August 8th -ISEA
Day two of broadcasting from the ticket booth at Camera 12 in downtown San Jose brought discussions both serious and comic.
We started out with David Madrid’s “Block 2 Block” show. David is a local social worker who works with San Jose’s youth. He and his guests talked about the gang lifestyle, being young and homeless in downtown “San-Jo”, the role of different races and classes in social change, the talent that exists in young people and much, much more.
“Block 2 Block” with David Madrid and guests
From that we went to the issue of providing unbiased coverage through photography. This topic was unpicked by NPR’s Michael Trigilio together with his studio guest, Jerry Miegelitz, who is Director of Photography at the San Jose Mercury News. How do you give equal coverage to both sides of the story through just one photo? Listen to this show for some answers.
San Jose Mercury News director of photography talks to Michael
After that the electronic tentacles of ISEA and Zero One made their way onto the air as participants in “Drift Relay” stopped to be interviewed by LeE after they had interviewed him. Everybody is the media in San-Jo this week. “Drift Relay” is a relay walk whereby participants use sporting metaphors to guide their exploration of the city.
ISEA: “Drift Relay”
We then took it out on the street with some more street-prowling, NPR style. Whizz B chatted to those that happened to be passing through the Paseo San Antonio in the early afternoon: a single father of four, a couple on their afternoon off, some kids fresh from the Superhero Science Exhibit. And we heard from someone from eToy whose sarcophagus tank for digital post-death dust was part of ZeroOne.
Street prowling with a plastic bag
During that discussion LeE was “hanging on the telephone”, hoping to reach Trena Noval on the mobile phone. Ms Noval was on the “Free Soil Tour” of Silicon Valley where the environmental impacts of the local electronics industry are laid bare in all their shame; a fitting note of realism during this celebration of what electronics can enable. There is some good news though and it involves the absorbent properties of mushrooms.
Trena Noval reports on electro-environment damage
Our next scheduled show was “Traffic Island Disks” where Saul roamed the streets to eavesdrop on people’s personal stereos. He even found someone listening to a cassette tape, another note of irony given the week’s elevation of the digital medium.
“Traffic Island Disks” for Tuesday
We had a little street-prowling again, talking to the Bay Area’s first ever hyphy comedian who emerged from the gym across from NPR’s ticket booth, as well as other people on the street.
Street prowling yet again
NPR is nothing if not flexible and so from that we went up to San Francisco to get a second installment of our special ISEA-week “Frank Prattle” show with Jay Auslander from the Hosfelt Gallery and Susan O’Malley from Hang Art. They introduced themselves and then talked about what they like in the San Francisco art scene at present, be it on the street or in the galleries.
Frank Prattle: Hosfelt Gallery and Hang Art
And then the broadcast ceased, even though the work continued. For the transmitter had been right on the pavement outside Camera 12 all day, making it plain for all to see what was going on. But that had to change and so NPR did the necessary James-Bond-style maneuvers in the bright sunlit evening to relocate the broadcast facilities.