Begin forwarded message:

From: radtimes <resist@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu Apr 1, 2004  5:46:02  PM Canada/Mountain
To: microradio@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [MRN] Radio Free Market Street
Reply-To: microradio@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Radio Free Market Street

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2004/04/01/radioart.DTL

by Jeanne Carstensen, SF Gate mailto:jeannec@xxxxxxxxxx
Monday, April 1, 2004
©2004 SF Gate
It's not your typical AM radio station. Broadcasting for one day only from a solar-powered trailer covered with mirrored surveillance domes and audible in just a tiny quarter-mile radius, it won't be knocking Clear Channel off the dial anytime soon.
But "Life on Market Street," the audio archive and broadcast project by the Oakland art duo Wowhaus, is of the small-is-beautiful school of broadcasting. Sponsored by the San Francisco Art Commission's Art on Market Street Program, the artists want the project to get the diverse community on San Francisco's major thoroughfare to tune in to itself -- and in the process think about the power of local, low-wattage, low-tech communications in this era of globalization.
New technology is about "transcending place," Scott Constable, the designer/sculptor half of Wowhaus, explains. "Ours is about staying in place." 

[snipped]
Flyers have been posted along Market Street advertising the event, and Wowhaus hopes more listeners will be drawn in when they see the mirrored van and realize a sound performance is taking place. Those with radios in their offices or hotel rooms in the high rises along the street -- what Wowhaus calls the neighborhood's "vertical audience" -- will also be able to participate.
The Bay Area has been a mecca for pirate, or unauthorized, radio since Stephen Dunifer's Free Radio Berkeley went on the air in the 1990s. That station, which broadcast in defiance of the U.S. government's control of the airwaves, was yanked off the air by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1998, but Dunifer continues to disseminate the technology, and newer stations such as San Francisco Liberation Radio (SFLR) and others nationwide are part of a next generation of low-power broadcasters networked globally via the Internet. (SFLR was shut down last October, but it continues to broadcast via the Web while preparing to challenge the FCC for the right to broadcast.)
But for this public-art project, Wowhaus didn't want any hassles from the federal agency, so the duo built their transmitter to conform to FCC regulations. Theirs is a micro-radio station, not a pirate outfit. Operating with less than 1 watt of power, it's perfectly legal. In fact, with a few hundred dollars, anyone can set up a similar station and broadcast to a surrounding area of a few blocks. 

[snipped]
The 70-minute "Life on Market Street" audio archive is also available on CD, and copies will be handed out free to passersby during the broadcast. In addition, it will be available as a free download at http://www.thewowhaus.com/ and offered for checkout at the San Francisco Public Library. The CD, including 46 interviews and bits of sound recorded in order of geographical location from the Ferry Building to the Castro, comes complete with a map showing where each segment was taped. 

[snipped]
There's more to life than "Life on Market Street," though: Wowhaus hopes to set up their next, presumably waterproof, micro-radio station on a barge on the Bay or some other body of water and continue their fascination with the "beauty in limitation of technology defined by place." 

.

_________________________________________________________________

http://www.thewowhaus.com/
be@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
".... Wowhaus is a collaboration between Scott Constable and Ene Osteraas-Constable. For over a decade, Wowhaus has created works in the public realm. Merging the realms of art and design, our work includes permanent and temporary installation art, furniture and architecture, environmental design, and mixed-media documentary.
Our work explores the common denominators of everyday experience, the central question of how things, places and relationships acquire meaning. We are interested in the social underpinnings of "ordinary" or vernacular forms; in the social networks that sustain and foster community and innovation. Our work seeks to connect communities to their current ecological and societal realities, aiming to strengthen the mutually beneficial potential of each.
Recent projects http://www.thewowhaus.com/CURRENT/curmenuNEWIP.html include the creation of a mobile micro radio station http://www.thewowhaus.com/CURRENT/market/market.html and audio archive of Market Street, one of San Francisco's major thoroughfares as well as a series of lenticular murals reflecting the ecology of a local river. We continue to create architecture and furniture utilizing bioregional woods, and are developing a project for an invitational symposium at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in partnership with Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design.
Past projects have included the kitchen classroom at the Edible Schoolyard, the Ecology/Art Expedition Survey and the ongoing Visceral Inquiry series. A series of furniture commissions over the past decade reflect our interest in innovation as it relates to common forms such as the chair or table. We invite you to join us for one of our site-specific projects or for a studio visit. By visiting our web site periodically you'll get information about our latest projects. We look forward to hearing from you! ..." 


---
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Via / By / Excerpted / From / Thanks to:

The International Microradio Network
For all list information and functions, including changing
your subscription mode and options, visit the Web page:
     http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/microradio

(c)info
http://members.tripod.com/~media002/disclaimer.htm
Due to the nature of email & the WWW, check ALL sources.
http://media002.tripod.com/
Member http://www.carcc.ca/  & http://www.caj.ca
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
(Gandhi)


|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
(a) (c) (o) (u) (s) (t) (i) (c) ( ) (s) (p) (a) (c) (e)
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
information&comunication channel | for net.broadcasters
http://xchange.re-lab.net  (Xchange)  net.audio network
xchange search/webarchive: http://xchange.re-lab.net/a/