Mezcal Radio Workshop

VENUE: 107 Redfern

Use your mobile phone to create an interactive radio station! A new kind of radio that is quick and easy. In this workshop, learn to use the interactive audio software app Mezcal, created by artist, designer and engineer August Black.

What could radio in the 21st century look like...? "Mezcal is a novel telematic service that allows multiple constituents to fluidly participate in broadcast-like scenarios through their mobile devices at the flick of their thumbs....Producers can make shows by themselves, in collaboration with others, at remote locations or on-site, and/or in synchronous or asynchronous modes. Both listeners and producers can hop-on or off the stream at will. It all works in a browser, outside of app stores, and is a different kind of networked radio where the boundary between listener and producer can be strict or blurred.... I see Mezcal as an instrument for diverse practices in transmission and sound art, for providing alternative modes of point to point communication for social movements, and as a new technological form of environmental and journalistic reporting." August Black. https://august.black/

Anyone may apply for this workshop and it is helpful if you can bring along your mobile device. This weekly 6 part workshop is to be group lead. We can kick-off with gaining an understanding of how to navigate the app and potential uses - we can also look at other situations using analogue FM mini-transmitters. We could then decide on a public space or an event for our audio subject matter and we can complete the workshop by editing fix-media pieces from our actions and audio outcomes that would be streamed/transmitted via the Radio Arts Network, RADIA... it's up to you!

Jon Panther is a Sydney based radio producer. He resided for many years in the UK where he graduated from the London College of Communication with a BTech Cert in Sound Design and Music Technologies and an MA in Interactive Multimedia. After several years collaborating with various performers and musicians, Jon returned to Aoteoroa to complete a post graduate diploma in Music Studies at Auckland University and an MMusA Distinction in composition at Victoria University Wellington NZ. Jon has had works broadcast, performed and presented in the USA, Italy, UK, Ireland, NZ and Australia and is currently absorbed in an online streaming and narrowcast FM project, DiffusionFM, exploring the possibilities of radio-space. He, with DiffusionFM, is the Australian member for the Radio-arts network RADIA and has the honour of curating and producing content by local artists for international transmission.