Thinking Aloud
1. Rivers and Bridges
Even as a ready made image, the bridge is quite a broad metaphor,
easily interpreted in a metaphor-hungry world. […] We try to discover
new words, finding references to reveal the mechanisms of the
medialized world - the global feedback, where past-less, reference-less
yet very efficient media surround us. In our multilevel networked age the
world is full of potential metaphors, we need to attempt to let the
mythical experience interweave the products of our technological boom.
[…]
Today the bridge is a link, one single association, the memorial to an
accidental running thought, connecting two isolated data-particles in the
information universe. The quantity of links meaning popularity thereby a
tool of selection. Links creating the hypermedia, where anything can occur
except metacommunication.
2. Revolution of Hearing
[…]Hearing is linear, bound to the course of time, like we are bound to the
irreversible direction of time. Medial design sees in listening the
quickest way to the subconscious, its like a direct channel to the
subliminal manipulation. Because of this our auditive space is
continuously filled by prescribed sound - consciously joined to our actual
mental state, spatial noise information and an incredible amount of
engineered music/signals. Thanks to the improving recording techniques the
music has a background function, we do not pay special attention
(conscious listening), because everything is concealed, (canned,conserved).
Since the appearance of sound in motion picture films we are
living in a continuos musical background […]
The radio is one of the eldest 'new mediums', it remains on a large and
clumsy infrastructure, having been relegated to a secondary role after the
advent of newer 'new mediums' (sound plus visual, like TV). Maximum as
supporting phenomenon of multimedia, in which sound acts as illustration
material, disburdening the eye. The centers of power realized its
significance rather early and are interested to keep it a unilateral, one
way form of communication, creating a precedence for later developments in
technology. Radio is the only medium where our fantasy is inspired through
our ears, with a gesture-input twisting of the knob we can navigate the
cyber-ocean of various audio broadcasts. So we can hear the invisible.
3. goals
Multi minus one medium. Using the ear, vacation of eye.
- to enhance the activity of listening, to have the same consciousness
toward the audio - acoustic environment, as to the visual; to activate
the passive perception of hearing, a postgraduate education of the ear,
revival of darkness, thinking aloud, with closed eyes
- building up dialog - bridge - between the institutional, traditional
suppliers and the non institutional, non conventional users of the radio
medium, pirate stations, web radio, helping the transition toward the new
technological versions of the radio medium
- focus on acoustic activity in the practice, (let artists onto the air,
acoustic performances) and in the realm of media theory have the spoken
language as the most basic territory
4. ideas
-collecting visual elements, (real bridges, rivers, architecture, drawings,
photos etc.) and textual references, sound documents in order to create
database published on the net;
-constructing a small wooden bridge, where in every hour one could hear the
12 o clock news broadcast, always from a different time zone;
-publish informations how to be an independent audio provider, technical
infos, (how to build a pirate stations), examples, transcriptions ;
5. Form
I imagine a radio play, one homogeneous 24 hour live radio program- one
complete day of live broadcast, with one central station, center, mixing
office.
[…]
The theme is rivers and bridges and the idea of translation could be
represented by various local moderators, particular professionals and non
professionals, who are commenting, translating the events, chatting with
each other, and participating in this global live program.
6. Call
- for images, texts, documents concerning rivers and bridges,
- for proposals for the narrative structure global radio play,
- for proposals for local live acoustic events, for bridges and rivers
related acoustic materials…
