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.

Monday 8 November 2010

residue of a city

i liked the bright lights and the city wide spew, the hustle and the feeling of not fitting in but thats ok, who does, its a mash up a synchronized chaos of colour (mostly gray) and sound (mostly traffic). I made it through the underground worming my way through crushes, like a eel up the escalator to emerge into a hubbub, not necessarily where i wished to appear but so goddam happy to be there anyway, lugging bags and squinting into the wan autumn light at the crumpled underground map. Something about it- the mix, its devastating undeniability - big large massive solid grind mostly undecipherable or folks in their thousands just rubbing along together or not, barging past head down... Works of art balance roadworks and improvements lost in face value presentation, grand gestures of architecture belonging to the state, the history of a few impacting from all sides 200 stories high. I smile along with a multiplicity of children, newer Londoners, a guest in their city of bright lights and attractions and crazy paving. House sized demanding bill boarding covers over windows on other people's lives like every ones so busy, and i am too, but i'd so like to stand and stare because its still amazing the colour -fireworks over primrose hill- and the sound- a thousand languages just babbling, making their worlds go round
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1 comment:

  1. longlegsrunning4 February 2011 at 17:52

    http://xiipaal.blogspot.com/2010/11/radio-zoot-residue-of-city.html
    for a beautiful translation exercize by NewWorlLdLog. Love it. like reading something that responates with a movement of youraslef :-)

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