tvquevA4print copy.indd

2005
Workshop for micro-transmission
BNC project description
TVQUE?V the sequel
Theory / Practice
Theoretical background of existing media power structure
Claiming media territory
TVQUE?V - Workshop for micro-transmission (project report)
TV GLOBO LETTER
STUDENT LETTER
Modulator Scheme / TV-Station Scheme / Weblinks
Estado de Minas Cultura 30 july 2004 by janaina cunha melo
Alex Fischer CV
Sagi Groner CV
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BNC project description:
the BNC project combines a few elements
1. it is a pirate TV station
2. it is a workshop to distribute the ideas around the station
and how to put one up and create media for it,
to “seed” sister stations all over the world
3. it is an idea from which a certain kind of media is produced,
a kind with reflective qualities and introspective critique.
4. the manifestation of the station is a concrete case for “unmasking”
the mechanisms of control around us,
questioning them, and creating a discussion about them.
The project is a critique on the way in which our culture
capitalizes on the human desire for freedom autonomy and independence.
In a culture that increasingly requires us to relinquish our personal beliefs
to the knowledge of “experts”, BNC is not a project that wants to present
an answer, but rather it stands to show that it is possible
to create your own experiments.
The idea of micro transmitting is suitable for the urban landscape,
where there are many viewers as well as many people who create media.
It can be a “podium” for the outlet of this media and a channel
for exchange on a local level.
The micro transmitting can perhaps sneak in through the regulations,
because of itÐs non-intrusive “nature”.
The spectrum of the ether which is allocated for TV broadcast is now,
in the cable era, more or less empty, and is not being capitalizes on.
So in a sense the regulations and laws that regulate it are out of date
since there is now no commercial interest in this “space”.
And thus perhaps there is a possibility to make it into a public space again.
The transmitting of TV signals is of course illegal, but perhaps small signals
can be tolerated, and if there are many of them in a city,
it would be most troublesome to go around and shut all of them down.
So this “trend” can in a sense create a background for the changing
of the regulations, at least those concerning local broadcasts.
By having an infiltration of many little stations, which pop up
like mushrooms after rain, a discussion around this can evolve in the media
of the community struck by this phenomenon.
This kind of minimally coordinated action draws itÐs power
from the simultaneous action of separate entities which are not connected,
except by the fact they live in the same city and will go on air in a certain period.
The people who take the liberty to transmit, do it without imposing,
since the viewer has to consciously disconnect their cable connection
and plug in an antenna to tune in.
So the pirate broadcast is not going directly into peoples homes,
since they are almost entirely connected to the cable TV system.
So it offers a network of exchange to those who want to become part of it,
and provides an alternative to the existing monopolized TV media.
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TVQUE?V the sequel
“ You never forget how to use TV because you never have to learn how.
Like any other relationship, it seems you just sort of “get along”
with this chatty appliance; you “do” it, it “does” you. “ - Barbara Kruger
“ Television has attacked us for a lifetime - now we strike back! “ - Nam June Paik
General introduction
In this workshop we want to further develop the discussion about the world of TV
and further experiment with the medium.
The goal is to create TV awareness and find tools and means to spread this awareness.
Throughout the period of the workshop the student will receive a theoretical overview
about the world of TV - one which extends the normal theories of mass communication.
Along side these presentations, each student will develop a work dealing with their
relation/insight/message about TV and the role it takes in the social and psychological.
Although the works may be individual, the goal is that they all come together
to a single “picture”. The group will discuss and define what itʼs communal
“picture” is and then find ways and strategies to present it, this while preserving
the flexibility of each work to have a personal approach.
The intention is to make a final presentation of the works to the public in the form
of an exhibition. The idea is that this exhibition will be allowed to stay for a period
(3-4 weeks) so that it is a living form for the discussion rather than a 1 time event
which is more of a “happening”. This does not exclude special happenings and manifestations
of a more “spectacle” nature.
The university can be a good place to host the exhibition as automatically the entire
student body will be exposed to it.
(and also considering the technical support and location this is a natural choice).
The idea is to present ideas, findings and reflections about the subject of TV,
in the form of media rather than in the form of a written essay.
The experimentation in the material of the media itself is important and
finding ones own recipe to convey the ideas and feeling associated
with TV in a “TV” form. In the workshop the student will also experiment
with building their own TV transmitter and perhaps an out come of the workshop
could be a campus TV which will lead itʼs own life afterwards.
Experiments in live broadcast will also be conducted in the workshop fitting in
with the ideas and activities that the members of the group chose.
