along the Inter-City bike trail between Hobart and the Museum of Old and New Art. XYL is switched on by the Radio Queens walking with their radio vessel to establish the connexion. The work is directly act as a conduit and mode of travel between Hobart CBD and the Mona festival site, allowing audiences to engage terrestrially with a space normally viewed only as a means of getting from A to B.

DinahBird’s 12 minute work, The Crackle Back,  is a tribute to Adeline Dubois, a radio fanatic and pneumatic tube mail operator, or tubiste, for the Paris postal network in the 1930s.

XYL also features works by Felicia Atkinson, Fari Bradley, Nina Buchanan, Camilla Hannan, Joyce Hinterding, Miyuki Jokiranta, Ripley Kavara, Dani Kirby, Lisa Lerkenfeldt, Linda Persson, Lucreccia Quintanilla and Tricky Walsh.

XYL is being produced for Mona Foma (19 – 21 January 2018) in Tasmania.