5 Feb 2006

'from Mini FM to Hacktivists : a guide to Art and Activism' and Mini FM building workshops led by Tetsuo Kogawa at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery

The Govett Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth's recently arrived curator of Contemporary Art, formerly NYC based art critic Mercedes Vicente, put together an exhibition entitled from Mini FM to Hacktivists: a Guide to Art and Activism as her first contribution to the gallery's programmes.

Drawing somewhat on lines of thinking around pre-internet prehistories, in the way so wonderfully set out in Annmarie Chandler & Norie Neumark (eds)'
At a Distance: Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet
, Vicente included New Zealand practitioners as part of this dialogue.

I reviewed the show for Flash Art International, although the link to this is no longer online.

public programmes included a weekend of workshops by Japanese Mini FM pioneer, philosopher and radio artist, Tetsuo Kogawa.

I built the transmitter which would eventually be used as a core component in the radio cegeste project in these workshops, and am so very grateful to Tetsuo for both his generosity of knowledge and his facilitative role in starting me on this line of praxis.

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BEGINNERS WORKSHOP FOR ADULTS

Saturday February 4th, 1-4pm

Tetsuo Kogawa will introduce this workshop with a lecture on the mini-FM movement, and the means and objectives of "hacktivism" in electronic technology, providing a projection on the history and uses of mini-FM.

After the lecture, he will conduct a workshop for adults (10 people maximum) on how to build a simple mini-FM transmitter. Later performing with the transmitter for 30 minutes showing the interesting characters of airwaves and demonstrating the possibilities of transmitters as an art form. Participants will experience how to broadcast themselves with their newly-built transmitters.

This workshop is free but requires pre-registration due to limited space. To register and further details please phone 06 759 6060 or emailgovettinfo@govettbrewster.com .

ADVANCED WORKSHOP

Sunday February 5th, 3:30-6:30pm

Following the beginners workshop this advanced workshop (10 participants maximum) will deconstruct a simple transmitter and will transform the pre-existing simple transmitter into a more powerful radio and a TV transmitter. The advanced participants will learn how to make a power meter, a booster and an antenna.Tetsuo will set up a FM radio station for the community and a micro TV station for indoor video experiments in the studio where the workshop will take place and will demonstrate the multiple possibilities of these transmitters.

This workshop is free but requires pre-registration due to limited space. To register and for further details please phone 06 759 6060 or emailgovettinfo@govettbrewster.com.


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RADIOART PARTY and PHONE INTERVIEWS

Sunday February 5th, 6:30-9.30pm

After the workshop there will be a radio party open to all workshop participants and general audience that will take place in one of the galleries. Tetsuo will set up one or two temporary micro radio stations in this gallery (every participant will have their own station if there is enough free frequency space) and will be open to the public participation. There will be various radio programs and radio art performance shows. Visual, sound and dj artists are invited and encouraged to participate.

Towards the end of the radio party, he will conduct live phone interviews to media activists such as DeeDee Halleck (founder of Paper Tiger TV, US), Franco Berardi aka. Bifo (founder of Radio Alicia in Bologna, IT), Peter Wilson aka. Hakim Bay (US), Elisabeth Zimmermann (Director of Kunstradio, Vienna), and Tonic Train (Sara Washington, co-founder of Resonance FM, London, and Kunut Aufermann). Tonic Train will have a sound performance. Other participants to be confirmed.

These phone interviews will be broadcasted live in the Gallery by the newly set-up transmitters and possibly streamed in the internet. Adam Hyde (NZ/NL) will join to the radio party with live streaming from Amsterdam. A PA system and video projector will feature some of these live interviews in the Gallery.

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