Saturday, 14th October 2023

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12pm PANEL: Walking the Plank in the United States: Stories of Un/lawful Radio Transmission

Hosted by Heather Contant

This panel features stories of triumph and tribulation from the history of pirate radio in the United States. The speakers include Stephen Dunifer (aka the Johnny Appleseed” of free radio and founder of Free Radio Berkeley), Christina Dunbar-Hester (researcher in the democratic control of technologies), and David Goren (creator of the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map). By sharing their unique perspectives as leading pirate radio practitioners and researchers, this panel sheds light on the ongoing pursuits for free and open access to the airwaves–past, present, and into the future.

Join the panel remotely via this link https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/87645171122

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1pm – PERFORMANCE: The Splinter Orchestra

Splinter is a radically inclusive large-scale improvising orchestra that has been a forum for listening and sounding together for well over 100 exploratory musicians and sound artists living in or passing through Sydney for 2 decades. Currently we have a diverse membership of roughly 25. Our process of co-creation and the resulting music is probably best left undefined — amorphous and ephemeral qualities being inherent to the project — but we can say that playing is the group’s fundamental activity. We meet weekly, with ever-fluctuating line-ups, to do just that. Much of our public work in the last few years has been an exploration of ‘choreographed’ play in vast spaces, particularly outdoors, including Mungo National Park, Bundanon and The Pilliga, where we listen, move, sound and record, (and then listen back to the inscribed phenomena on our apparatus). In recent years we’ve developed an interest in sound installations, consisting of self-playing instruments, interactive sound-sculptures, visual and text provocations, sound devices and more. The elements of these ‘Splintstallations’, just like the many voices of Splinter, work together, sometimes in parallel, sometimes intersecting.

“Every Splinter Orchestra performance unfolds a unique improvisational sonic ecology combining highly developed music skills with thoroughly experimental sound-making and an intuitive compositional repertoire built from years of collective engagement. The entire space becomes a stage for performers and audience alike to wander, carrying their generative or listening attentions amongst, between and through an evolving sonic unknown.” – Gary Warner, 2017

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2pm WORKSHOP: Futuring Cultures of Listening and Protest Technologies in Climate Crisis

Hosted by Clare Cooper