The R, the A, the D, the I, the O: The Media Ecology of Pirate Radio

Mika

Active member
Thought this might be a suitable forum in which to discuss a new book by Matthew Fuller Media Ecologies, particularly the opening chapter on London pirate radio.

Kicking off with a block quote from Reynolds, the section moves through a patchwork of medial materiality, offering a "flat list of components" that forms an index of multiplicity - transmitter, microwave link, antennae, transmission and studio sites; records, record shops, studios, dub plates; turntables, mixers, amplifiers, headphones; microphones; mobile phones, SMS, voice; reception technologies, reception locations, DJ tapes; drugs; clubs, parties; flyers, stickers, posters.

For Fuller, these are the elements that make-up a potential media ecology induced by two processes: "the instantiation of particular compositional elements and the establishment of transversal relations between them." Such relationships are united through an interesting reading of Stuart Hall's 'Encoding/Decoding' as cybernetic theory's influence on cultural studies, and related to the conception of "Hylomorphism" developed by Deleuze and Guattari via Gilbert Simondon. The tension between discrete objects and their interrelation is an underlying concern, particularly when cooperation can produce something more than the sum of its parts.

This section reminds me of Eshun and the work of CCRU, obv. the influence of A Thousand Plateaus is also apparent. While there's a sense that the moment for this kind of fictocriticism is past, the chapter has an impressive, invigorating style. Desciptions of urban studio as hip hop mathematics class, for instance: "limbs wrapped in blood soaked Gucci lounge wear hang loose, one arm flopped over the side. Thick air sweet with the smell of meat on the turn, and motionless enough to allow columns of smoke from the fat jointed fists of the students/judges at their desks in the dark room to collect directly in a straight line up to the lowering cloud at the ceiling."

Anyone else checked this out yet?

For more info.
 

dominic

Beast of Burden
on a completely unrelated note -- except that title of this thread reminded me -- i heard somebody play dj zinc's "super sharp shooter" at a burlesque show last night -- to a non-jungle audience, and it went down really well

evidently dj zinc sampled a track by ll cool j in which ll spells out the entire alphabet, "the A, the B, the C, the D . . . . " -- and then zinc simply took each letter to spell out "the S, the U, the P, the E, the R . . . ."
 

nomos

Administrator
Mika: Hadn't heard of this one before. I'll have to check it out. Thanks.

Has anyone here read Fuller's Behind the Blip from Autonomedia?
 

wonk_vitesse

radio eros
dominic said:
on a completely unrelated note -- except that title of this thread reminded me -- i heard somebody play dj zinc's "super sharp shooter" at a burlesque show last night -- to a non-jungle audience, and it went down really well

evidently dj zinc sampled a track by ll cool j in which ll spells out the entire alphabet, "the A, the B, the C, the D . . . . " -- and then zinc simply took each letter to spell out "the S, the U, the P, the E, the R . . . ."

it goes down anywhere i think, same with 'jungle brother' those tunes are just killa tunes doesn't matter if you don't like d'n'b. A bit like a 'Dancing Queen' tune for the 90s maybe, it just didn't seem like that at the time it was released. That tune has travelled the world.

that aside, i like the sound of this book.
 
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DigitalDjigit

Honky Tonk Woman
I just get the feeling that these pirates are really living and this book's authors are like spiritual vampires or something, feeding off the energy generated by the people actually doing something interesting. Either that, or it's like they are scientists in a zoo and the subjects are like these interesting animals.
 

nine

variable spray
DigitalDjigit said:
I just get the feeling that these pirates are really living and this book's authors are like spiritual vampires or something, feeding off the energy generated by the people actually doing something interesting. Either that, or it's like they are scientists in a zoo and the subjects are like these interesting animals.

rubbish. try reading the book
 
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