my room low frequency visor ghost in the shell 2001: a brass odyssey soundware v1.5
SOUNDCARD
curated by Aleksandar Vasiljevic


... moving pictures can still do
what they have been invented for
one hundred years ago:
they can still be
moving.

(Wim Wenders: Lisbon Story)


SOUNDCARD is intended to be an audio version of common collage postcards of cities and provinces around the world. It is organised as a series of broadcasts dedicated to various aspects of Serbian soundscape (techno/ambient/noise pieces of local artists, audio miniatures from the margins of city life, samples of Serbian summer ethnic festivals, soundtracks of short online films, etc.).

When sending a postcard of Paris to a friend or a relative one sends a picture of Eiffel Tower, or Triumphal Arch, or Notre Dame, or whatever and puts a silly phrase like "Greetings from sunny/rainy/whatever Paris". The idea of sending a postcard is not passing a unique/specific message to a person, it's just "bleeping", just letting one know we are able to communicate. But this is still a one-way, person-to-person communication. And one still needs a permanent address and a postman to be delivered a postcard.

By their nature radio/electro-magnetic waves are everywhere and the fact makes them the most useful (although imperfect) "bleeping media" so far. It was designed to bleep, after all. To radiate. Even the Internet seems to become more and more wireless, thus accepting the idea of radio as a technical solution. And Internet has given radio a new capability in return.

Radio as a media is primarily real-time oriented, which is quite useful for most typical programs it offers (news, chart music and more news). However, when it comes to art, this feature oftenly becomes an obstacle. If we miss a news we can expect to hear it sometime later (if it's still valuable). If we miss a radio drama we have to go to the radio station and pass a bunch of procedures in order to reach the archive and listen to the piece. Or wait for a program editor to pull it out of the archive for a replay. Frustrating.

First steps of Internet radio were marked by obvious attempts to copycat the real-time aspect of the classic radio programme scheme. Still, this was just putting the same old idea into a new set of transmission protocols, not more than that. This surely is not the wrong approach to what the Internet radio should be, just an insufficient one.

What gives Internet radio a truly new quality over a traditional radio (especially as far as art pieces are concerned) is a possibility of establishing on-demand databases available to audience at any time. Like leaving a message on a friend's phone answering machine or sending a postcard. Both the message and the card would be available for later use.

At this point, SOUNDCARD is dedicated to the "database aspect" of Internet radio as one of its most unique features. In future, SOUNDCARD aims to become a permanently growing database of independent Serbian audio art, giving a look upon the various approaches to thinking about sound by local artists, sort of a publicly accessible mailbox (a soundbox).

Another issue that SOUNDCARD deals with is the ever-hungry sense of hearing. They say that we hear much before we are born. When dying a natural death, the sense of hearing is among the lasts to go off. In the meantime, our ear is ready to receive any sound. In the absence of pleasant or tranquilising sounds any sound would do just to let us know that someone/something is still out there. Silence is a lonely place.

Therefore, SOUNDCARD is also dedicated to radio (in a general meaning) as our extended ear, letting us know that things still happen in remote places. Artists were asked to put their reflections on Serbian audio/video/cultural environment into an auditive form, thus making their own pieces for the Serbian collage audio postcard. It is up to audience to decide whether there are unique/specific/memorable spots in it. So much for the art. And radio can still do what it has been invented for some hundred years ago: it can still radiate.

________________________
SOUNDCARD sub-projects:

1. SOUNDWARE v1.5 by Aleksandar Vasiljevic + domin8r (a soundscape made
of computer hardware noises);

2. MY ROOM by Milos Tomic (a soundpiece on margins of city life);

3. 2001: A BRASS ODYSSEY by Aleksandar Lukic (a stroll through the
Festival of Folk Brass Bands in Gucha / Western Serbia);

4. GHOST IN THE SHELL by CoRRoSioN group (techno/ambient/noise look upon Serbia);

5. LOW FREQUENCY VISOR compiled and mixed by Milos Kukuric of Low-Fi
Video Project (audio aspect of Serbian independent short films)

SOUNDCARD is a project within the series "curated by..." comissioned by Kunstradio, Austria.

orf kunstradio


my room low-fi video corrosion sabor u guci soundware