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.
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From Mini-FM to Hacktivists: A Guide to Art and Activism
2005-12-10 until 2006-03-03
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery
New Plymouth, New Zealand (Aotearoa)
The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery is pleased to present From mini-FM to hacktivists: a guide to art and activism from 10 December to 3 March 2006. Curated by Mercedes Vicente this is her first exhibition as the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery’s new Curator, Contemporary Art. The artists featured include: Greg Bordowitz (US), Fiona Clark (NZ), Alannah Currie (NZ), John Di Stefano (NZ), Marcelo Expósito (SP), Annie Goldson (NZ), Adam Hyde (AMS/NZ), Zita Joyce (NZ), Tetsuo Kogawa (JP), LTTR (US), neuroTransmitter (US), Paper Tiger TV & Deep Dish TV (US), Oliver Ressler & David Thorne (AU/US), Martha Rosler (US), Allan Sekula (US), The Yes Men (US), 0100101110101101 (Eva and Franco Mattes) (IT)
Vicente says: “From mini-FM to hacktivists examines contemporary artistic and activist practices in the context of alternative media and provides the historical grounding for today’s internet collaborations. It illustrates a new paradigm of counter information in communications as well as in artistic practices.”
Three components make up the show including; installation works; an interactive media lab; and a programme of documentary screenings in the Gallery theatre. This exhibition presents the mini-FM project of Tetsuo Kogawa, founder of free radio in Japan in the early 80s, whose model has influenced media activists and artists such as the collective neurotransmitter and artists Adam Hyde and Zita Joyce. Representing the anti-globalisation movement is Allan Sekula’s Waiting for tear gas (white globe to black) 1999-2000, a photo reportage of the Seattle World Trade Organisation (WTO) protests. Martha Rosler revisits one of her most emblematic photomontage series Bringing the war home: house beautiful 1967-2005, which draws a parallel between the Vietnam and Iraq Wars. Marcelo Expósito’s video Radical Imagination (Carnivals of Resistance) 2004 documents the Reclaim of the streets movement which brought commercial life to a standstill in London in 1999.
Taking the form of guerrilla cybertactics the collectives The Yes Men and 0100101110101101.org clone news and spoof websites creating a great deal of confusion and succeeding in exposing the effects and ideologies behind global corporations. Fiona Clark uses photography as a political tool to fight community issues. Her series Arial views 1980, presented for the first time in a Gallery context, were used by local Te Atiawa Iwi in a court case against the destructive waste generated by an expanding Taranaki energy industry.
The media lab includes a selection of recent video productions by Paper Tiger TV and Deep Dish TV who have been providing shows for public access TV via cable and satellite in the US since the 80s. An extensive programme of documentary films will feature works by Annie Goldson, John Di Stefano, Greg Bordowitz, LTTR, Leon Narbey, among others, whose strong social and political commitment as a natural progression of their own politics introduce public awareness and change. Vicente has recently returned from New York after opening her show "If it’s too bad to be true, it could be disinformation". This exhibition has received reviews in both The New York Times and ArtForum and will travel to the Blackwood Gallery in The University of Toronto at Mississauga, Canada from 4 January to 28 February 2006.
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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. The ADA network archived a page with some information and photos of the workshop HERE, and I’ve also used one above (credit to Stella Brennan).
On a personal note, 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.
Here is the original writeup for the workshops:
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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.