A project of Geelong After Dark 6 May 2016. Venue: Telematic Cafe located at Beavs Bar

The radio would be the finest possible communication apparatus in public life, a vast network of pipes. That is to say, it would be if it knew how to receive as well as to transmit, how to let the listener speak as well as hear, how to bring him into a relationship instead of isolating him. On this principle the radio should step out of the supply business and organize its listeners as suppliers. Any attempt by the radio to give a truly public character to Public occasions is a step in the right direction.

    —  Bertolt Brecht «The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication», 1932

Telematic Cafe teams up with THE PULSE 94.7 FM – Geelong region’s community radio to deliver the apparatus of radio that is inclusive of its users throughout its entire cycle of communication. Radio Whispers (Bhagavad-Gita) works as a collective radio model – people-generated communication space within the system of radio. The three activity stages enacted for participation within Telematic Cafe are:

• send,
• listen,
• talk.

Radio Whispers become a process in which information is fed into, processed, interpreted and transmitted for yet another interpretation. Participants randomly select and submit (send) numbers of Bhagavad-Gita quotes. This information flow generates a feedback of quotes recovered in the form of written text which is used to read them for live transmission (talk).

Radio experience continues at the listening stage.  Instead of delivering a soundscape feeding into the space of everyday noise, Radio Whispers re-broadcasts the audio signal from FM to AM band and captures it through self-made devices  – crystal sets and headphones – replicating early days of the radio. Listening from crystal sets becomes an intimate and meaningful radio experience for the listener.

Containing a total of 700 verses Bhagavad-Gita is written in Sanskrit, but has become a global text – translated in many languages and in many versions, it is also a subject of constant interpretation. Mixed with the English reading of quotes by participants are songs of rap music, (rhythmic vigorous chanting) in national languages which feature global adaptation of this US-born music genre to powerfully express political views and identities of marginalized or not marginalized groups of people, communities or nations.

Live broadcast: THE PULSE 94.7 FM 6 May 2016 6pm-8pm AEST. Radio listening with crystal sets within Telematic Cafe continues till 10pm. 

Team:

Marita Batna (concept)
Michael Morgan (concept)
Leo Renkin, THE PULSE 94.7 FM (concept)
Terry Guida
Matt Gogarty, THE PULSE 94.7 FM
Darby Hewitt, THE PULSE 94.7 FM
Steve Juhaz
Toki Babai

Crystal sets by Geelong Amateur Radio Club. Thank You to Lou Blasco

Bhagavad-Gita website.