It is perhaps the moment to explain that the workshop is not meant to technically train
a group of TV pirates but rather to give a hands on experience with the media itself.
The workshop is suitable for students from the social and communications fields
and also students from the art and design fields.
The diversity of the participants can be a benefit.
The workshop should be around a month which is a good time
for development of ideas for exhibiting.
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Theory
The idea is to present a picture of how artists have been dealing with the subject
of TV for the last three decades. Through the viewing of works and the
discussion about them, the ideas of each artists and theoretical approach
of each artist will create the larger discussion about the social and personal aspects
of the world of TV.
This artistic view of the subject has a historical perspective
(as the reflections about TV have changed through the years),
and offers a trigger to the philosophical and social issues behind.
The artistic reflection embodies several elements at once, and is free of the purely
theoretical and academic approach to these issues.
(god save us from having to quote Guy Debord again!)
The analysis of the works will bring forward the more familiar and studied theories
of mass communication but these will become background and starting points
rather than the content itself. An important aspect of the presentation is
that it is in the large part visual - with this introducing forms and strategies
of media expressions. Rather than being an informative academic presentation
it is an inspirational one.
Through the visual presentation a special attention will be given to dissecting
the TV visual codes (and art works will be chosen which highlight this approach).
The research and selection of works for this presentation is done with help of
MonteVideo - Dutch Institute for media art, which has an extensive archive
and can have reduced prices for educational purposes.
This research is still in progress.
Practice
A series of assignments will be given to the students,
and consultation of the individual works and the group
In the first week most of the theoretical presentation
of making a group plan will be tackled.
From the second week, for 3 weeks the individual works
and the group will continue to work on the form of the
Each student can find their own research and form.
along with guidance
process.
will be given and the task
will be developed
exhibition.
Theoretical background
of existing media power structure
Our society is providing too many possibilities to passively consume.
In the consumption of packaged thoughts and desires displayed in most media
(especially in TV channels) there is a great danger for the emotional and creative
development of our society. The beautiful world of consumer-goods is boring.
The Homo-Digitalis is living in a society that is aesthetisezed and simulated.
There is no way out of social apathy except self managed action.
In the development of open communication models that let information circulate freely
there is a chance to build an alternative to the readymade information-life-style
designed for consumption.
There are innumerable perceptions of what our society is; these perceptions of our
social, economic and cultural realities are culturally forced perceptions:
what we see and what we hear is what we have learned to see and learned to hear.
And not just that, it is also what we are allowed to see and hear.
The broad variety of media offers the fuel for our information society.
These media, be it papers, TV stations, websites, bill boards, etc, are inventing and
constantly reconstructing our cultural order. All of this order is invented by mankind and
the mechanisms we create for our societies to function. This order is established by means
of communication and maintained by economic and/or social force. Communication in any sense
of the word creates consciousness, identities and culture; creates the meaning we give
and see in our lives, or the meaning we are supposed to see in our lives.
The condition of existence in a communication society (a society of information)
is a condition of representation. Politics of representation and representation of politics
are unchangeably interconnected. Following the thought of some media theorists
you can conclude: those who are not in the picture will stay out of it.
If you or your community does not manage to get heard or seen, how should anybody care about
your faith, not to mention, how should anybody be able to support you?
The power of current media-practices is extraordinary. Control of information, its channels
and practices, and the control of people go hand in hand. A closer look into the strategies
of political campaigning confirms this: we can think of national election campaigns in terms
of a media spectacle, and no one is surprised. (for example Berlusconi or Merdoc).
International media conglomerates are more often economic enterprises with political function,
rather then independent , neutral and critical institutions. Their economic dependency on
politics makes them a powerful tool for political aims and praxis.
These tools are used in various ways. By instrumenting the media channels -filtering
information,manipulating news, leaving out facts, ignoring relevant discussions,
adding extra airtime for promotion of certain ideas over others or promoting political
agendas, our perception of reality is distorted.
The factual information dissolves and our perception of reality gets fractured.
As a result of this process a few groups loose their representation,
and with it their voices and face towards society. Who these groups are is not
surprising, they are the groups who already suffer from exclusion of our democratic
and financial structures - illegals, immigrants, undereducated, marginalized groups
and those who are not interesting for the economic system.
These circumstances cause a severe crisis of legitimacy of politics and media.
Despite their claim to represent and voice the various groups and interests of a diverse
society, they mainly represent the invisible strings of the power of capital is pulling.
