is this the end? Awen asks, frost snow rain

december is here

what now

i have lost momentum slightly, but this might be due to the change of focus form practical involvement to a concentrated attempt on consolidation of ideas....

mapping and understanding context is a undertaking that grows with each new consideration- relationships spill out , merge, influence, rebound form each other- nothing can be seen as 'without reason', and trying to make a presentation which suggests a linear approach is difficult with elements that interrelate and chase each others tails, rather like worms of ouroboros :-)


Community  
set up (student project) and alignments (DCA), ethos, collaborators, steering committee, local and international networks of listeners and producers, Totnes, open door, membership, intuitive and responsive, welcoming, THE CUP OF TEA, volunteers : bell hooks, guatarri, joan reattack,

Radio   
audio as material, culturally defined uses, hard ware, listening environments, car, kitchen, work space, ipod, hills and valleys, history and contemporary issues such as analog into digital - sound quality/possibilities, the radio voice, the listening ear, historic broadcasts and diverse uses,interference  :whitehead, Kogawa, Weiss,

Art
commitments to dialogue, ambiguity, exposing new work, arts networks, speciality, away from academia, accessibility, social experimentation,poetic licence Bernstein, Galas, Cixous

Legalities
British language, institution, rent fund raising ofcom, commercial /Independence, self defining for use in official agreement control and management,political history, homogenization vs radicalism,subjective and objective approaches  Batchelard, Guatarri,

colation, digestion, some new avenue for digression

Today i have mostly been.... interviewing.
Winding up my CEP ready for a fierce spurt of presentation arrangement- I have the whole of December- but, get this, I'm a single parent mom, so in reality, i got around three weeks...   :-) mustn't grumble...
the plan :

Jennifer Wellwood   Writing (with sonic arts practices) BA      
CEP update:                                                                                  fri 25 Nov 2010
I have completed 10 weeks at Soundart radio- immersing myself in day to day running of the studio and as many projects as possible. I have produced and broadcast just over an hour of live original material, and spent near to 60 hours in the studio.
I am winding down my ‘station time’ from Monday 29th, and concentrating on completing these projects:
*Compiling responses to the surveys and questionnaires I have created, via Internet, telephone and in person (for staff and committee of the station, for the member ship, for artists i have worked with over the last 2 months)
*Totnes town council meeting recordings and broadcasts, and supporting material/PR
*Bound For Glory (last 24hr sslloowwssuunnddaayy of 2010) for the 19th December,for which I hope to compose 2 x 10 minute works from recordings already made in London, and at the DCA class of 2010 graduation.) THIS IS THE VERY EXCITING ONE!!!
*I am also still organizing ssllooww ssuunnddaayy programme through till December 12th- but this is a small amount of deskwork as the artists have provided the work ready for broadcast


Regarding my CEP presentation in early January 2011, I will be working on a script covering:
(4 minutes intro and conclusion, 6 mins each the other 4, = 30 minutes)

Introduction
Community    inclusion/ locale/ international      
UNSANE RHAPSODY
Radio     medium’s qualities/possibilities             
SLOW SUNDAY
Art/ experiment/ expression/dialogue                 
AUDIO OUTREACH
Legality/ authority/ official/ self regulation          
TOWN COUNCIL BROADCASTS
Conclusion


The  caps lock names are shows that I have been involved with that I can to illustrate my discoveries.
I hope to broadcast the audio aspect of my presentation over radio live from Soundwave radio in Falmouth, to be received  in my tutor's car- a mix down of radio work, interview, white noise, music, over which I can ‘jam’ live speech and pre-recordings broadcasting out of Soundwave. (this choice of venue is pertinent to the presentation- a radio listening environment much more natural than a studio in the Falmouth Uni performance centre- which highlights interesting aspects of RADIO USE)

political radio, grass roots, radio as local hot media

regarding the recording and broadcasting of the Totnes Town Council public meeting due on the first monday of each month- why would you want to broadcast the monthly meeting of your town council? How come I am the first to suggest it / actualize it (lets see how the meeting goes out first yah!)? Who is gonna listen to that kind of show- "if they wanted to be involved why don't they go to it live?" What does the local paper media think of it? How does rhetoric serve our community?  How will individual personality translate onto radio? What about information as power? What about official guidelines? Whats fair? How to ensure the right to be heard? What about if you don't like public speaking/speaking in public? Won't it just be the same blah blah blah civic meadow traffic drunk kids street furniture placement? What is democracy? What is participation? What is power rules rights authority? RADIO AS A TOOL making change RADIO AS A PUBLIC ADDRESSER promoting equality RADIO AS A FOGHORN spreading awareness RADIO AS A INTERFACE AND HIGH LIGHTER a social service RADIO AS A REASSURANCE THAT WE ARE BEING HEARD/ hear yourself LISTENED TOO hear answers/ AND THAT THERE IS A REGISTERED RESPONSE say what you mean mean what you say  AND IT OPENS A OPPORTUNITY FOR THE TRANSPARENCY WE ALL HOLD SO DEAR....what exactly did you mean by that?

