Writer/curator Cathy Byrd sparks conversations about today’s art, design, and film on the Fresh Art International podcast. Synthesizing interviews and field recordings with critical commentary since 2011, the podcast archives the voices, sounds, and stories of contemporary culture makers from around the world.
Episodes
Monday Jun 24, 2019
Monday Jun 24, 2019
In this episode, we revisit one of our live studio sessions from 2018: The Art of Obsolete Media. Web streaming on Jolt Radio, we introduce four Miami-based artists passionate about bygone technology: Barron Sherer, Kevin Arrow, Martha Raoli and Terence Price.
The initial spark for this conversation was Obsolete Media Miami (O.M.M.), a shared studio space and repository for all kinds of old media that Barron Sherer and Kevin Arrow launched and operated from 2015-2018.
On Fresh Art International, you’ll hear Sherer introduce the work of legendary filmmaker Jonas Mekas, and talk about his own complex film and video installation projects— presented in Miami, Florida, and Queens, Australia in 2018. Sherer opened a new studio space in February 2019. In 2020, he’ll launch the Moving Image Alliance, a nonprofit media arts resource and service organization to support contemporary moving image arts based on pre-digital cinema practices and technologies.
Kevin Arrow takes us on a tour of the Obsolete Media Miami space at the edge of Miami’s Design District. In early 2019, Arrow established Media and Archival Studies (M.A.S.), Miami with Stephanie Marie, the Manager of Special Collections and Archives at the Miami-Dade Public Library System. Among his upcoming local collaborations are a live “cinema + sound” experience at Bakehouse Art Complex, the activation of a planetarium dome at Booker T. Washington High School and the screening of a Maya Deren film at the North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art.
Artist and writer Martha Raoli talks about her 2018 performance with a manual typewriter at the Perez Art Museum, Miami. In 2019, Raoli launched her own radio show featuring live theremin performance. You can listen to "Etherwave Hour" on Jolt Radio every Saturday at 2pm.
Obsolete media inspired photographer Terence Price to create an entire body of work from family photo albums and home movies. After presenting his solo exhibition "Dancing in the Absence of Pain,” in early 2019, at Art Center South Florida (now Oolite Arts), he’s been preparing for upcoming shows and completing a residency with Oolite that will end in December 2019.
These Miami-based artists represent a penchant for the pre-digital among creatives the world over. Their bygone tech-infused pursuits emphasize the ongoing relevance of obsolete media in the field of contemporary art.
Sound Editor: Anamnesis Audio | Special Audio: Courtesy Jonas Mekas, Barron Sherer, Kevin Arrow, Martha Raoli, Terence Price
Related Episodes: Turning Analog Technology into Sound Sculpture, Inside Miami's Sound Chamber, ORLAN on Art Tech
Related Links: Obsolete Media Miami, Terence Price, Martha Raoli, Barron Sherer
Monday Mar 04, 2019
Monday Mar 04, 2019
Miami-based sculptor Robert Chambers lived in Everglades National Park for one month in 2018, as a Fellow in the Artist in Residence in Everglades program.
In the darkness outside his studio one night, the artist tripped on the roots of an ancient plant: The Saw Palmetto (in Latin, Serenoa repens), That’s when a hidden world began opening up to him.
In fact, the small palms are everywhere you look, native to the subtropical wilderness. The leaves are woven into the thatched roofs of indigenous pavilions you’ll find in Big Cypress, a wetlands preserve north of the national park. In some parts of the world, saw palmetto berries are cherished for their healing properties.
We meet Robert Chambers to explore his exhibition titled Serepens at the AIRIE Nest, an art gallery inside the Visitor Center. AIRIE curator Deborah Mitchell and two environmental scientists who’ve inspired his new body of work are here, too. Botanist Walter Abrahamson has been researching the saw palmetto for forty years. Hilary Swain directs the Archbold Biological Station, a center dedicated to research and conservation in the South Florida watershed.
Sound Editor: Anamnesis Audio
Related Episodes: Deborah Mitchell: The Artist as Guide to the Everglades, Jenny Larsson on Searching for Arctic Winter, Adam Nadel on Getting the Water Right, Artist Residency in the Everglades, Art and the Environment at Miami's Deering Estate, Jorge Menna Barreto on Environmental Sculpture, Andrea Bowers on Environmental Activism
Related Links: Artist in Residence in Everglades (AIRIE), Everglades National Park, Robert Chambers, Archbold Biological Station
Monday Oct 15, 2018
Monday Oct 15, 2018
From Port of Spain, Trinidad, we live stream a special radio program about the significance of digital media as a contemporary cultural space in the Caribbean. Joining us in our pop up studio are artist and writer Christopher Cozier, architect Sean Leonard, writer and media producer Janine Mendes-Franco, journalist and podcaster Franka Philip, and artist designer Kriston Chen—all based in Trinidad.
