Josephine wrote:
> Lets see if we can produce some wails and dwarfs in the bellies of
> men some time with net.radio.

thought that Schwitters text was a nice example for the inherent
machoism within modernist radiant broadcasting media, it's also
a quite archaic DaDa interpretation of how ideological
propaganda is making use of new media.


> Amsterdam. The first thing maybe is the most urgent. It can be easiest
> described as the necessity of a general awareness (in larger underground
> or 'alternative' circles) of the need for free media.

the situation in berlin is maybe due to the german history of radio quite
restricted and well controlled by the state. during the 80ies, either you
are
legal or you are not existing. there are rumours about a pirate station in
prenzlauer berg but their waves don't reach berlin mitte. if i lean out of
my window i can see the fernsehturm, eastern space age symbol of lost
utopias,
now captured by the deutsche telekom, transmitting mainly signals of
'private'
channels.

so practically, what could 'free media' mean in this town? you have to
know that netcasting is quite expensive in germany, especially for the
recipients who still have to pay huge telephone billa if they go online
frequently. then there is cable radio, which only those can receive who
pay for cable television, a bit cheaper is satellite radio. but the real
hundreds of new frequencies are available with the upcoming digital radio
- but you'll need expensive receivers for that. finally for many years
a good way to hear the best music is going to the clubs.

in the logic of 'squatting the media' one should take over the free
frequencies, broadcasting channels,  net.space, before it is becoming
expensive media real estate. but that's often only possible if you get
illegal (and busted), or join the pioneers at the electronic frontier and
become an  independent beta tester, spending a lot of time and money to
develope early models for the industry later on. that's the 'underground'
becoming pop culture story. many styles and models of resistance seem
to be already exhausted in the moment you hear about it. while critique
and activism against the ruling economy is not impossible, it's really
the question in which form it doesn't get boring watching it after a while.
instead it is about the modes of participation and all day practice, like
the
mass sport of pirating software which changes the modes of distribution and
definition of information property. by remembering media phenomeno like
the Lady Di's death, it is maybe more the question of the secret desire of
overwhelmingly beeing taken over by the media.

coming back to the analogy of squatting, you can see families settled down
in the formerly autonomous zones like Kreuzberg Heinrichplatz, beeing now
layers, doctors or small entrepreneurs. The situation in London or Riga
is a bit different again, also in Amsterdam, Vienna, Milano, Sydney. What
does free media means practically within an urban space? What has
changed over the past 10 years, what has changed over the last 5 years,
and where is the potential now? it seems to be easy to speak about the past,
dream about the future, but when it comes to the present...

how does things get build up? if our map is limited by the terms of net,
radio, art, economy then there are still a lot of places to discover and
new routes to take. one of the main questions which again and again turns
up, concers 'network architecture' to give you a practical example, if
this small net.radio movement on this list would once a day come to the
conclusion to do something together how this would look like?

i think there are already some ad hoc concepts helpful describing the
ongoing practises of net.radio (at least to myself;):

- hybridification - connecting old and new media (net.audio connected
  to real.radio)
- random access - producing live AND also for the archive (audio on demand)

- stretched time - producing with geographically dispersed small groups
  from 'home-studios'
- public content - non profit production with free copyright within
  experimental DJ performances.
- global sprawl - representing and mixing regional styles with global ones
  (the ritornell...)
- sound-scapes - deconstruction of the song via remixing, sampling,
  overdubbing, cutting
- free press - direct information without censorship, small newschannels,
  talkshows, net-chat

the result could be something like the old dream of the 'global radio',
again a big dream, it means translating these present pragmatic concepts
into vectors of wishful possiblities (again very much based on my subjective
limited vision of this field..

- an 'own' unionist frequency on a AM radio station / a network of
microradios
  (see heath buntings plans) 'windows' in official state or private radios,
  work with other radio people, musicians, artists
- archive driven production, automated DJ the automated DJ producing a
stream
  when noone does something live, finding the 'best routes' combining
playlists,
  standardisation of archive formats vs. mirror sites
- basic channel, grouping together into one schedule driven 24h livestream,
  hooked up by various temporary transmission of international small
net.radio
  stations, multicasting
- non profit, free content, fair use copyright // question of financiation,
  sponsors, subscribers?
- transmissions of local styles within a broader electronic culture,
atomizing
  local archives into little pieces accessible via a data bank, for remixes,
  including other standards Modules, Midi, MP3, Rezrocket
- ambient media concepts, creating electronic sound environments
- integrating text and information bits in new ways , crosslinking
mailinglists,
  extending the audience

ok this is really over-ambitious utopian thought, but i think throughout all
the sober pragmatism some fresh dreams are needed, and i am sure they are
there,
discussing possible concepts without feeling urged to realize it instantly.
i
think, too much is beeing done just for beeing done filling the void with
stuff (the horror vacui).

concerning "free radio" i will add another interesting old school text of
Felix Guattari later on, who was recently accused by Richard Barbrook of
having failed completly on the practical level. Failures.. it seems is an
charming inbuild function of free media.


>add link:
for those having midi euqipment and a decent concectivity there's a new hype
tool, going back to old experiments of the fluxus or communication artists,
doing sessions over the telephone etc. i think the net-lag, the delay,
causes
either too much machine soul (quantization) or a funny free jazz element.

http://www.rezrocket.com


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