I will work on- a page for this project for our website, to be also a poster for notice boards in the town... and speak to the Totnes library about my idea of providing them with CD's of the recordings for the town's use...

From Hitler to Irish Pirate Woman's radio, broadcasting has always been political-( what you play is as important as what you don't).

sslloowwssuunnddaayy. . .

yes , ssllooww ssuunnddaayy. This has been a very interesting part of my CEP, more in what i have learned about organizing and commitment and time management.....

I simplify: mistakes not to make again- how come so much learning has to happen like this? Its rather frustrating....
~always notify artists as to exactly when their work is going on because that's respectful
~thank artists the Monday after their work has been broadcast because that's polite
~be available for tweaking/on hand should I be needed- because, hell, that's what i should be available for if necessary...  oh my ears!

audio outreach over and out till.... ( next season)

working backwards, lost in time
I have moved my Audio outreach project off air for a little while- although i have been enjoying the process of scripting, performing, producing, i am not confident the placement of the show was best suited to 'what it is' (The Baron received the only piece of feedback i have heard "It doesn't really fit, I'm just getting into a psychedelic rock space and this woman starts reading nursery rhymes.") That's cool, the idea for me was to to make a show for the end of the day, then the Baron decided to extend his show around the new time of my work, and so I became his 'guest'. Which i never was(a guest is invited, i was imposed, a guest is made tea, i bring my own beverage etc etc). His show is great- original, great music, but my stuff don't sit pretty in there....... So good luck to The Baron, I'll listen ]]] you should too....
///////and audio outreach has to transFORM INTO.... something other..... 'other' is a favorite word of artists such as Helene Cixous and Joan Retallack- it is the respectful title for work/actions/approaches/anyone/thing that can't sit inside the status quo or dominant(any) power play. Often used to describe patriarchy's non-understanding/blind approach to 'woman' by early feminists, I use the word to outline projects and work that emerge from subconscious or a labours of love/ambiguity. (not setting up the Baron as Patriarchy here!!! Just giving some background to my choice of direction) So, Ill sleep on it, and see what aural visions force themselves, with loving determination, to the forefront of my imagination. And find somewhere comfy to vomit them out :-)

Audio outreach *3

This came out adhoc- the pre-organized introduction crashed and burned- my musical files refused to play, and i had to launch straight into the spoken work because I hadn't loaded my tracks onto the play out computer properly...

I was planning on dropping in 20 seconds on odd parts of these tracks-

Earlier I had been feeling very alarmed- i have committed to do a show- I leap at the opportunity, i am grateful for the chance to perform my own work, learn to run the desk, speak my mind.... and find, come Tuesday night 630, I have no script/performance/anything ready to roll.... where have i been all week?!!! (this flags questions of responsibility and privilege, re Simone Bourgeois, sentiment: Art is a privilege, a blessing, a relief/ the whole art mechanism is the result of many privileges/ The privilege was access to the unconscious ) This week i have been- up, down, a good mum, a bad girl, causing trouble, sticking my nose in where it wasn't welcome, hanging out with dear friends, cooking for loved ones, to Torquay to pass my driving theory test, to the last ever graduation at DCA, and the ensuing party, to the allotment, to the cafe to read and .... Ah! To the Cafe to Read!!! I have been absorbed in life, and in plenty of texts too, on behalf of my studies, on behalf/with my kid .

I arranged a mix, a splice of texts that have been used in studies and bedtime readings this week- works that inspired me, made me laugh, confused me, reminded me of my childhood, works i am desperate to share, to discuss, to imbibe.... I got to pay homage to William Boroughs, Grand Master of the Cut-Up- through this piece- who wrote, as Mr Martin " Human activity is drearily predictable. It should now be considered that what you considered a reality is the result of precisely predictable because prerecorded human activity. Now, what can louse up a prerecorded biological recording?" Indeed! Through it all down and see what comes up.