Listen to find out when the internet begin playing a vital connective role in the region and which social media platforms currently inform and inspire the local creative community. Hear diverse perspectives on how locally produced radio, citizen journalism and podcasting might diversify, amplify and document critical conversations about contemporary art and culture.
Sound Editor: Anamnesis Audio | Special Audio: Talk 'Bout Us/Trini Good Media; Jamie Lee Lloyd, Unease, Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, University of West Indies, 2008; 1000 Mokos, Douen Islands: In Forest and Wild Skies, featuring Sharda Patasar; Moko Jumbie special on Kelly Village TV, 2017; Sugar Cane Arrows; Attorney General TV news bulletin during 1990 attempted coup, via Wondershare; The Street, 91.9FM; IRadio.TT, Music Matters, The Caribbean Edition; 1990 Coup Special on Gayelle TV; David Michael Rudder, Accapella on Instagram, 2018; Don't Be Rude, mix created by Ozzy Merriq, 2011
Related Episodes: LIVE from the Dominican Republic with Tilting Axis, Miami's Caribbean Arts Remix, Diaspora Vibe: Art with Caribbean Roots
Related Links: Alice Yard, Bocas Lit Fest, Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, #1000Mokos
Monday Sep 17, 2018
Monday Sep 17, 2018
In 2018, Locust Projects invited the Detroit-based design duo known as root of two to bring three headless chickens to roost in Miami. For six months, Cezanne Charles and John Marshall embellish the Magic City skyline with their public art and digital engagement project.
Previously presented in France and the United Kingdom, Whithervanes translate the traditional weathervane into a 21st century radio transmitter. Mounted on rooftops in downtown, the Design District and Biscayne Boulevard, the four-foot tall birds change colors and direction in response to the climate of fear propagated by the media. These are tech-savvy chickens. They scan the Internet for alarmist keywords, collecting information on topics from violence to economic crises to natural disasters. You can follow their “neurotic, early worrying system”, or N.E.W.S. on the Whithervanes Twitter account.
Connecting art with streaming social media and news technology, Whithervane designers Cezanne Charles and John Marshall invite us to think about the emotional impact of the digital information that controls our view of the world.
Sound Editor: Anamnesis Audio | Photographs courtesy root of two and Locust Projects
Related episodes: Art of the Everyday, Art and the Rising Sea, Report from Miami Art Week 2017
Monday Jul 30, 2018
Monday Jul 30, 2018
Egyptian artist Magdi Mostafa's interactive environment for the 2018 Dakar Biennial of Contemporary African Art turns the sounds of analog technology into a vibrating aesthetic force. Acting like tiny radio receivers, his handmade electronics make audible the otherwise silent electro-magnetic fields emanating from today’s myriad digital devices. He exposes the reverberations of energy emission and loss in our battery powered, wi-fi connected contemporary communications.
In “Transmission Loss,” electronic residue becomes the main signal—the core source of energy for an audio playscape. Mostafa invites us to turn a field of full frequency noise into a sonic composition. By tweaking the dials of tone generators and manipulating vibrating devices, we can alter sounds, discover patterns and explore the mysterious interactions of feedback and inter-device communication.
Sound Editor: Jonathan Pfeffer | Special Audio and Photos courtesy Magdi Mostafa
Related Episodes:
Samson Young Presents Hong Kong Mixtape
Related Links:
Wednesday Feb 14, 2018
Wednesday Feb 14, 2018
Thursday Jan 04, 2018
Thursday Jan 04, 2018
Today we take you to the intersection of nature, art and technology to meet Amsterdam-based artists Ralph Nauta and Lonneka Gordjein of Studio Drift. They design their creative applications of new technology to make us question the lines we draw between humanity and nature, chaos and order. Presented during Miami Art Week 2017, Studio Drift's flying sculpture made of 300 lighted drones was especially provocative and poetic. The artists leave us believing in the unexpected potential for technology to feel natural.
Piano solo: Joep Beving
Wednesday Nov 22, 2017
Wednesday Nov 22, 2017
Alba Triana, a Colombian-born composer and sound artist based in Miami, Florida, introduces three of her exquisite sound and light installations: Music on a Bound String questions whether or not the act of listening is indispensable to the musical experience. Microcosmos animates a cymbal to create an immersive vibrational experience. The interactive Electronic Gamelan invites visitors to perform one of the artist's compositions. Listen to discover her trans-disciplinary approach to the ever-evolving field of sound art.
Thursday Sep 14, 2017
Thursday Sep 14, 2017
Today, we take you to Paris for a studio visit with French artist ORLAN. Surrounded by her books, sculptures, paintings and photographs, we talk about her evolving relationship with technology.
Sound Editor: Alyssa Moxley | Voice Over Translation: Emilia Garth | Special Audio Track: ORLAN