26 – 27.5.2018
@ SCAD Hong Kong SCAD 香港分校
292 Tai Po Rd, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon
九龍深水埗大埔道292號

Can radio be art, rather than just be about art? Is it more than media, as a medium for art; not just a material for making art, but a means to an ‘elsewhere,’ a beyond? What shapes have artists given to radio as medium and media to bring out its communicative, artistic, and activist potential? How has radio shaped the artists who have explored it, transforming them into channels for radical imaginings?

The Cantonese word 收音機 (sau1 jam1 gei1) sings out three syllables in that high pitch that characterizes the dark, flat tone. It sounds a sonic stream with a focus on receiving and collecting (收 sau1), on voice (音 jam1), and on device (機 gei1). Radio is not just another information technology, it is an affect. In English, the term “radio” derives from the Latin radius for “beam,” referring to a ray-like quality, or a means of radiant energy much like the song of its Cantonese equivalent.

In recent years, radio has made rare but important appearances in the practices of Hong Kong artists. For instance, Wong Chun-hoi’s Temporarily non-locatable public space #1 – Nullah Road Sitting-out Area (2015) and Fiona Lee’s A-I-R (2014) focus on the creative use of airwaves to re-spatialize indoor and outdoor public space. Tang Kwok-hin’s The Four Visitors is a radio drama created as part of a site-responsive installation, evoking the nature of radio as cultural history, expression, and domestic experience. In Samson Young’s Dream FM (While the daylight lasts) (2015), the radio is an imaginary landscape, a state of being between presence and absence. Bryan Chung’s Y2K Millennium Butterflies (2000) and Over the Top (2000) are two parts of a CD-ROM publication created around reflections of ‘old’ and ‘poor’ media, in a narrative that employs the radio as a dramatic device.

Why have there not been more artists engaging with radio as art in Hong Kong? In this symposium Art for Radio? Radio for Art? soundpocket and SCAD-Hong Kong’s Department of Art History wonder aloud in a series of Dialogue Circles, seeking answers and further questions about radio in a radically changing media environment.

Art for Radio? Radio for Art? symposium is artist-led: all programmes have been devised around artists’ processes, practices, and inspirations. Through discussions about specific works by artists in Hong Kong, Japan, USA, Canada, and elsewhere, we ask: how is radio as idea, object, and material a source of an artists’ creative thinking? How could materials not created for radio transmission be transformed for the purpose of art for radio? Beyond transmission, is radio a medium, device, apparatus, concept, or way of life? Can radio for art, or art for radio, be a cultural action? Can it be a nexus within which not only living audio heritage but also life and art can be activated?

= Participating Artists and Speakers =
Amber Au | Emily Verla Bovino | András Blazsek | Hera Chan | Bryan Chung | Hitomi Hasegawa | Meri Kyto | Lam Laam Jaffa | Tang Kwok-hin | Heikki Uimonen | Gregory Whitehead | Wong Chun Hoi | Yang Yeung | Yuen Cheuk-wa

收音機可以「是」藝術、而不只是「關乎」藝術嗎？它只是其中一個傳播藝術的「媒介」，抑或是一個可以讓人接觸其他領域的途徑？藝術家如何定義收音機這個「媒介」，並帶出它在溝通、藝術及社會運動各範疇的可能性？收音機又如何影響藝術家在發掘其可能性並將之轉化成為想像的渠道？

收音機的廣東話拼音為「sau1 jam1 gei1」，三個字都屬於高平聲；根據字面解說，收音機意指接收、收集聲波的儀器；收音機不只是信息技術，而是情感表達的方式。英文「radio」一詞源自拉丁文的「radius」，有「發射電波」的意思。因此「radio」可以指向具有射線，又或是放射能量的特質，這跟廣東話的字面義相通。

近年，香港藝術家也有利用收音機進行創作；此類作品雖不常見，卻很值得大家去留意。例如：王鎮海的《臨時無定空間＃1－水渠道休憩處》（2015）及李穎姍的《A-I-R》（2014）利用大氣電波重塑室內、以至室外的公共空間；鄧國騫的廣播劇《訪客》作為回應在地裝置的一部分，喚起了收音機在文化歷史、敘述，以及大眾生活中的重要性；在楊嘉輝的《Dream FM (While the Daylight Lasts)》（2015）中，收音機成為一個想像的場景，一個游走於存在與不存在的狀態；鍾緯正的《Y2K 與千年蟲之化蝶傳奇》（2000）及《Over the Top》（2000）是收錄於唯讀記憶光碟的二部作品，透過收音機這個具戲劇性的裝置論述這個「老舊」媒體的反思。

為什麼香港只有少數藝術家會利用收音機進行創作呢？由聲音掏腰包及薩凡納藝術設計大學（香港）藝術歷史學系舉辦的「藝術廣播？廣播藝術？」研討會中，大家可以透過一系列的討論環節對收音機於媒體發展中的角色尋找答案及作進一步反思。

「藝術廣播？廣播藝術？」是一個由藝術家「主導」的研討會，所有節目內均圍繞藝術家的創作方向、模式及靈感來源進行。透過相關作品，我們對以下議題作出提問：作為一個意念、一件物件或是一種物料，收音機如何成為藝術家的創作靈感來源？藝術家如何把原本不是用作廣播的素材轉化，以達致廣播藝術的目的？除了作為傳播信息的載體，收音機究竟是一個媒介、一件裝置、一種工具、還是一個生活方式？「藝術廣播」或「廣播藝術」作為文化行為及網路，在作為記錄聲音的載體的同時，也可以推動到生活及藝術層面的連繫嗎？

= 參與藝術家及講者 =
急急子 | Emily Verla Bovino | András Blazsek | 陳思穎 | 鍾緯正 | 長谷川仁美 | Meri Kyto | 林嵐 | 鄧國騫 | Heikki Uimonen | Gregory Whitehead | 王鎮海 | 楊陽 | 袁卓華

–

The radio work Ghost, Chicken (2018) will be on view in the conserved holding cell of the former North Kowloon Magistracy, now SCAD-Hong Kong. Created for the occasion of Art for Radio? Radio for Art?, this new collaborative work by artist and art historian Emily Verla Bovino and artist András Blazsek aims to encourage Hong Kong artists to submit proposals for similar interventions in the former holding cell.

由藝術家兼藝術史學家 Emily Verla Bovino 及藝術家 András Blazsek 為「藝術廣播？廣播藝術？」研討會創作的廣播作品《Ghost, Chicken》（2018）將於研討會期間於前北九龍裁判法院內之囚室（SCAD 的現址）展出；藉以鼓勵香港藝術家遞交以該囚室作為創作靈感的計劃書。

* All programmes are free and open to public. Online registration is now open.
* 所有活動免費開放予公眾，參加人士可於網上預先登記。

* Live broadcast will be available on http://mixlr.com/soundpockethk/
* 節目將於 http://mixlr.com/soundpockethk/ 即時轉播

>> Register Online 網上登記
>> Programme in a nutshell 節目一覽
>> Artists and Speakers’ Biography 藝術家及講者簡介

–

Co-presented by 合辦：