Unfortunately the accompanying sounds not working (my fault) resulted in listeners missing out on the wonders of one of Boroughs' works, and others by Gregory whitehead and Christof Migone... being flustered without the hiding place of minute of track-respite, i also forgot to read off my list of sources.... naughty- - funny to be so keen to push those authors that mean so much to me, and forget to give them credit on air for reading their works-

It was strange to see reoccurring interests laid out-subjectivity, intelligibility, intuition, imagination, collage, voice,- the excerpts were photocopies and arranged in a loose heap on the floor, so the selection process was incidental- reach out and select at random- though as so often is the case with such processes a thread of a theme tied the subjects together.

Scrolling through radio bandwidths reveals interesting connections- I felt I could mirror this effect by creating a montage of literature as a script. I have experimented with radio 'as orracle' a device of personal address- ask a question, scroll through the bandwidth, listen to relevant/pick up on unexpected responses to your question...

Following Ferdinand De Saussure, ‘Language is not a function of the speaker; it is a product that is passively assimilated by the individual’, we can recognise that culture is the agent of this assimilation, and that a individual learns the basic patterning of their native conditioning- we learn concepts and contexts as we learn ways of hearing, seeing, communicating. the reading that i am using in this piece is a form of input- I am an assemblage of this work (and innumerable other works and experiences ;-) Input that informs us informs our output. I wanted to make a work that showed some of the input I had been working with- ideas, narratives, manuals- socially acquired information in paper text form, in through my eyes, then out through my mouth, into the ears of others ( via the mic). ‘It is the social side of speech, outside the individual who can never create or modify it by himself; it exists only by virtue of a sort of contract signed by the members of a community.’ Ferdinand De Saussure, Course in general Linguistics, 1916 assembled form class notes, p 59, Literary theory: An Anthology, ed Julie Rivkin and M Ryan1998, Singapore, Blackwell Publishing.  These works fulfil a desire in me- I was hoping to honour them (particularly the theoretical works calling for ambiguity and practices of dislocation) by making a radio piece that playfully made them further available- if listeners wished to enter into 'contrac't with my work and listen.

The failing of this work was the reading- some of the works were particularly theoretical, and the enunciation and lilt of the voice was not necessarily in keeping with the information- a shame that content was compromised by my inarticulation of certain phrases, where a more measured reading might have kept the themes more alive. I have read that because of radio's ephemeral nature, information needs to be stripped back to basics, for the 99% of listeners that are not solely concentrating of the program they are listening to, but also because the continuum needs to be simple to be 'kept up with'. I do not agree this-  my skills as a orator are still undeveloped- but i think work heard can be just as influential as work read.  Poetry might highlight this better than anything else- speech brings language to life...

(see page: 'audio outreach story time' for the script).

COFFEE INDUCED TANGENT

what about tonight? I NEED AN AUDIO OUTREACH.... nothing is ready to roll- hundreds of ideas, boiling away, waiting for the rich reduction, but new ingredients keep going in, and life seems like water- diluting focus (but maybe keeping reality hydrated...) I make the fire in my favorite cafe up, coal blackened fingers type and raise the coffee to my lips- its not a bad life, this, adrift, crashing into knowledge, i am looking forward to being 40, when Awen is 19, and maybe.... i can go loose myself totally in 'it', become absorbed (imagine that!) to saturation, instead of feeling like only one eye can focus on these 'other' things, as the other has responsibility to maintaining healthful standards for another wondering child---- I thought parenting would be that easy- feed, clean occasionally, provide a few coordinates for morals and entertainment, and actually, find, when i find something i want to dive into, there is only 45% of me free to go, free for myself.... the rest is engaged, complicatedly, with a 9 year old. :-). What is this with learning, - aware there is always more- learning is a curve spiraling a helterskelter peeping over just the edge the world moves through a kaleidoscope changing views and jeweled approaches all the way down you gather speed to bump and jump up at the bottom and demand more more more why should it ever end, its not just a a game but it is seriously enjoyable- another turn another text another go another film another turn another track another go another approach to understanding another turn another side to the story of human endeavors to create and maintain the balance of becoming and being another go- its dizzying- but the views are amazing and the act maybe in some way a practice that readies one for dodging bullets or other repressive aggressive attempts at devaluing life?
The fire blazes now, cold weather is just outside the window.

I HEART FELIX GUATTARI

I have been thoroughly enjoying Guattari's 'The Three Ecologies'.Guattari, F. first published France 1989, first english translation 2000, this edition, 2008, trans Ian Pindar and Paul Sutton, Great Britain
Gauttari states that we are "being mentally manipulated through the production of a collective, mass media subjectivity" and uses this text to forward his idea of a ecology that works on three levels- the subjective, the social and the environmental- all three being indivisible for healthy human life and all at risk in the current environment of capitalist/consumerist/rat race/ecoside. His prose is beautiful- reading his work is like being soothed by someone who sees deeply and on many levels and is not phased by the challenges ahead but is able to articulate reasoned passionate responses ....