A media monopoly established through money is an unjustifiable privilege in a world
thatʼs divided along the lines of the plus and minus lines of bank accounts.
Meaning and history are created by an apparatus which is not to be trusted entirely.
|n response to the cultural phantasm created by the mechanisms of power we are in need of
new stories to be told; stories about our past and our present; from another point of view,
representing the underrepresented and creating a new mythology, a mythology of solidarity
and equality, one beyond capitalist reason.
In order to achieve a representative flow of information, a truth worth calling truth,
we need to achieve information autonomy . That means an autonomy of production and an autonomy
of distribution of meaning. By deconstructing social and political phenomena we can create new
points of reference beyond boarders of taste, class and capital.
The achievement can give back the voice to people whose experiences now are not
classified real, because they simply do not exist in the media.
There is an economic divide in the world along the north-south line, there is also
an electromagnetic one: the civil society gets excluded from common communication
resources, such as the microwave and FM spectrum for the transmission of radio or TV.
This restriction takes shape in the form of laws and financial regulations that control and
limit any type of independent transmission. Civil society gets excluded from the basic right
to media access and distribution, whereas corporate industry can get hold of valuable
information infrastructure by means of privatization of former public channels.
The few public access media sources are left hopelessly overrun and under-equipped.
How to voice the voiceless?
Claiming media territory
Here begins the working field of artists and media activists.
As Cultural Interface Agents, they are in the position to change and influence the shape
of perception, meanings and ideas. As art is not a formal act, but more likely and
intervention into society, it bears the power to reshape collective identities.
At least as long as the operating artists are claiming and taking their cultural
territory in order to leave social marks. Interpreting your time signifies bearing
witness to history and its becoming, just as keeping track of reality and its
reproduction. As a collector and creator of realities one can oppose the exclusive
media-spectacle by creating ones own; modulating the mediated (visual) paradigms
of the present times as a visual sniper, in order to disconnect from the reigning presence.
To change the meaning of now and to replace the reality we are ought to believe,
to create history according to our vision.
Reflecting on the mechanisms of information society, projects with these aims
firstly have to break the economic hierarchies the media structure bears.
Within these hierarchies and dependencies, autonomous media projects have to operate outside
state and market control, A refuge can be found through positioning the project in the field
of the arts. Nevertheless one cannot neglect the existing structures and flows of information,
and actually they should be critically incorporated in the production process.
So newly created media projects would extend the existing forms
of media, shaping a meta-layer of content superimposed on the existing.
By means of re-appropriation of media-content it is possible to negotiate and subvert existing
structures of meaning. This destruction and reconstruction of content replaces and redefines
existing symbols through a re-mounting of images, signs and visual codes of our society.
One could compare this technique to BrechtÐs Verfremdungseffekt:
surprising the public with an uncommon use of existing situations (or images, etc.)
and thereby escaping classification. The agitative deforming of the visual codes
of power lends itself ideally to raise under-represented issues in the media,
to make them visible and connect them to existing issues. At the same time
it uncovers these codes of esthetics and makes them visible for what they are.
The creation of an alternative media-structure forms a strategy of self-stimulation and
self-representation. For the creation of a database of opinions and histories
the accessibility of participatory technology is crucial.
Also crucial is the orientation towards an open process of production,
which leads to a social creative evolution without pre-defining the content to be
transmitted. Rather than serving content in a codified area (like an exhibition space,
a TV show, etc.) the content defines itself by “stepping in” to an already existing situation,
and itÐs power lays in the production of the terms of the situation.
7
TVQUE?V - Workshop for micro-transmission
36 UFMG Winter Festival, Diamantina MG, Brazil July 2004
Project report:
The workshop in the UFMG Winter-festival lasted two weeks.
We began with a one day theoretical introduction to the themes of the workshop.
Outlining the ideas behind micro-transmitting and the forms and strategies
of the media power structure.
We continued with a technical day - of assembling a small short range TV transmitter from
the scraps of a broken VCR. Each member brought their own VCR for the operation
and constructed their own transmitter.
Following this the group formed itʼs identity and ideas of what kind of broadcast content
they would like to air in the city of Diamantina. Also contacts were made with the local
channel TV-Diamantina which agreed to give free airtime after their evening Journal.
A name was chosen for the station which embodied the concept of the station - TVQUE?V
(explainable only in Portuguese)
As the preparations of the first program were on the way along with a campaign
to invite the viewers in the city to tune in...
there was an interesting development...
