Syndicate: RECYCLING THE FUTURE, Vienna, 4-7 December 97

[kunstradio <kunstradio@thing.at> (by way of Andreas Broeckmann)]

elisabeth zimmermann writes:


10 YEARS OF ART RADIO ON THE AUSTRIAN BROADCASTING CORP.


RECYCLING THE FUTURE

Art theory and art practice in the era of permanent technical revolution

AN EVENT WITH LECTURES PERFORMANCES INSTALLATIONS ON AIR, ON LINE AND ON SITE

December 4 -7, 1997

ORF Broadcasting Studios Vienna
Argentinierstrasse 30A


Years ago, Alvin Toffler already coined the term "future shock": Since then
this shock has become the status quo of a constantly changing environment.

Technology has developed so rapidly over the last years of the 20th century
that we are compelled to revise our ideas and images of the future almost
on a monthly basis. Artists are not exempt from this orgy of
technical/digital innovations - on the contrary - the arts have always been
particularly exposed to the full pressure exerted by the innovations in the
technical media.

The variety of art forms characteristic for the present and the numerous
methods that today's new and the traditional media are combined and mixed
with express the energy with which artists of all disciplines face the
challenges confronting them in the new media environment.

The event RECYCLING THE FUTURE, which uses art radio as an example and
mixes performances, installations, telematic radio live events, on-line
projects, lectures and lecture/performances, will portray the current
aspects of an art form in the constantly changing field of
telecommunication technologies.

In this context, RECYCLING THE FUTURE will have to look at the prevailing
convergence  between the mass media, telecommunication technologies and
computers; it will have to raise questions which challenge not only the
arts but the entire non-commercial/creative sector of the media culture.
One of the sub-topics of RECYCLING THE FUTURE will question to what extent
telecommunication artists view themselves as part of a political media
activism which is defined along the lines of the democratic potential of
the new media.

Special attention shall be given to artistic strategies such as "sampling,"
"collaging," "recycling" and "remixing" of sounds, images, objects, spaces,
traditions, concepts (for example the changing perceptions of past and
future) and technologies. This puts up for discussion the hypothesis that
these artistic strategies serve as models for comprehending new ways of
perception and behaviour in the digital culture.
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Coorganizer AICA

In coorganizing RECYCLING THE FUTURE, the Austrian section of AICA
(Association International des Critiques d`Art = International Association
of Art Critics) emphasizes its  intention to address complex themes from
the point of view of digitalisation, for example the changes in the concept
of work and material, the role of the author or the idea of intellectual
property.

The Austrian section of "AICA" hereby links up to the event it organized in
1984 in Vienna, exploring the relationship between ART AND MASS MEDIA by
means of a symposion, an exposition, as well as art projects on TV and in
the printed media.
Thirteen years later we are in the middle of a radical socio-cultural
change which was hardly anticipated at that time and also challenges art
critics to find a new understanding of their role, new strategies and to
deal with new cultural techniques.

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10 Years of Art Radio on the Austrian Broadcasting Corp.

RECYCLING THE FUTURE takes place on the occasion of the program ART RADIO -
RADIO ART's 10th anniversary; since its creation, it has developed into
more than a weekly Austrian broadcasting program on acoustic art on the
station eich 1. It has become the pivotal point for the development and
realisation of art projects that in theory and practice reflect all those
transformations which the radio medium is subject to under the changing
social and technological circumstances.

In the course of the past ten years, hundreds of artists from Austria and
many other countries have demonstrated in their ART RADIO projects the
various ways in which communication technologies can be site and subject of
art. Taken from their own experience, they have contributed to defining the
role of art and artists in our information society.
Several of these artists from Europe, North America and Australia will be
personally present in Vienna at RECYCLING THE FUTURE. Others will
participate in the event in the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) project
STATION TO STATION via radio or internet. Some of the theoreticians, who
were involved in former ART RADIO events and/or have followed the
activities of ART RADIO for years, will also participate in RECYCLING THE
FUTURE.

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STATION TO STATION live on the Internet and on the channels of radio
stations in Europe, North America and Australia. A project by the ARS
ACUSTICA group of EBU. The event RECYCLING THE FUTURE will thus become part
of an international simultaneous telematic project.

STATION TO STATION will take place on December 4, 1997. It is an
international Live Radio and Internet project by the Ars Acustica group of
EBU. It is the follow-up of the projects HORIZONTAL RADIO (1995) and RIVERS
& BRIDGES (1996) which were co-organized by ART RADIO ON THE AUSTRIAN
BROADCASTING CORP.

The Austrian junction for the international STATION TO STATION project will
be the broadcasting studios in Vienna with the event RECYCLING THE FUTURE:
A LONG NIGHT OF RADIO ART with performances, installations, live mixes,
simultaneous telematic events in front of a live audience will offer radio
listeners access to the network of STATION TO STATION in four studios of
the broadcasting centre in the ranges of eich 1 and FM4.

The Web Studio of ART RADIO ON LINE located in the digital radio play
studio RP4 will   broadcast globally the event RECYCLING THE FUTURE for 24
hours; it will naturally be a junction for the radio and internet project
STATION TO STATION as well.
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The BROADCASTING STUDIO ON ARGENTINIERSTRASSE IN VIENNA will itself be the
subject of artistic interventions during RECYCLING THE FUTURE:
installations are planned for the facade, in the hallways and elevators. On
Friday evening (5th December), the ART RADIO ALLSTARS (15 to 20 musicians
ranging from Auinger to Dorfmeister, Huber, Ostertag, Rose, Scanner to
Sodomka and Stocker) will be stationed in the various studios and hallways
of the broadcasting studio; they will form sub-groups who are connected by
communication lines. They will invite the audience on site to attend a
1990`s version of the "Walking Concert" known from contemporary serious
music. The material of the ART RADIO ALLSTARS performance consists of
samples from the archives of 10 years of ART RADIO; they will be placed on
different locations and the audience has to walk through the performance
from sample to sample.

A ROUND TABLE with Austrian artists, critics and politicians shall complete
the international event RECYCLING THE FUTURE and make sure that it does not
pass without having an effect on the future of telecommunication art.
It is an attempt to lay out possible new and comprehensive strategies to
promote this field of art, whose goal is last but not least the exemplary
development and testing of interdisciplinary and collaborative methods of
production to deal creatively with the new technologies.
In order to secure the continuation of  the important contribution that
Austria has made to the development of telecommunication art since the late
19'70's and to guarantee its financing, innovative thinking and
unconventional methods are necessary in a field which essentially
contributes to the research and development of the new cultural techniques.
Another important aspect in the realization of telecommunication art is to
secure access to the communication technologies.
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PUBLICATION

Following RECYCLING THE FUTURE, a publication (in English with an audio-CD)
is planned bearing the same name, covering the field of radio art as a part
of telecommunication art. Scholarly essays on the cultural and sociological
implications of the digitalisation of communication technologies (with
special consideration of the radio), articles on theory, documentations of
exemplary art projects and statements by artists will complete the work.
The publication will attempt to provide the long missing clarification of
the concept of radio art as a part of telecommunication art; it will thus
contribute to the theoretic differentiation of the so-called "sound art"
which has become more and more confusing in its abundance. Both theoretic
and artistic essays on the event RECYCLING THE FUTURE  will contribute to
the publication.





_____________________

ORF KUNSTRADIO

Argentinierstr. 30a
A-1040 Wien

http://orfkunstradio.thing.at
kunstradio@thing.at

T: +43 1 50101-8277
F: +43 1 50101-8065
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