I want to translate his ideas into CEP speak, or ways that i see his non-limiting definition of holistic community applying to soundart radio. (is it wrong to try to fit Guattari's 'model' over the subject of my study? Is this just a attempt to label something through associating it with ideas that i am choosing from a book randomly? Is this all just the contours of my own desire and enthusiasm? Can i really have been so lucky as to find a model and a practice that fit together like fish in water?)

I recognise through seeing both how soundart radio works [and my meeting with Ed Baxter from Resonance FM too], that the practicalities of running a radio station demand much on a very practical and ‘non theoretical’ level, but there is a approach to radio  which can be applied to the stations’ work/ethos that lifts it above being a genre of radio  ('art') station providing another product for the market. It is not just the playlist, it is an attitude and application, and how it offers itself as a opportunity for ‘others’- people, strangers, to come together- "their objective being to processually activate isolated and repressed singularities that are just turning in circles" p34.) in other words, radio stations can behave as community spaces that offer a environment giving diverse individuals opportunity to explore thier own singularity(Guttari calls human subjectiveness ‘singularity’), and he states that it as endangered as any other rare species on this planet. 
A space to meet, share and work together creatively, with rules in place that support a  wholesome subjectification- respecting eachothers' independent voices/work ,and efforts towards exchange and empowerment. On a professional level this results in diverse and original content for broadcast, but also a place where dialogue flourishes, creative work is generated and without many limits and one can
"work on oneself in as much as one is a collective singularity; construct and in a permanent way re-construct this collectivity in a multivalent liberation project. Not in reference to a directing ideology, but within the articulations of the Real. Perpetually recomposing subjectivity and praxis is only concievable in the totally free movement of each of its components, and in absolute respect of their own times- time for comprehending or refusing to comprehend, time to be unified or autonomous, time of identification or of the most exacerbated differences." (Guttari and Negri, 1990: 120)


"It is up to us to resist this mass-media homogenization, which is both desingularizing and infantilizing, and instead invent new ways to achieve the resingularization of existence." (Ian Pindar, Paul Sutton, intorduction, three ecologies)
We resist homogenization as listeners by seeking out work that demands deep listening and offers 'satisfaction by engagement'- conceptually as well as sonically, interacting with work that exercises our intelligence and suggests many modes of being, and also by rejecting work that is supplied as mass media, commercial and repressive. When we are supported by work that challenges and enriches, our imaginations are stretched and that gives us 'permission' to experiment ourselves.

sound world

A collaboration with Joni Brown (choreographer)-Jonis' research is on the value of dance in nature and how the natural world revitalizes movement practices and educates an approach to a more holistic automation . She was doing a week long site residency at Haldon Forest, under the umbrella of the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World @ www.ccanw.co.uk, and invited me to spend a day in the woods with her, doing a set of exercises and engaging in a dialogue around ideas of non-visual perception. The other users of the forest area we were in were happy to be enjoying the forest in their own fashions- bird watching, hiking, rambling, mountain biking, picnicking,using the play facilities, having leaf fights...


We began a series of exercises Joni devised as specifically non-visual. We both felt the senses of hearing, touch and smell became more sensitive and aligned closer together than sight would usually 'allow'- the natural world blossomed around us - autumnal crunch, crisp rustle and rot, slime and must, became pleasant again once the blindfold of assigning value to objects had been replaced with the immediacy and slow delicacy of investigating an environment as textural, without a desire above feeling our bodies align with that space to corrupt our adventuring.
We guided each other- turn and turn about, from a respectful distance, creating a area of non interference where serious danger issues such as deep crevices or unstable trees could be negotiated without risk.- flora and fauna became others, equals even, in the space, instead of items to classify from a removed view point.

Lying on my back on the forest floor, i became aware of the stereophonic aspect of the wind in the branches high above- using my hands i responded to the urge to conduct the wind, letting noise like interference, like waves, but twisting directional, playful, irrepressible. who was moving who? Friends who practice Ai Keido had taught me Ki exercises, and this was a experience not dissimilar- I felt so comfortable and poised on the knife edge of sensation, like the environment was pushing back responsive against my skin, playing me....

with eyes closed, though the forest around the centre is busy with cyclists, hikers, children and families, we felt hidden, safe to investigate and move freely, released from awareness of the gaze to enjoy more innocent pleasures - mushroom funk, flaking scales of bark, tacky resin under the fingernails, 1 inch high baby firs against the skin of your cheek,biurd song filling your nose and rich petey earth your ears, back pressed hard into a tree, supported in the slide round all limbs held loosely, then slowly tightly pressurizing to test to know to enjoy the weight and the unexpected encounter of something new to feel- less A - B , more, be here now.