We were told some TV crews will be coming to film in the festival the next morning.
The station members turned to focusing on creating an item for those crews
which will manifest their ideas and announce their new station.
An installation was prepared in the room which housed the station activities
and a short performance was prepared for the real TV people.
First arrived a crew from Globo TV who when entering the room were encountered (and filmed)
10 video cameras and 5 stills cameras pointed at them filming and flashing.
They became the media.
The idea was to create a theater of reversal of roles - where those who came to get an item
become an item and are used for the mediaʼs purpose - TVQUE?Vʼs purpose.
As part of the the performance, a gesture of closure and imprisonment was created,
one to reflect those same feelings held by the members in relation to the media.
When the crew was let slowly into the room they could see on a monitor the doors
of the room close behind them and a masked guard placing a small pad lock on the doors
(This was a closed circuit camera showing the outside of the room).
At first this was but an image to be filmed for the Globo TV crew,
but turned out later to be a very significant moment...
The crew was let film in the room, being filmed constantly and let from one exhibit
in the show and on to the other. The members were reciting their Manifesto - producing the
only sound-byte on the recorded images. The installation was an item which the members
controlled and not the Globo TV crew.
When the TV crew was done they head for the door... still locked from the outside ...
They turn to the monitor once more with concern. Then they were asked questions by the filming
members and were asked if they would read the stations manifesto to the camera..
The reporter refused and got quite confused, then embarrassed and finally demanded
that the game end and they be let out.... and they were ...
And then the wheels of the media power machine started turning ...
This reporter called her editor and stated that they were kidnapped!
Meanwhile we were visited by the second TV crew ...
(which you can see in the small square on the right in the video)
This crew seemed to understand the work they were filming and also agreed
to participate in the performance and the reporter read the manifesto
to the TVQUE?V cameras to be used in our broadcasts..
This is the moment to mention that this was a TV crew from TV-Minas,
the state TV station (State of Minas Girais) as opposed to the Globo TV
which is a national TV in Brazil and is one of the biggest TV station in the world.
The Globo TV editor made a phone call...
To the UFMG (university) director and demanded workshop terminated and tapes collected!
The UFMG in turn made another phone call...
And next morning in the mountains of Diamantina there was a big problem ...
The members wrote a letter to the TV editor and the UFMG stating their position and insisting
that things are blown out of proportion and no harm was intended.
(see letters...)
some peace was made but still the TV director demanded a meeting and banned any use
of the footage from the incident
...a nerve was touched... but the members were eager to show their 10 camera views
of what really happened in the room ...
The workshop carried on and set the meeting with the TV editor
for after the festivals end ...
TV Minas made a very positive item about the workshop on the evening news and made
a positive comment about the spirit of critique and questioning of the media.
TV Globo showed nothing of the workshop in their item about the festival.
The News papers thought good of it as well...
As there was enough heat around the workshop it was decided with the festival director not to
carry out any pirate transmissions ...
The workshop was at the end of the first week and was going to go on air...
As a compromise TV Diamantina allocated free access to their studio for carrying out
the transmissions of TVQUE?V for the next 10 days..
which included items made by the members during these days
and also live events with a more VJ nature,
including as show in the town center..
Ironically, TVQUE?V was transmitting over TV Globo airtime...
As Diamantina is situated in the remote mountains, the local station is used to relay
and enhance the Globo Signal. Which is the main reason people in Diamantina even watch
the local channel...for reception.... and they got a TVQUE?V reception...
all nicely granted... So it was a snowy week for Globo seekers...
After the workshop in Belo Horizonte the members assembled to go and meet
with the MG branch director of Globo TV.
With them the footage from the “Kidnapping”...
BNC workshop for micro transmitting skills and manifestation of free media ideas.
By building a cheap and not too complicated prototype of a self-managed mobile TV station
and by making the technical apparatus available,
BNC hopes to spread the idea of participatory media communities.
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TV GLOBO LETTER
Diamantina, July 25, 2004
Dear
Anna Lucia Gazolla
Magnifica Reitora da UFMG
The students in the workshop are engaged in reflecting on the existing power structure in
contemporary media world, and in analyzing and reacting to the conventional media codes.
This reflection on the image-codes is both in esthetics and in content/message.
The media produced by the students contains their reaction to these codes and
their attempt to introduce another message to the audience of the TV media.
The performance acted out to the visiting Globo TV journalists was an artistic gesture
deriving from the theoretical discussion evolving in the workshop.
