Invisible, inaudible and non-existent creative works
Lucinda Guy
The majority of radio
broadcasters use automated playout systems in their studios to manage and
control their output, offering listeners predictable content, meeting
advertisers needs and staying within the confines of regulatory expectations.
The messy, unpredictable,
atmospherically sensitive nature of transmission suggests that it may be better
suited to algorithms and infrastructures that bring about open ended,
unpredictable, unstable, and complex results. My research considers how
non-commercial, socially inclusive, community broadcasters might find such
systems in the work of radio artists.
After 10 or 25 seconds of signal failure the emergency loop is turned on. But why is the pre-recorded programme called an “emergency” loop? Where is the emergency, when something doesn’t play for a change? Who defined this silence as an emergency? (Israel, U., (2018) in Aufermann, K., Hahmann, H., Washington, S. and Wendt, R. Radio Revolten. Leipzig: Spectormag, p64).
Fear of silence is a fundamental motive that drives broadcasters to adopt automated playout systems. This seminar seeks to reexamine radio’s relationship with silence, in order to explore the other paths it may have taken, and offer new ways for people to contribute and listen.
We will consider: The ephemerality and immateriality of radio broadcasting, representations of ‘nothing’ in 20th century art and music and the theme of dead air, silence and silence detection in radio broadcasts. Whether deliberate or accidental, embodied or digital, silence in the radio studio survives the transmission process almost as effectively as sound. I will reflect on how these quiet moments speak to us about broadcast culture, from revered and stately one-minute public silences, to the studio disruptions of free radio, and radio art compositions.
Observe and interact – permaculture and art
Edith Doove
Although permaculture was developed in the first place as “a creative design process based on whole-systems thinking informed by ethics and design principles” which today is widely accepted as a method for sustainable gardening and agriculture, this paper looks at its applicability within arts. Discussing a proposal by Edith Doove and Nathalie Hunter for The Drawing Lab, Paris that makes use of permaculture principles, this includes the importance of Alexander Humboldt and Francis Ponge.
Sustainability. Australia: Holmgren Design. Permaculture Principles, https://permacultureprinciples.com/
Ponge, F. (1994) La Fabrique du Pré. Lausanne: Skira
Walla, N. – The Embodied Activist – Where Permaculture Meets the Arts in Contact Quarterly, Summer/Fall 2008, http://www.bcollective.org/ESSAYS/nala.CQ.pdf
Wulf, A. (2015) The Invention of Nature – Alexander von Humboldt’s New World. London: John Murray – https://www.andreawulf.com/about-the-invention-of-nature.html and https://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n06/james-sheehan/as-if-for-the-first-time