I recorded our blind explorations- and we documented with film in the days' final performances. The audio recordings act as a sensual score-though the dances cannot be repeated (the generation of noises using materials disintegrating cannot really be reproduced, the work is a suggestion of movement rather than a reproducable recipe) the recordings do suggest exploration and free play...

My own interest lay in sonic scores from environmental sources. After broadcasting the work of artist Ricardo Reiss on a sslloowwssuunnddaayy, particularly 'You Go Where You Should Go', which flagged up listening, generating sound, and responding to noise in the environment. His work was generated for a dance performance and composed of urban sound elements, i found it simple and moving, and i wanted to expand upon ideas of the 'permissions to move' that hearing allows- ie to respond to sound physically in a creative way is called 'dance'. Culturally segregated areas with imported noises need not replace the natural environment as a venue and material with which to work.
To be culturally excepted a person must qualify as a dancer, the environment must become a stage, the audio of life must be recognised as a soundtrack. Which leaves responding physically in the woods or street to encountered aural phenomena the domain of... extremely rewarding challenging behavior :-)

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

town mouse

I am returned from Laaaaaaandaaaaaan, slightly exhausted, very happy.
radio related activities:
-attended launch and 3 evenings of concert festival 'Cut and Splice' hosted by Sound and Music, which this year focused on 'transmission', at the beautifully derelict Wilton's Hall. Highlights- Tetsuo Kogawa simple and intimate crafting of frequency modulators form wire and glasses ( his writing on radio is pretty amazing too), Jaap Blonk's performance of Antonin Artaud's 'To Be Done With The Judgement of God' - which was interesting- sane guy does insane gay? Still, brave and noisy...
-visited Resonance Fm- studio of greater London's art community radio, had a quick chat with Ed Baxter
-gave a soundartradio car sticker to my dear friend Grace, with whom i visited the Tate Modern, where the amazing Poetry and Dream presentation reminded me what power 'works of art' and 'master pieces' have when viewed free and present- often the pencil draft sketchings are still visible beneath the final work :-).
-went on a recording foray with artist Tessa Gleeson and Francesca Panetta, who produces the Hackney Podcast, which recently won the Gold award for General programming in the New York Festivals International Radio Awards. They were collecting interviews and audio for a podcast on 'walking in Hackney' and we rambled along the canal towards the marshes...
-recorded a few bits and pieces for myself.... mainly, traffic, trains, a street poet, a street jam, leaves being blown about on Primrose hill....

the problem with blogs

I write produce, create, reflect, process, and find i have moved through over a week extremely busy but without documenting a thing! So blogger, again a commitment- any shyness or reluctance to commit to unfinished thoughts must be overcome.... the issue may be that this CEP and soundartradio invite a much more physically active participation than i was expecting- less speculation, more person present and doing ( must make time to get to a computer more often!!). Right here and now, I am sat in a Internet cafe in Borough High street, London, having just met Ed Baxter, the joint-founding director of Resonance FM. His technician Dragos, and volunteer Louise, get a mention here too- friendly people, very happy to be working in radio, their enthusiasm for the station and medium evident. The painful fact that the other volunteer did not offer my a cup of tea, yet served everyone else also stands out! its no hard task to be welcoming...? Ed was kind enough to put up with my meandering conversation for 25 minutes- the difference between soundarts gentle flow and Resonances' very structured high power delivery was apparent- the open plan office received 6 phone calls whilst i was there, Ed dealt with emails, tech issues, performance prep, etc etc. (he said he had not been out for a informal lunch in 7 years). I am a small town country girl (woman? girliness has i fear past :-) and the bustle and focus of this major art radio station was exciting, but not seductive. Ed is not only an artist but a facilitator of the contributing artists, volunteers and all others involved (city scale rather than rural) seeing him juggle inputs and outgoings was quite intense.

- key points

*the building creates community- station as gathering place, meeting point

*£9000, (and a fine piano) raised by weekend of canvassing for donations

*still not enough zooms to go round :-)

*clear spot / open door

x x x

audio outreach *2

audio outreach *2
This work consisted of 2 tracks before and 2 tracks after a reading of a script. All related to place/home/community/physicality.... Ah the splendor of site specific work- it felt good to expose this writing to the airwaves- I used this show as a chance to broadcast over the environs a work which related to its physical Fm reach- something shared, a speech written around and in response to Totnes town and valley, and the on/ off love /hate relationship with a locality I've known since moving here aged 4. The script refers to landmarks both physical and metaphorical, rights of passage, ideas of belonging and ownership, reflecting on the generation of 'self' through geographical placement, and exploring ego through territoriality's.
In the introduction to the script, i refer to the works' sliding tenses- I/me/we/you/our/my/yours- the point of reference is always transforming, as the relationship to place also changes- my needs of 'it', its's demands of me, memories form the past skip along side recent more measured modern perspectives.
I wanted to broadcast something that might locals would be able to relate to directly, and any listeners form further a field might be able to translate to their own experience, or not- this work could be a answer to the age old first question to a stranger- "Where do you come from?"

