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.

SSLLOOWW SSUUNNDDAAYY runlist :-)

Sslloowwssuunnddaayy has been a platform for a amazing selection of work. The artists have all been very patient, and I hope they have had some/as much pleasure as i have had listening (the listening HAS been pleasurable- very-) below is the weekly play, starting sunday september 12th 2010----- an appology to the artists seems fitting- Sorry! this was my inturn duty- to contact artists and to secure work for broadcast- I have done my best, and was fortunate to work with great artists, but being....   a beginner? enthusiastic but essentially lacking experience? I made lots of mistakes! Sorry again! And Thankyou....
12/9/10
Today's piece is a recording of cows with bells, recorded by Cathryn Morgan Richards while in holiday in France this Summer. You can hear more of her work in 'Sonic Window' on Thursdays at 8:30 pm. this work was a field recording of  looped over the whole sunday-

19/9/10 Sunday will feature a rolling broadcast of work by Augustine Leudar, Jakoh, and  Barry Dillion. Feel free to dip in to listening to:
Jakoh:
Amnesia Loops
'Intrusive thoughts'
see, hear, view more at http://www.virtualcortex.co.uk/
Jakoh nearly wiped out his laptop rendering one of these peices for us, for which we sulute him

Barry Dillon:
'that which cannot be cured must be indured'
hear more: hhtp://www.anodyne.ie.
Barry Dilion hopes 1. you like it and 2. it meets with your requirements   (yes, and.....very much yes :-)

Augustine Leudar
'Biomes at Night':
hear more http://soundcloud.com/augustine-leudar/tracks, and tune in to this station on thursday evening 6-8pm to 'Through the Looking Glass' to join Leudar on his adventures with soundart...
Augustine recommends listening to this outside,maybe a back garden or park, with the speakers at a good distance apart and hidden in bushes...   

3/11/10
OCTOBER- RECORDING OF 'WASTELAND'- INSTALATION EXHIBITION INTERACTIVE HAPPENING, a real world mataphor for their radio bodies .... work by Uta Baldulf and Christy O'Donnell- listen in, get lost, find yourself....  this sunday 3rd october artists Uta Baldauf and Christy O'Donnell share their work 'Wasteland'.
Wasteland is a radio program the two artists present on Stroud fm, and this recording is from a interactive event held from the SVA shop front Stroud, where they created a installation to explore ideas of location, space, place, the local, the global, and timelessness.
the artists write of their work:   
"By lack of structure a situation is created in space, which can liberate us beyond stereotypical expectations of radio and allow free expression of the moment. This philosophy and approach was applied to the wasteland exhibition, in which we created a metaphor installation of the radio show that mixed our own visual praxis with radio activity. One of the concepts which underpins the project is to have a set up that is structured in a way that allows boredom to become the starting point and catalyst for creative expession. The wasteland is a messy chaotic repetitive loud and silent installation, which may present the potential of infinite directions." Uta and Christy

10/10/10
ssllooww ssunnddaayy very special broadcast for World Mental Health day, the Unsane Rhapsody, a 24hr mix generated at workshops led by artist Magda Crace.... a sonic exploration of states of mind.

17/10/10
Slapstick Foreskin: Anything of Everything can be viewed as sensitive, highly elastic nonsense, featuring elements of raw noise, experimental free jazz doodlings, spoken word & a slice of conceptual game show silliness, along with plentiful absurd flights of fancy, and a bi...t of Max Bygraves thrown in for good measure.....NICE!
AKA Oblivian Substanshall, find more here:
obliviansubstanshall.podomatic.com
or
http://www.myspace.com/tosstossos
24/10/10
artist, cultral instigator, Radia founding member Ricardo Reiss.
We replay 8 works composed for a community audio project for Radio Zero:
"I've done these radio programmes for Radio Zero in 2006. They are like mantle pieces done with my own recordings and others found on the net under a cc or ...public domain license, the analogy with the idea of 'turning the dial' in a forlorn, forgotten sentry post in the desert."
Delightful!
Also, a work called 'You go Where You Should Go', by the same artist, of which he says, "This piece was done for a dance performance by Hajime Fujita, a Japanese contemporary dancer that I meet in Porto, in 2009, during Future Places Festival (although he was using the same space, Maus Hábitos in Porto, he is unrelated to the festival as far has I know). He used it in a performance in the 3rd Encounter of Performative Arts promoted by Contagiarte in 2009. I've used several sound recordings I had done in Trás-os-Montes, Lisbon and Germany

