About Portable Radio
A touring local podcasting project hosting dialogues about UK visual cultures from May 2008 to May 2009
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Organised by artist Russell Martin and art market specialist Sarah Thelwall, Portable Radio was a series of dialogues held at 10 venues around the UK.
Each informal hour-long session explored a specific locale in the UK with local guests invited by our partners. Participants were both arts specialists (visual artists, critics, writers, philosophers) and members of the public who live or work in close proximity to the selected partner venues, or simply people who have little or no interest in the arts at all. Partners were selected from our personal and professional networks to convey the range of different environments in which art is made: rural and city, council and artist-led and Arts Council England supported, locally driven and internationally focussed, across a variety of media and conceptual concerns.
Dialogues revolve around topics specific to that location – local arts amenities, funding, the local opinion of arts projects and organisations – but focus more specifically on the intangible issues facing the arts in the current political and economic climate. Since we do not have an in-depth knowledge about the local art scenes in each of the ten locations, we do not prepare specific questions and the dialogues are not constructed as interviews. Instead, we are interested in the ways in which dialogue builds on itself, digresses and constructs a local identity out of its practice - the topics not mentioned in each session are as telling as those mentioned frequently.
Each dialogue was recorded in situ at the partner venue. These range from art galleries, cafes, offices, libraries and boats - a variable array of environments to reflect the miriad ways in which art is produced, exhibited or critiqued. As such, the audio quality of the recordings can vary as well.
As well as sonic presentation, each dialogue was visually mapped using a technique devised and developed by Sarah in her practice with creative businesses. Viewing Platform is a visual mapping tool designed to enable the often intangible & invisible structures of the art world to be displayed visually.
The visual and aural parts of each session can be viewed together and used to compare the differences in creativity and the informal landscape of each area.
For more information about Portable Radio, and to begin a dialogue about it's aims and how it might be relevant to you, please feel free to contact us at hearme@portableradio.org.uk.
Portable Radio is supported by Arts Council England Grants for the Arts.
Additional support is provided by Workplace Gallery and SCAN.
Portable Radio has been selected for inclusion on the Intute site.
The contents of this site are copyright © 2008 Russell Martin and Sarah Thelwall. The site design is copyright © 2008 Russell Martin.