Once again, it was just me, a microphone, and a couple of tracks on the playout computer- I may end up holding to this model till the end of this CEP- editing audio software still scares me a little- the only instrument i play is railings with a stick.... and i can kinda taste the formings of a dissertation investigating the history of the voice on radio....

FETE WORSE THAN DEATH

Fete worse than death-
if community can be understood best through times of celebration, soundart radios' is very healthy, if slightly gruesome.....

this was a wonderful if wet and blustery day- full of cake and laughter, live music and side shows- a diversity of folks coming up from the local area- though most were indeed already involved with shows or supporters of the station... Nathan Carter and I led a fierce campaign of postering in the town and surrounding areas, but I think most visitors on the day were aware of the event through soundarts' emailing list....

Dartington Hall, and the radio station stand on the top of a hill a mile distant from the town, and even when there is a excellent cinema, a beautiful landscaped garden to stroll, and other arts activities, it is more or less exclusively used by tourists or those that already have established affiliations with artistic community ( I've always enjoyed theatre, music and art, but did not use Dartington for anything other than cinema and garden till i started college there in 2008- it seems a little bit of a blind spot for locals....). I think this is interesting alongside the way that radio can be discovered by accident on the FM range-something lost in digital delivery- a listener might enjoy a programme but not know from where it is broadcast and have no loyalty or intention to take that listening further beyond that sound event when the radio is heard. 
Artists and programme makers decorated the studio, manned home made entertainments stalls and 'Not Fit For Human Consuption Cafe', gave stellar performances (Ergo Phizzmizz, Sam Richards' Jazz, Gino, Extra Stereo on the decks) and the amount of cake, soup, cake, coffee, cake and other treats was phonomenal,

We raised £400 toward a new playout computer and enjoyed ourselves massively.

half term commitments....

ITS HALF TERM, AWEN DEMANDS ATTENTION, SHOES, BAKING, SLEEPOVERS. I have a cold, its raining, the town council will decide at the next town council meeting when to have a meeting about recording the town council meeting, sslloowwssuunnddaayy is in confusion - this may be the perfect chance for Nell's 'Crows', the stickers are ordered but i fear they may be rubbish (i am not a designer, there may have been hiccups through Nath/ abacus/ me- but i did coff up the readies, so nothing is assured except i am finacially committed...) I am gearing up for a great big bake, and being as hands on with fete prep as possible. this weekend is the Performance Centre Grand opening at my college's new campus in Cornwall. It is crazy down there- my heart feels torn in two- not romanticism, just for how something fine can be regarded as dangerous, worthless, transportable- we study contexts and yes, everything is always in flux, but delicate things get broke in transportation....

new new new, new studio time

heads up- its all ahappenin'... this week coming is studio refit week- the expansion of soundartradio from just a one room studio plus the shared use of the Dartington College of Arts' MA students' kitchenette, to a radio station encompassing a larger studio, a kitchen and lounge area, a computer suite and work shop area, a work shop for electronics and audio DIY, a office for management details.... woop woop! with the relocation of DCA, the rest of the gallery building became free, and Soundartradio has joined with friends Aunehead Arts to rent the whole building, so we will have even more doors to open : the larger kitchen and lounge area will provide a place for comfortable discussion, the larger studio a better set up for producing work, the computer suite and workshop area will offer free internet and a option to participate in workshops or run one for your own interest, the work shop a place to create, fix, and play with hardware, software, instruments, gizmos....
Soundart radio thus becomes more visible and accessible in its local community :-)

Audio Outreach 1

I broke my silence on air and wrote, performed and produced the first in a series of short works- a sequence called 'Audio Outreach (working title)".

The door was open i walked through, said hi to the guys, waited my turn, checked my levels, set up the recorder for the log, faded out the feed from cd, faded in the feed from my laptop, played a Electric Wizard track, faded out laptop and faded in mic 1, read my script off, faded out mic, faded in another Electric Wizard track, drank a glass of rum and cola, cycled home...