There was no intention to offend or yet even more “kidnap” the journalists,
but rather to express the spirit of independence from the conventional media power structure.
The form chosen for the performance was one of-reversing the roles-the being-filmed turned
into the ones who are filming, and those who came to film became the ones being filmed.
The symbolic gesture of locking the room was a metaphor for the “imprisonment”
felt by the media consumer, and here again it was reversed. The image of the locking
of the room and the placement of the security guard outside it, was screened in the
performance space using close circuit TV (using s camera outside the room),
and thus added this image to the statement made with the performance.
Thus it is important to treat it as an image, one of many presented to the journalist cameras,
and not as an act to actually restrict the freedom of the journalists.
The journalists from the MG TV, reacted in another spirit to the gesture,
and cooperated with the performance and agreed to be “forced” to reading
the manifesto written by the students, thus creating an “official” media statement
containing the “new” message, and even used this material in their broadcast.
We are surprised and in a way curious why the journalists from Globo TV chose to react
differently, as they also left the room smiling.
(after being locked for no more than 15 seconds)
The events that followed - the disturbed phone call made to you by the editor from Globo,
and its consequent “alarm” stand to give a living example of how media power operates.
We take this issue with the utmost seriousness,
we do however feel that a misunderstanding has occurred.
These events were discussed with the students and added a crucial point
to the educational process and reflection of the students on the matter at hand.
And there is full awareness to the consequences of the action carried out.
We apologize if the journalists were offended or felt “attacked” by the action
carried out in complete innocence and with an educational intention.
The journalists were informed before hand that they are entering a performance,
and the assumption was that all the actions carried out will be observer with a
theatrical eye, and not in a personal way. We are sorry for this misunderstanding.
We would be glad to meet with you after the workshop has ended
(as we are staying in B.H for 3 more days) and to include a representative
from the students, to clear out any other misunderstanding concerning this issue.
Thank you for your time and attention
Alex Fischer and Sagi Groner, workshop teachers.
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STUDENT LETTER
Ilmo. editor da Rede Globo.
Escrevemos a fim de esclarecer os objetivos da oficina oferecida pela UFMG no Festival
de Inverno de Diamantina bem como de nossa performace apresentada no dia 22/07 para as
redes televisivas Globo e Rede Minas.
A proposta do curso “Microtransmissão - Faça você mesmo sua estação de tv” é
construir uma alternativa às produções midiáticas existentes na atualidade,
através da construção de nossa própria estação de TV e da produção de conteúdo para
veiculação local. A partir da apresentação destes vídeos e imagens, temos como objetivo
despertar no telespectador diamantinense e participantes do festival uma consciência ativa
e uma percepção crítica do posicionamento normalmente tomado pelo público frente a televisão.
Depois de construírmos o microtransmissor usando um vídeocassete quebrado nos
dividimos em grupos para produzir conteúdo a ser veiculado. Idealizamos com os
professores da oficina uma instalação/performance que exibisse às redes televisivas
os nossos objetivos.
Por dois dias formou-se um relacionamento enriquecedor de troca de experiências
entre nós. Os onze alunos de formação audiovisual variada e os dois professores,
artistas inseridos em um contexto diferente, discutiram sobre o conceito
da performance/instalação antes de produzi-la.
O espaço da sala de aula foi transformado para receber a imprensa.
Cadeiras e restos de vídeocassetes destruídos foram empilhados nos cantos da sala a fim de
simbolizar o caos informacional da sociedade e da mídia. A programação da TVQue?V
(nosso canal de televisão) foi exposta em computadores alinhados no chão.
No teto, globos com antenas de televisão foram pendurados.
Ao símbolos midiáticos de seu espaço usual, lhe atribuímos outras formas e utilidades
representativas e questionadoras. Exemplo disso foi a presença de um modelo de papelão
do ator Paulo Zulu e da utilização de diversos monitores de vídeo e televisores
transmitindo a programação usual da TV aberta brasileira e conteúdo produzido por nós.
Uma câmera de segurança foi simulada para evidenciar o excesso de controle na
sociedade e questionar a veracidade das imagens por ela veiculada.
Posicionada na entrada da sala, ela enquadrava um segurança (o videoartista Carlos Magno)
encapuzado e empunhando uma arma de papelão, como guardião da sala de aula.
Essa imagem do segurança era transmitida para um monitor de televisão dentro da sala, isto é,
as pessoas no interior viam o que acontecia do lado de fora. As equipes de televisão,
ao demonstrarem vontade de sair da sala seriam barrados pelo segurança, cuja ação poderia ser
acompanhada pela própria equipe através do monitor de vídeo.
