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.

audio outreach * 1

AUDIO OUTREACH 1  (broadcast 19 oct 2010)

Ran and rage
I am a fool a little child a mistaker- no two ways around that- here is the voice of inexperience:

The question remains- who has the right to speak- to be heard- you have the right to turn off or tune out, and the editorial rights to reinterpret and translate this transmission to fit your own remit: did she just say- did I hear that right- I think she meant- she’s referring to-
This is simply not entertainment- its a communication to serve another purpose- I propose to make a statement- just because, my child wants an answer- I don’t have one to give her, except- we have to do our best, and try our hardest, and share and care, fingers crossed, hold on tight.... if you speak who might listen? I guess essentially, we hope to reach ourselves just a moment ago, in the knowledge, knowledge is all very well but good company inspires greater actions, and being silent is not always a healthy option...
I have been wanting to ask a QUESTION -who gets to choose which questions get answered- if we pass over that which is never spoken about, for fear we might be misrepresenting, or misunderstood- do we negate responsibility for making up our own destiny, falling back instead to pre-packaged pack mentalities- a unsustainable boxed analogue life of conform and be damned to control and criticize. I have been wondering about voices -those we choose to fill our ears with, those which seek precedence over our minds, morally undermining through repetitions digesting time like its a given and space doesn’t matter so much as getting it straight that this is a race and you better keep your head down and out of sight and out of lines of fire.
I have been musing on relationships in many forms- ways of relation that relate to surrender and resistance, property and authority, and imagining other kinds of understanding than those tightly held rules that tradition, laws and convention would have us abide by.

Is chaos so bad-? The only historical situations to reflect upon have their roots in inefficient despots and already starving societies breaking down barriers that were more prison walls than bench marks- scales always seek balance, and extremes seem to encourage each other.

If I speak and the noise annoys your ear, anonymous ravings of a lost soul, like a wasp, caught in your hair, you most likely have not thought about the difficulty we have in this culture of standing up, speaking out, making changes, causing our lot to become something other that a badly shuffled deck of cards- the fool excepts a bad hand, expects to loose, is still surprised to be dealt nothing but duds whilst nu- royalty sits pretty, smiling, raking in point to fill up their already full house.
Classically, if you are anything but a alpha prime specimen, you have not real business saying anything- your opinion is undeveloped, and your instinct untrustworthy.  But somehow you also get to be the cause of any deficit, shoulder any loss, take any trouble on- from prisons over flowing, to the break down of family values, to over population to bad press on holiday to inferior culinary skills- the masses, trapped, stuck between the rock and the hard place...

Who is it safe to tell- our darkest fears sit safe inside kept out of reach of anything except our subconscious- expressing themselves as a need to repress ideas that agitate the same feelings within our breast- it doesn’t matter its not easy to swallow- other points are worth more focus since there seems to be no resolve- that’s a nice new phone- and somewhere- I don’t mean to make this your problem but it is I don’t mean to upset you but I do I don’t regret imaging what might happen if we together decided to put right the wrongs we’ve been accepting as given/ true/ worthy/ natural.

Small points along the way- deserving respect, earning privilege and responsibility, leg breaking gangsters pushing drugs and guns and children fro abuse while we look away- we look away for fear -we feel vulnerable- but... together our gaze might be like a laser? And with that intense concentration we could cleanse this disease?  Because socially, psychopaths do rise to the top- they lack compassion, are driven by a desire for control- the rest of us, star struck stand still- maybe kind of empathically frozen for the immensity of the problem- guilt like concrete around the ankles we wait hopefully for the river Styx.... or a hero - one is due right about now- no? Oh well, it really is just us and them then- The Infamous Them the Other- This ‘other’ is the problem- defining ourselves as something with words we use like barricades- they can be easily like a caress that heals or offers a alternative to labelling rejecting ignoring and falling out of doors drunk and blind and blind drunk just to falsify a feeling of a real good time.
We are all on board- all on board heading who knows where but the best guess is no good place whilst we still cover our eyes and refuse of take directions from past mistakes like all this (looks over shoulder scanning the ever present past) was for nothing and we can all just go to sleep and wake up and at least its not so bad over here as it is over there.
BACK TO I “DOING SOMETHING RIGHT NOW ABOUT THIS”
I think I think to much- a little bit of expression- you can imagine this on canvass or as a dance- but the point still remains- however much we feel love and happiness and are content and listen to the birds and kiddies laughter sometimes the point of departure offers itself a choice- the egg and the chicken don’t really matter to a fox or vegan its really all the same and the beauty is a privilege and rather than letting fear force us into blindly seeking satisfactions we should rather make a stand and holding those actions as our last resort cause a uprising by addressing issues and making a issue of making issues- this is what’s a stake. We communicate with ourselves first, to slake that thirst, to respond again to knowing.

Our own voice a friend, the words a challenge, syntax like a dream, a grammatical nightmare, love can lost for words, you wait for years hoping to hear something that resonates.... and we say- this is beautiful si! See how, just be opening up and letting it out we are ready for the next step, something cathartic crosses a threshold and causes a unexpected thought pattern to be known- another opportunity to set out for something better... more articulated, less jumpy, better fitted to purpose- surely there lies the problem- this is all guess work, beginners luck, a stab in the dark against the back of oppression- inarticulate, poor, less educated jumpy- its not beautiful and it doesn’t want wall space in some freaking mansion or round the table for spaciously metered discussion on the effectiveness of an act of passion.


So when its all said and done, maybe it seems clearer that its all been said before, and not much has ever yet been done, or maybe, it begins for each individual with small steps and star jumps. With out taking liberties with expression and risks with value by daring to be astounding.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)