Given space and time to have my own way and determined not to follow any format I might be comfortable with, i used the radio to highlight issues of voice, authority, and response that have been bugging me for years.... This first work was cathartic to me for several reasons-

1.) no other sounds apart form one voice: This seemed such a powerful motif to my work- no thrills, no instruments, no effects other than that of one voice- singular, inexperienced, 'plain and simple',demanding attention without having 'a right', 'an answer' or even 'a good reason', knowing that and still speaking up regardless... with questions.... if one is going to question the symbolic and epistemological structures governing thought, speech and media, it is a strategic move to offer an alternative to what can be seen as the embodiment of the institution-'the radio voice', 'proper speech', and 'professional conduct'.

2.) speaking unpleasentries - this script flickers between approaches- incitement, stirring up, antagonizment, accusation, blame, and wonder. The style of 'tyrade' was noted by The Baron, who produces the Rebel Radio Show (Tuesday, 9-10pm), who commented he felt it had something akin to a 70's punk poetry piece, and I recognise that too, and am pleased to imagine my work in that good company- punk's DIY ethic and disregard for power structures are very dear to me. The experiment stood as such- if i speak secrets, if i use the airwaves as a kind of speaking cure- maybe i will purge myself of the ideas that in so many ways keep my a captive- even ideas of emancipation can be driven by conditioning, and for me personally as a writer i hope to deepen approaches and find other angles of attention . '-not seeking to play a part - get a mark, entertain, or cause a scene. Even with a engaging education, i am amazed and confronted often with the smallness of any action beyond its meaning to 'the doer'. The script is a collection of thoughts and ideas lifted from a thousand conversations, and the kind of worries that keep me awake when i need to be sleeping. Late night radio offers a platform for 'shouting at the moon' .

Beginning a series in many ways grounds my cep activities- this is all about process, not product, and committing to making work for every next week gives me the chance to come to creative terms with life's twists and turns a spade being a spade but also a piece of metal, a weight, a word, relationship of signifier to signifed. I get to 'give something back', not just volunteer hours but of myslef, as a writer... I took up the invitation to activate my option of relay in radio's listener/producer relationship.

This was a multi levelled experiment for me- I have not spent time becoming familiar with a microphone or accustomed/comfortable to the idea of doing live radio art. This naivety is good yet uncomfortable- double sided- I have not developed the abhorred radio voice or a performance persona- so my voice was a untried, untrustworthy, full of nerves, a stranger even to me.... This challenge to the myth of the 'right to broadcast' being earned (ie controlled)- something one must be qualified to do- is something present in much of Soundart Radio's programming. The work work and approach to broadcasting practiced there is diverse- the standard is loose, in a way that allows for the greatest possible usage. 'Play' is encouraged- when the generating of the largest amount of profit is not the first priority of a station, the resulting room for play can allow other voices to be heard.

Regarding the consumerist radio model and its treatment of 'natural expression'-:

They work night and day with immense teams and enormous financial means: a cleansing of the body in sound recording, a toilet of the voice, filtering, tapes edited and carefully purified of all the laughs, farts, hiccoughs, salivations, respirations, of all the slag that marks the animal. material nature of the words that come from the human body […] (1993:100) Valere Novarina, French playwright critiques present-day mainstream radio.

This has resulted in a expected voice: one that conforms to the broadcasting norms- to such a degree that its representational element (educated, trustworthy, ladette, 'cheeky' humour) almost relieves the broadcast of need for content- a listener expects nothing new- the same old news and usual banter- bubble gum for the ears, or at least, nothing too challenging-- a upkeeping of status quo that the larger corporations have stock in maintaining. I noted my almost rote fall into a approximation of this voice -one that attempted to ooze confidence- as if I could hide behind the motif of a good accent.

This superiority carried by certain timbres, tones, vocabularies, rhythms of speech is very interesting. Where does it leave folks who speak different, articulate rougher, don't have the words to quite make out what it is the speaker wishes to express, or when it does find its way into the spoken word, a message becomes mired in voice- the contexts carried by a single voice ranging from the subliminal to the nationally excepted and blatant.

I am not in opposition to the Mediated voice –a voice recorded, filtered, effected, edited- these are all motifs used to great effect in arts practice- I think my issue (what my audio outreaches sought to confront on some level) comes from the radio voice being passed off as a natural voice- and this as a method of making a 'real' natural voice (unpracticed, untutored) dirty, clumsy, rough, hard to listen to and so quickly rejected. The practiced clarity and unchallenging melodics of the radio voice have become the norm...

