[spectre] WIRELESS CULTURES: an invitation to an event in London

[honor]

Hi all,

For those of you based within the UK, or within travelling distance to=20
London, I wanted to warmly invite you to an half-day seminar we are staging=
=20
at Tate Modern called Wireless Cultures.

The event features input from radio artist and pioneer Tetsuo Kogawa,=20
(Japan), cultural theorist Micz Flor (Germany) artist and filmmaker Pete=20
Gomes (UK), and Simon Worthington of Mute Magazine (UK).

I'd be absolutely delighted if you could come, as would I'm sure, the=20
participants of the event.

I would also appreciate it if you could pass on this to any colleagues who=
=20
you think might be interested.



Greetings

Honor Harger
Webcasting Curator
Interpretation & Education, Tate Modern
Digital Programmes, Tate
honor.harger@tate.org.uk
http://www.tate.org.uk/audiovideo/
PH: (44) 020 7401 5066



FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT

WIRELESS CULTURES

A seminar / mini-conference at Tate Modern, London, UK


TIMES AND DATES

Saturday 1 February, 14:00 - 18:30 GMT


LOCATION

Starr Auditorium, Level 2, Tate Modern, London, UK


ABOUT THE EVENT

A half-day seminar which explores the use of wireless communication in=20
artistic and social practices.

Artists and cultural practitioners have experimented with wireless forms of=
=20
communication for most of the past century.  Since the invention of radio=20
by Nikola Tesla and Guglielmo Marconi, artists have utilised the radio=20
spectrum as a medium for creative intervention and experimentation.

In his 1932 essay, 'The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication', Bertolt=20
Brecht wrote about the radical potential of radio to become a system of=20
open communication, a method to "let the listener speak as well as=20
hear".  While, the free radio movement and cultural experiments with miniFM=
=20
radio (most notably in Tokyo in the 1980s), micro-radio and pirate radio=20
attempted to explore the potential of radio as a communicative medium,=20
regulations and licensing laws have ensured that the means to transmit=20
radio has remained by and large in the hands of the few.

Recently a new form of wireless communication utilising the radio spectrum,=
=20
has emerged as a possible example of the many-to-many media that Brecht,=20
John Cage and others imagined in the 1930s.  Wireless internet=20
connectivity, using the radio band, has catalysed the emergence of mobile=20
social networks in cities all over Europe and the United States.  Driven by=
=20
a Brechtian ideal to 'mobilise the user and redraft him/her as a producer',=
=20
small grass roots groups are attempting to sever artists' reliance on large=
=20
centrally provided telecommunications structures, and create a new form of=
=20
communicative mobility.
Groups such as consume and Free2Air in London act as hubs for research and=
=20
data-sharing regarding methods to distribute wireless connectivity for=20
cultural and not-for-profit use around the city.  The focus of these groups=
=20
is on =91localising=92 the global medium of the internet, connecting=20
neighbourhoods together in local area networks, using hundreds of radio=20
antenna and wireless hubs.

How are these mobile networks catalysing new areas of creative=20
practice?  How have radio pioneers created historical precedents for this=20
practice?

This half-day seminar explores the use of wireless communication in=20
artistic and social contexts, through presentations and comments by:
- Tetsuo Kogawa - radio pioneer (Japan)
- Micz Flor - cultural theorist (Germany)
- Pete Gomes - artist and filmmaker (UK)
- Simon Worthington -  co-editor and founder of Mute magazine  (UK)
- Sean Dodson - journalist (UK)

Tickets =A310 (=A35 concessions)

------------------------------------------


MORE INFORMATION

For more on this event, see:=20
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/programmes/events.htm
or contact:
Honor Harger, Webcasting Curator, Interpretation & Education, Tate Modern
Email: honor.harger@tate.org.uk
PH: (44) 020 7401 5066


For more information about Tate or getting tickets for the event: Tate Box=
=20
Office
Email: tate.ticketing@tate.org.uk
PH: (44) 020 7887 8888
URL: http://www.tate.org.uk


   _______________.play
<honor@va.com.au>           <http://www.radioqualia.net>
+44 (0)20 76841859

_______________.work
<honor.harger@tate.org.uk>  <http://www.tate.org.uk/audiovideo/>
ph: +44 (0)20 74015066

"perhaps attention acts on information the same way gravity acts on mass:=20
attraction begets attraction and a positive feedback loop is formed"=20
http://electricsheep.org/