hi!

My practice as a writer has been developing towards audio work, and I have been more and more interested in the medium of radio as a platform for showing my own work, and also in radio’s possible uses as a tool of social empowerment. I am wishing to understand how radio is being used by artists and activists to create spaces that function as community centres, and how radio can be used to facilitate well being for individuals and in localities.
I will need to define what I understand by ‘community’, and also clarify which model of radio I will be studying.

I will be avoiding an ethnographic definition of community, as that is a life times’ work in itself- instead I will work around the ideas and writings of radio and audio artists (Gregory Whitehead, Allen Weiss, Charles Bernstein) and also other writers, artists and activists that offer definitions of community movements that I see Soundart radio as aligning itself alongside (Joan Retallack’s ‘dialogic community’, bell hooks’ ‘communities of resistance’, Felix Guattari’s ‘free radio’ etc.).


Radio for this CEP is a small local public broadcasting venture called Soundart Radio 102.5 FM, which broadcasts under a community license- it is not run for political or commercial gain, it is run by and on behalf of its listening community, and represents both the community of its geographical area, and also radio as a living and historic ‘hot’ media with a international community of listeners, producers, makers and enthusiasts. I will be seeking to understand how Soundart radio fulfils the role of community /ies, and how it serves the desires of said community /ies, and will be reflecting upon and monitoring my own interaction with these ideas as a individual participating, listening and producing, and process this into both audio and writing documentations.

Broadcasting can be considered as a mirror to the way we live, and I am interested in programming and stations that offer alternative and considered options within their scheduling.

Radio art requires a consistent body of research and practice that concentrates on sound at its point of signification, not a literal reading that will collapse into cliché, but a sensitivity to the ways in which meaning in sound circulates, dissipates and re-emerges. The development of an autonomous body of theory and practice regarding aural referentuality- in particular as it relates to radio and electronic media- will contribute to a better understanding of the role that radio art plays in the articulation of social and cultural ideas. (Lander,D. 1994, Radiocastings: musings on radio and art in Radio Rethink



The two community models I will be focusing on are individuals sharing a geographically related relationship within the area of FM reception, and also communities physically distant but still communing /communicating, thorough both FM and Internet radio. I will be looking the social benefits of participation in the arts:

Personal: growth in confidence, creative and transferable skills, social lives are improved through friendships, enjoyment and involvement in the community. In a wider social context: confidence of minority and marginalised groups is gained, promoting social cohesion. There is empowerment of a community to be involved in local affairs, a strengthened commitment to place and an ability to tackle problems. Provides the opportunity to take positive risks, contribute to education and personal and social change (Matarasso, F, 1997: ‘Use or Ornament? Social impact of participation in the arts’ p79-81).



I have secured a practical intern-ship at Soundart radio from September through till December 2010. This community radio station's location, programming and programmers, its geographical area, it's international and local outreach projects and its ethos and manifesto are all relevant to my enquiry.
My particular artistic interest lies with

Transmissions that Publicise the Private, or through an opening of dialogic space create new energy and directions within a social order.

Programming that re-instates the authority of chaos and chance, within the context of a functioning community.

Broadcasting that foregrounds and celebrates ambiguity and individuality, supported by structures of acceptance and value.

Work that transforms attention into action and revitalizes languages’ and radio’s uses in the public sphere.


I intend to immerse myself in the life of this small radio station for my time there.

Wednesday 25 August 2010

invite

SOUND ART!
Do you have some to share?
COULD YOU FILL AN HOUR OF RADIO? 12 HOURS? 24?
Soundart Radio presents
‘ ssllooww rraaddiioo ssuunnddaayy ‘
- a season of 24 hour installation through autumn 2010-
our ears are just as keen any day of the week, but this show is a specific slot for progressive developments and time based performances- a weekly opportunity to break out of the boundaries of radio schedules, to let a sound continue until it drives us mad or we love it completely. It could be the ideas’ simplicity that carries it... just a dripping tap. Or its complexity... a multitude of voices, overlapping, never repeating. It could be a live installation of insects close to the mic, or electronic noise buzzing away to itself.
Do you have work that could be broadcast?
Dreamy installations, soundscapes, pointless noises, different types of silence, pretentious twaddle, nature, voices, boring stuff, drones, fuzzy fluff. Breathing, sighing, sleeping, eating, listening, waking up and going outside. Washing machines, computers, newspapers, floorboards, stuck records and broken toys. Non radio for a switched off audience. Unfinished work welcome. Please show your support of small stations, though this mail is a outreach across the globe- share share share
For more information and to contribute please contact
j.wellwood@dartington.ac.uk
Soundart Radio 102.5 fm www.soundartradio.org.uk
The Gallery Dartington Hall Totnes Devon UK TQ96EJ
The ssllooww ssuunnddaayy project is going to be fun- not the confused project it would be if left only to me…. Above is the test invite for work, mostly fashioned from Lucinda’s previous canvassing. I will add graphics, dress it up some, and get it sent across the globe…. What will be contributed? Who will listen?
Next on my list is- some clarity on the ideas I am bringing to this enquiry. Previous posts seem a little politically unclear/ artistically shaky!!! This project is not an attempt to press beliefs or ‘save radio’ ha! But to seek out and celebrate ways of reasserting what a community/free radio does when “it is a real instrument against forms of intimidation and domestication!” (Gauttari F, 1990, Popular Free Radio), I think modes of communication have been undermined by commercial interests, communities fractured by political imperatives, and that this controlled system of specialists and owned rights and prescribed information drains the vigor from society. Small radio offers a forum for debate, exhibition, inclusion and celebration, which counters the ‘safe’ (yet stifling) offerings of mass media, and encourages a more human model for community and co-existence. This is worked through a real time feedback system of listeners/producers/listeners producing.
Resonance fm serves ‘a community of artists'.  I love much of what can be heard there, but I'm walking streets where those without an arts education walk, and can't help but note the uncommunicatable frustration of those without valid voices. THAT IS THE ISSUE at stake, and I think small radio offers different approaches to hearing, listening, speaking and understanding which, starting small, makes the world a better place, without the exclusivity that  'arts' can unfortunately cause. Where is the cutting edge?
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