A friend said on hearing this work- “You sound both intelligent and common at the same time.”- this pleased me very much. I am most definitely common! This work was a articulation of some very common concerns- ones that I am aware are shared, but are rarely voiced in polite society- (as if we have trained ourselves to ignore the abysmal social situation and except a society built upon swindle and a sham.) The elephant in the room? And radio's place in this is- a dynamic and 'live' media, a publicly accessible 'speaker's corner' a site of exposition, art, debate, sharing, that is so often kept restrained by its financiers' desires, its producers' lack of vision, and its listeners' complicity.

I know I rant- if the rest of the world were fine and happy, I’d be content to keep my studies tied up in academic and artistic circles (understood, valued)- but the majority of the world is either being abused or involved in abuse- and dragging society in general towards a dark place.... It is my desire to engage in change.

“Languages of desire invent new means and have an unstoppable tenancy to lead straight to action; they begin by 'touching', by causing laughter, by provoking, and then they make one want to 'go towards', towards those who speak and towards the stakes that concern them.” 87 Free Radio.

I chose the title to this series with a mind to this 'motional' aspect of Guattari's statement- I respond to the touch of other's work (Diamanda Galas, Christof Migone, Sunn o)), ) by making work- moving towards- responding.

Guattari, commenting on the free radio projects of the late 1970's, wrote “It is in this context of experimenting with a new type of direct democracy that the question of free radio is inscribed. Direct speech, living speech, full of confidence, but also hesitation, contradiction, indeed even nonsense, is the vehicle of desire’s considerable burdens. And it is always this aspect of desire that spokesmen, commentators, and bureaucrats of every stamp tend to reduce, to settle.87 Free Radio. This work articulates something for me- for one- maybe for others- for Soundart Radio? For the possibilities of radioart (put it in the art bracket and its safer from censure, more excusable....)

when I was writing this script I considered the voices of those that were excluded from the radio- those living in dictatorships, or such poverty that accessible arts practice were beyond their means?

Such a powerful media, in my hands! I thought about Simone De Bouviour's idea of art practice as a privilege- and the relationships between art and responsibility.

highlighting for further investigation:

projected audiences/ absence of critic/ disregard of standards

sandwich material-placement of works in works /relations /supportive work

there is always something else for investigation! YAY!

tutorial notes

such a loot such a lot i like my tutors- they like my proposal- a few ammendments- a strong move away from the ethnographic definition of community
( which surely is a life times work?) to a closer look at the concetric rings of community within community at my specific context of soundart radio and my own relationships within that context- how ideas change, study ammends original ideas, develops with my understanding. I am a single student woman mother local working class artist 30yr old white bi radical agnositic - each aspect of me relates to the context in a different way, from within a different community, from a non-fixed place of allignments and intents and investments but all ifluence and interact. When i spoke to my tutors, we spoke about the personal value of this project to me- that the CEP is about my own relating to the context of my choice, that i form and develop angles of attention. I had some difficulty at first balancing the CEP between the approach of the academic- with the more experientual experimental writer. CEP is about distinguishing something magic and useful to myself- soundart/free radio is that- and then relate to it by immersion.
Thats making the very most of the ethos there- my writing / voice/ sound art / script /devises need to relax and recognise a home- that is liminal, ambigous, in transition, transmission open ended and full of oportunity - the academic in me needs to relax and know its limited use, and stop being so fearful of misunderstanding and responsibility .... for understanding to be authentic it needs to be personal.

the power of words is my happyness- from a emotional child to a instinctive woman, words make and brake me anew- the let me know i am alive, they intergrate me, are my 'blood' sticks and stones 'bread' and butter side up knowing which side i'm on that of the questioner words non static blank spaces relaxing void free fall the scream and the lullaby. I don't care for grammar so much, i stretch towards always the underneath, hidden, hiding, like a game...

slowly does it

sslloowwssunnddaayy is up and running, i hope, in almost self generating fashion now- with the help of Soundartradio staff, most all of the dates running through till the winter brake have filled up with an eclectic mix of noisecraft and soundart from diverse sources... Such interesting approaches to sound, and art, i am falling deeper in love with this kind of work... i have set up a facebook group, and am trying to win interest and contributions from as many angles as possible- it is great to have a space that fulfils a unusual demographic- longer work is catered for and strange areas can be explored, such the continuous repeat, the max patch, the super stretch. ........... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Uta and Christy's work was interesting- I liked its innocence and sunday-ish relaxed vibe- two artists, chatting, relating, sharing dreams and music and ideas on radio,perormance, installation, music, the body, public and private life. A strange relay- live work reflecting on satic art and live broadcasts, recorded, and broadcast.... Awen was very happy- Uta went out with her father for a few years, and she was very happy to hear Uti chatting away from the radio in our kitchen :-)