7/11/10
 Benjimin Federer.... .Klang  :  Ziet   :    Klang
Where sonification usually is employed to make abstract data sets comprehensiblle through audibilty,sound installation Klang: Zeit : Klang is an artistic take on the passing of time.Since our whole life is more or less dictated by the clack-clack-clock- does it have to sound that boring all the time? Would we recognise something familiar in listening deeper down into it? Is there something like a inner soul, something like a life of its own to it? Klang : Ziet : Klang provides the listener with a constantly but slowly changing sound mix, All sounds are generated in real time, with time and date being the only source material. Every little time division has it's own sound, from the hour down to minutes, seconds, milliseconds, and beyond. By combining these sounds to an ever shifting mix, a music of its own arrises. (First presented on radio loRa, Zurich's Nachtschichten as part of reserach programme, NOWII of HGK Zurich,. Klang : Zeit : KLang was on air everynight, and without interuption from January 23rd to Feburary 6th 2006)............................................... for more information visit www.intraversal.de/en/

14/11/10

Richard Povall:  My contribution to ssllooww ssuunnddaayy is a soft-start for our tuningworlds project which will launch for real next summer. Read more at tuningworlds.net.

 21/11/10

David Strang- Over the course of 24 hours the live input of sound from around the Soundart studio will slow down as we listen to it.
Slowly, seconds become minutes, minutes become hours, hours become days....
An automated program will control various aspects of the sound and the sound inputs themselves are varied too.

There is one live, ambient mic to capture the surrounding environment and one contact mic on the window of the studio in attempt to turn the studio into a microphone input. There will also be electromagnetic input from a telephone coil pick up resting on the computer doing all the work. Also, attached to the window is a small light sensor that will read the changes in light over 24 hours and control various aspects of the mix of sound/the stretching process.

If you are in the area you can play and become an influence on the work by making noise in the area or by moving in front of the light sensor.

28/11/10

'Arctic Ravens' - Nell Harrison and 'Great Dunes National Park,Fall,2009', Anna Keleher & Claire Long

Nell- ...
Standingin a wood on the outskirts of Yellowknife, the last Canadian city before you reach the North Pole...a really bad mono recording but, ...it doesn't really matter, these birds still sound wonderful.


Claire and Anna -....
 edited sounds from our camping trip to GREAT SAND DUNES NATIONAL PARK, Colorado, USA. All sounds collected by  Claire Long and Anna Keleher who  are M.A Arts adn Ecology Masters graduates from Dartington.
Anna lives  in Compton, Southams and Claire in Northern New Mexico. Their interactive sound piece " If you'd like to ... Sand Dunes National Park " by Anna Keleher and Claire Long is currently inhabiting the Visitor Center at Great
Sand Dunes National Park and preserve in Colorado........... http://www.nps.gov/grsa/.......... read and hear more of Anna's work at http://www.annakeleher.com/


5/12/10
Stephen Cornford presents Two Degrees
Two Degrees a kinetic sound sculpture using two large metal dishes found on the Dartington Estate in 2008. The work consists of a pair of mechanical systems which spin the dishes intermittently, rolling a ball bearing around in each, to produce two elo...ngated, phasing bell tones. The title refers to a single non-perpendicular cut made at two degrees

See more
stephen cornford
www.scrawn.co.uk

12/12/10
Composed by Jorg Koppl
with Linda Cleary as speaker and counsellar (beraterin )
and Jenny wellwood as text researcher

It’s some kind of autogenerated sound – text – piece and programmed in Max/MSP intended to create a maximum of variations in meaning and sound by a few elements. At one hand there are about 800 words (with only one syllable), which opens the possbility for more than one billion conceivable 4-word sentences, between abs...olute nonsense, and a suddenly appearing apparent meaning.
At the other hand are at about 80 samples, more or less, played by nine interacting virtual players, what have the tendency to change speed coincidentally or to adapt harmonic relations to the other agents. This principle is cribbed from our voices. These these two tendencies are also obvious when we speak to one another.
The volumes of the agents decrease or increase depending on their agreements with other players, - similarly certain people become very loud, when they are synchronized.
-Jorg Koppl




 

 

 

 
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