A participatory online initiative toward defining the genre.

The winter months are a time for self-reflection: it is sometimes useful to pause and ask, "what does it all mean, anyway? Who am I, what is it that I am doing, and, for that matter, what motivates my activities," so that you might then face the spring with renewed purpose and vigor (at least until the e-mail piles up).

Well, here at free103point9, we're also taking a self-reflexive moment to consider such questions; only, 'we' are, for the most part, 'you,' and we need your help. As a reminder, free103point9 is a non-profit arts organization focused on establishing and cultivating the genre Transmission Arts. free103point9 activities support and promote artists exploring transmission mediums for creative expression. free103point9 defines "Transmission Arts" as a conceptual umbrella that unites a community of artists and audiences interested in transmission ideas and tools. This genre encompasses a diversity of practices and media working with the idea of transmission or the physical properties of the electromagnetic spectrum. Transmission art is generally a participatory live-art or time-based art, and often manifests as radio art, video art, light sculpture, installation, and performance.

New technologies constantly emerge as mediums for artistic practice and thus, bring forth a reconsideration of terms and redrawing of territories. RFID, WiFi, WiMAX, networked objects, reactive spaces, distributed actions, and psycho-geographic interventions are amongst a few contemporary artistic strategies and technologies that touch the borders of what once encompassed free103point9's scope for "Transmission Arts." Furthermore, there is always room for stretching non-technological conceptual definitions of "Transmission Arts.”

In light of such ongoing developments, free103point9 recognizes the need to engage a practice of inquiry that reaches beyond it's own organizational limits of understanding. We are inviting practitioners and supporters involved with transmission ideas and activities to expand or challenge our articulation of Transmission Arts. Please help us expand our practices and galvanize our community by taking a few minutes to share your experience with us. The project is outlined below.

Thank you for your time and your contributions to this exciting project!!
Congenially,
the free103point9 staff:
Galen Joseph-Hunter, Tianna Kennedy, Tom Roe, Lee Azzarello, and Sarah Halpern. Also Alice Planas, our wonderful volunteer whose efforts helped jumpstart this initiative.

P.S. A quick reminder that free103point9 is currently accepting applications for the AIRtime Residencies (deadline April 1, 2008) at Wave Farm. To apply http://www.free103point9.org/airtime/

Project Description: free103point9 Transmission Art Archive

free103point9 is in the process of building an archive identifying contemporary works within the genre of Transmission Arts.

This archive will serve as a resource for practicing artists to identify their works within the context of an emerging community of Transmission Art. Additionally this archive can aid the work of curators and scholars researching emerging practices in Media Art and Experimental Sound with respects to the topic of transmission. The Archive Project will be structured in two tiers:

1. The first tier will be a collection of primary source material contributed by and consisting of works from contemporary practicing artists, self-identified as working with topics related to transmission. We are inviting contemporary artists whose practice addresses transmission in form, content, or strategy to contribute examples of their work to this archive. Rather than wait for the definitions to be coined by theorists and historians, we ask that practicing artists self-identify with or challenge our existing notion of transmission with your work. Tell us about your work, how it relates to Transmission Arts, and how you respond to this term.

To submit your work for inclusion in free103point9's archive of Transmission Arts (contemporary artist and works), please submit the following text to archive@free103point9.org with a subject header (Transmission Works) by the deadline March 15, 2008:
• Artist statement and links/documentation to specific works with titles and description of works. (500 word max)
• A response to, or definition of, the term "Transmission Arts.” (500 word max) Historical works and artist cited as influences. (500 word max)

2. The second tier of this archive will seek contributions from artist, curators, writers, and researchers to reflect, critique, consider, and respond to specific issues and topics related to transmission. We are inviting artists, scholars or curators working with New Media, Sound, Performance, Inter-media, Conceptual Art, Video, Installation, Social Activism, or Collective Strategies to identify artists (historical or contemporary) relevant to a discussion of Transmission Arts and to interject and engage in a larger discussion on Transmission Arts as a genre.

To learn more about this conversation, please submit a short bio (300 word max) with a general inquiry to archive@free103point9.org subject heading (Transmission Arts Discussion) by March 15, 2008.