A intenção dessa ação era produzir uma imagem a ser questionada: uma equipe de televisão
mantida por um falso segurança, imagem-metáfora do aprisionamento promovido pela mídia,
prisão de sentidos e pretensa ostentação de verdade.
As redes de televisão foram avisadas de que, ao invés de ficarmos à disposição para uma
entrevista padrão tínhamos montado uma instalação/performance e que por isso deveriam entrar
na sala de aula com suas câmeras ligadas.
A partir daí, nós, alunos da oficina, munidos de filmadoras e câmeras fotográficas em
funcionamento, fizemos um jogo de inversão de papéis: a televisão como objeto dela mesma.
As equipes das televisões Globo e Rede Minas eram cercados por flashes,
câmeras de vídeo, projeções enquanto observavam a instalação e os perfomistas.
Depois de observarem toda a sala, e já acostumados com a presença de nossas câmeras,
as duas equipes tiveram a mesma atitude: tentaram nos entrevistar.
Em resposta nos mantivemos numa posição passiva de silêncio ou de simples
repetição de nosso manifesto (que segue em anexo).
É interessante notar a diferença nas reações das duas emissoras aos elementos
da performance/instalação e de nosso comportamento não convencional.
A insistência da televisão em produzir informação pré-determinada,
foi reafirmada pela postura da equipe da Rede Globo ao se retirarem da sala e ignorar
o conteúdo excluindo-o da cobertura do Festival de Inverno. Já a equipe da Rede Minas,
em especial a repórter, participou ativamente da instalação e se mostraram flexíveis
e atentos transformando o acontecimento em notícia, abandonando o que haviam antes
roteirizado ou programado.
Todo o processo, desde a construção do conceito aos resultados da performance,
nos serviu de material para discussão e nos foi muito importante, já que pudemos
por em prática o conteúdo das aulas. Reiteramos, ainda, a importancia da existencia desse
espaço e incentivo oferecidos pela Universidade e através do Festival.
Nos sentimos surpresos e até curiosos pelos motivos que fizeram a emissora reagir ao nosso
trabalho da maneira como o fizeram, envolvendo a instituição promotora do
Festival de Inverno e seus organizadores.
Gostaríamos de salientar que por nossas ações não pretendíamos ofender ou desrespeitar nem
a UFMG nem mesmo qualquer uma das emissoras envolvidas.
Devido aos constrangimentos e incomodos causados pedimos desculpas e nos colocamos
abertos e dispostos a quaisquer esclarecimento e explicações que se fizerem
necessárias.
Atenciosamente,
Aline Xavier, Ana Carolina Antunes, André Hallak, Fernando Rabelo, Gragório Torres,
Júlia Valle, Leticia Abreu, Lucas Barbi, Manuel Andrade, Mateus Guerra, Ricardo Cançado
A comunicação, responsável por nossa evolução em sociedade, serve também para manter certos
valores culturais. Olhos estão voltados para o que dizem as grandes mídias.
A comunicação feita em massa dificulta a interação de todos indivíduos.
Freqüentemente o espectador perde o foco do que não pertence à mídia.
Cabe a nós conquistar novamente o olhar humano para a realidade tátil que o envolve.
Lembremo-nos de que imagens e palavras apenas representam o mundo,
não são em si o mundo. São facilmente criadas e modificadas sem que haja nececidade
de correspondência com o real. É preciso compreender bem os mecanismos de sedução
desse sistema para seduzir todos de volta para fora da caverna.
Vamos vender nosso café na garrafa de coca-cola. Edulcorar nossas mensagens para
conquistar a atenção do público e voltá-la para o próprio público.
Os modelos de comportamento e estética predominantes nos meios de comunicação excluem
uma grante parcela da sociedade. Eles trazem confusões entre ficção e realidade,
normalidade e anormalidade. Vamos utilizar o próprio sistema para ampliar nosso espaco
de expressão e discussão. Diminuir mediações e manter um diálogo cada vez mais
direto entre os interlocutores tratando de realidades cada vez mais próximas.
Italian “street television movement”
TV=Código= Suporte= Imagem= Representação.
Se infiltrar nas fissuras do código. Para dizer o não dito.
Se abrir para o risco do real.
O fim do roteirizado, do programado, do previsível.
Dar voz a quem não diz. Mostrar quem está á margem.
Conhecer o código para quebrá-lo.
Reciclar o lixo.
