community radio

musing on radio community/community radio

I found a callout for article submissions that really caught my eye- something for the arty 'canned magazine' (rather flash I know, but a girls' gotta dream)- 

 

"we are looking for detailed responses to the role of public engagement in contemporary art and how it relates to collaboration, exchange and collective action specifically."

Hooray! I could not think of (I am not involved with) any other project that reflects what is best about collaboration, exchange and collective action more than Soundart Radio, a community arts radio station, and one truly with a twist : and then I got stuck.

3000 detailed words- no easy feat in 3 weeks - plus the kid, and on top of my other usual responsibilities! The date for submissions is the day after tomorrow, and I am nowhere near my goal. I wished to build a bit on my previous studies, to explore what a radiophonic Temporary Autonomous Zone can be, and to add something to the debate on the use of public art, the public owning art, and the public as artists....

Rather than supposing public engagement to be 'listener response' or 'listener participation' in a project, I was interested in how something such as radio- a 24 hr broadcast art environment - was contributing to an environment of continuous creative participation.  I wanted to show the larger picture- to investigate that Soundart Radio made a space - both physically, and on air- where the public can participate by making their own programme. This is one part of a greater listener/producer/listener/producer feedback loop- when art is part of the public's dialogue with itself, and its value and worth is seen in the involvement of the public- and the public becomes 'community'.

A show or programme is created as a act of response- a part of a creative dialogue between that programme-maker and their own inspiration or muse. (Shelley loves Jarvis Cocker, I love Gregory Whitehead. We both make radio to compliment the works we love- to compliment it by seriously engaging with that work, expanding on it, delving into it deeper, sharing it over the ether with other listeners, delighting in it). So what Soundart Radio seems to do best is encourage its producer's love affairs- how ever brief (a 3 minute art work, or a local schools' spring poetry project is as welcome as a 2 hours weekly series dedicated to local choirs' rehearsals, or jazz vinyl, or bangin' techno, or zany improvised comedy or independent international news)...

So - how can the radio station serve the community> how does the community create the radio station? It is rather like a dance- there is a ongoing osmosis between the locale, the greater community of transmission enthusiasts and artists, and the stations' programming---- a carefully facilitated balance that encourages the community to use radio in as many varied and individual (experimental) ways as is possible, and by which the community gains some knowledge of itself too... It gets to hear itself (hopefully loudly and clearly), it gets to laugh at itself, question and answer itself, and also to know that it can take itself, and that which stirs it's varied and individual passions, seriously too....

But it is also something ephemeral- hard to pin down- .but something I know Soundart Radio revels in- that if we participate in our culture creatively, IT IS SO MUCH BRIGHTER. Never mind, 'canned magazine'- I'm sure they will put a call out for some such submissions another time :-)

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Radio art in general gives expression to a certain belief in the mediums' power to not only forge community, transmit illegal signal, or promote various messages, but to question inherent assumptions around such beliefs. Lander, D. 1996. Radio Rethink, Banff Press

I am a creative associate and on the board of directors at the local community arts radio station Soundart radio102.5 fm, serving Totnes and Dartington and surrounding areas.

I currently run 3 shows- 
The Radio Radio Show, fortnightly. Wednesday 8-10pm, with Shelley and Alice
Roots Britannia; monthly, Sunday, 7-10pm, with Will and Sam
Totnes Town Council public meetings; monthly, Tuesday, 10am-12 midday

My association with the station began in 2009 through my Dartington College of Arts BA course 'Writing with Sound Practices'- I was, and still am, fascinated by the potential of radio to be a independent and dynamic media, and I based much of my university research and practical work on Soundart radio's airwaves. 

I graduated in 2011 with a first degree honours award, and have since experimented with 4 regular radio shows, participated with several radio projects in production and presenting roles, and devised and led creative workshops. Being an active member of Soundart Radio's volunteer group and participating in assorted aspects of studio management has been incredibly rewarding. My 'Chat Radio' blog  and  'Sink Play' blog  give documentation and audio from my more artistic coursework. Both pieces were premiered on Soundart Radio, and can be considered sonic theatre - though for me as a radio maker and for those involved the projects, there is a strong element of political intervention present in the work too.

Radio organises sound in particular ways, sculpts it for certain kinds of reception, making accountable towards certain ends. In this way radio is always already a territorial project, whether by supplying nations with an infrastructure of transmitting entertainment, news emergency signals and educational programming, or through its appropriation for the broadcast of counter-cultural signals aiding in establishing links for micro-communities; a piracy whose effective constructions draw out the significance of location.

Jensen E. G., LaBelle, B. Radio Territories

 (this is also quite pertinent- :-)