Nem tudo que reluz é ouro. (What you see is not what you get.)
A garrafa de Coca Cola está cheia de café.
A embalagem é a mesma mas o conteúdo é altamente explosivo.
Só não vê quem não quer.
A tv que vê. Obrigado por assistir.
Transformar o código, a fórmula Reciclar para provocar. Formar novos olhares.
Espectador ativo. Ativar o espectador. Provocar.
12
MODULATOR SCHEME
TV-STATION SCHEME
WEBLINKS
http://www.neural.it/english/
http://www.minimaltv.cjb.net
http://candida.thing.net/homeNOfram.html
http://www.telestreet.it
http://www.megachip.info/readnews.php?id=114
http://www.nowartv.it
http://www.ngvision.org
http://tubocatodico.dyne.org
http://indymedia.nl/nl/2004/04/18085.shtml
http://www.geocities.com/vrijetelevisie
13
estado de minas cultura 30 july 2004
Outras ondas
Oficina do Festival de Inferno da UFMG abre debate tecnico e politico sobre
a democratização dos meios de comunicação
Janaina Cunha Melo de Diamantina
Other waves
A workshop from the 36th festival of UFMG opens technical and political discussions
on democratisation of the communication media.
by Janaina Cunha Melo de
To break free from the politics and aesthetic of
television patterns. This is the purpose of one of
the most productive workshops of the
36. winter festival of UFMG
“Do it yourself a TV Station” opened space for
reflections and practical results of the work
developed by guest professors Sagi Groner,
from Israel and Alex Fischer, from Germany.
To them, contemporaries of the Fine Arts Faculty
of Amsterdam, Holland, this purpose does not
indicates necessarily ways for the democratisation
of the vehicle, but teaches how to deconstruct
the actual information codes.
“This is a purpose of infiltration,
using the media as source for a non conventional
content, as a critic on the usual formats”,
says the video-artist Alex Fischer.
For Sagi Groner this workshop is focused
on inciting ideas on how execute and transmit programs in an autonomous way.
Their principle is based on observing the existing
codes remaking the production of the contents.
“The deconstruction of the existing
language processing something different,
this is the idea. Anyone can build his own
TV station, and so on think of the establishment
of an integrated net, says Fischer.
Subversive by nature “especially on what concerns
its political and market implications“
this purpose, in a certain way,
remounts to the radio transmissions trajectory.
Diamantina
In Brazil, artists and leaders operate, nowadays,
trough communitary channels, focused on the interests
of the communities of the “vilas” and “favelas”
of the country. Illegality, doesn’t concern the
co-ordinators of this workshop.
The objective is to expand fields of action.
“In Holland, transmissions multiplied enormously,
that government was pressured to cede some channels
for the demanding society”, says Sagi Groner,
master in Visual Arts. His own language started in
researches on radio transmissions. Years later,
worked on commercial production for tv.
The researcher points differences on both countries
reflected on the application of the proposed ideas.
As in Holland commercial interests are transmitted
by cable, in Brazil, it’s the opened system which
hosts advertisement, programs and institution.
“Considering this, we’re not just discussing strictly
information, technological possibilities and
contents. There’s another discussion,
about the public and private”. Its possible to build
a tv station from usual primitive equipment’s. The
main element, the modulator, is taken from a VCR.
They are teaching mechanical processes of
construction, as well as how to apply new
technologies, stimulating theoretical reflections.
“TV became a colective fantasie, in a fiction that
builds reality, but its necessary that its used in
another ways”, says Sagi Groner.
alex fischer
overtoom 301
1054 HW amsterdam
the netherlands
[email protected]
http://squat.net/overtoom301/alex
alex fischerʼs video work is abusing the overload of information and the increasing
production of image material throughout all kinds of visual media worldwide.
he is hunting and pirating global consumer entertainment like movies, commercials,
television and internet media as well as producing his own footage.
based on a TV structure (BNC) he is remixing live, fake and real information / images,
changing contexts and ideas, creating new possibilities and imaginations
or just pure manipulations.
2005
loods 6 amsterdam, netherlands
sail 2005 amsterdam, netherlands
pontificia universidae catholica / belo horizonte, brazil
museum ‘het stomgemaal‘ / zwanenburg, netherlands
2004
de wereld van witte de with / rotterdam, netherlands
festival de inverno da UFMG / diamantina, brazil
moscow international forum of art / moscow, russia
museum ‘het stomgemaal‘ / zwanenburg, netherlands
kunstvlaai / amsterdam, netherlands
arti et amicitiae / amsterdam, netherlands
artwalk / amsterdam, netherlands
2003
de parel gallery / amsterdam, netherlands (solo show)
ki-osk / amsterdam, netherlands
2002
3001 / duesseldorf, germany
stubnitz project / amsterdam, netherlands
e.o.f. gallery / paris, france
2001
W139 gallery / amsterdam, netherlands
st. pieterskerk / leiden, netherlands
gerrit rietveld academie / amsterdam, netherlands (final examen)
2000
m-art gallery / arnhem, netherlands
W2 / amsterdam, netherlands
1999
OT301 / amsterdam, netherlands
park of the future / amsterdam, netherlands
hochschule fuer bildende kuenste / hamburg, germany
1998
m-art gallery / arnhem, netherlands (solo show)
o.l.v.g. / amsterdam, netherlands
1997
hochschule fuer bildende kuenste / hamburg, germany (solo show)
1996
front / hamburg, germany (solo show)
1995
designkreuzzuege / hamburg, germany
awards
1995
bundesdesignkreuz / germany
16
Sagi Groner
Overtoom 301
1054 HW Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +31 6 246 06 143
Born in Israel residing in Amsterdam since 1997. Control in society has been for him a subject
of almost obsessive pursuit, both in observing and figuring out the more hidden corners of how
it works and inventing forms that manifest the yearning to break free from it.
These manifest sometimes in poetic images and sometimes in rather noisy sound installations,
often involving piracy of one kind or the other (pirate radio,plunder-phonic projects,sound
pollution). Thus combining his interest in sound and his personal views. The observation of
social control is on a broad spectrum ranging from political and power structures to the very
personal “pains” of the individual trapped within them. A special interest in technology and
its relation to these “pains” is also a reoccurring “theme” both in the content and in the
usually complex technical systems constructed to manifest these ideas. His documentary video
works address social and political issues in a close up and personal non journalistic
approach, always looking for the mundane reality and psychological buffers the characters have
to develop to cope with the political reality. His public space works in project such as
Personal Propaganda Unit and BNC-TV raise questions about the boarders of the public and
private, and rather than give an answer stand to show the possibility of creating your
own experiments.
2005
Ville de Mulhouse, Mulhouse, France -- Images du monde et inscription de la guerre
Netwerk gallery, Aalst, Belgium -- Event # 2
First Macadamia International Video Art Festival, Argentina
prog:ME - 1st Festival of Electronic Media of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Videobrasil - 15th international video festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Gallery Agripas, Jerusalem, Israel -- Land(e)scaping
BAK, Utrecht, NL -- Soft Target
2004
MUU gallery, Helsinki, Finland -- Direct Exposure
UFMG Winter Festival – Diamantina, MG, Brazil.
Netwerk gallery, Aalst, Belgium -- Schabbernak
HomeMade-2 Festival, Warsaw & Poznan, Poland
W139, Amsterdam, NL -- Traveling Without Moving
The Kosova Art Gallery, Prishtina, Kosovo -- M.Mulliqi Prize
2003
Inkijik - SKOR, Amsterdam, NL -- 1 minutes
Raid Projects, Los Angeles, USA -- Lines Of Conduct
De Appel, Amsterdam, NL -- Idealism
2nd Tirana Bianalle, Tirana, Albania
2nd Four Cultures Festival, Lodz, Poland
Videobrasil - 14th international video festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil
FilmGraz - Graz film festival ,Graz, Austria
Central Museum Utrecht, NL -- Sanctuary Mental Space
de Balie, Amsterdam, NL -- Albania Presentation
2002
Gallery EOF, Paris, France
Central Museum Utrecht, NL -- One minute biannale
Smart Project Space, Amsterdam, NL -- Thresholding
Pompidou Center Cinema, Paris, France -- digital film category
2001
Gallery Netwerk2, Aalst, Belgium -- FLAM
102 project space Grenoble, France -- la picnic electrique
W139, Amsterdam NL -- Sonic Encounters
Ankara International Film Festival, Ankara Turkey
2000
Popcorn - International Film Festival - Stockholm, Sweden
Gallery Netwrerk, Aalst, Belgium
Artis, Den Bosch, NL -- Spons 3
TVQUE?V - workshop 8ʼ30
BNCTV - news
7ʼ39
TVQUE?V - program 20ʼ08
alex fischer
[email protected]
sagi groner
[email protected]
overtoom 301
1054 HW amsterdam
the netherlands