Rick Prelinger, Anna Friz & Jeff Kolar: The Other Spectrum
As part of the arcane transmissions performance series, cloaca projects and The Lab present The Other Spectrum, including of a lecture by Rick Prelinger (Prelinger Library) on “useful radio,” and a live transmission art performance by Anna Friz & Jeff Kolar.
The Other Spectrum: Useful Radio
A Lecture by Rick Prelinger
Useful radio is defined by its utility, as distinct from broadcast radio whose function is to entertain, inform and exhort. Useful radio regulates the labor and mobility of humans, animals and vehicles on land, sea and in the air; supports state functions, including combat, policing and surveillance; enables infrastructures of production, distribution and consumption; and links networks of technically- literate and non-technical people. As a multidirectional system of transmitting and diffusing commands, instructions and situational information, useful radio has from its origins simultaneously mapped and reproduced geographies of power and control. At the same time, manifestations like citizens band (CB) and low-power handheld radios have enabled uncountable acts of resistance and rebellion. Useful radio has played a key role in workers’ organizations, civil rights and antiwar movements and youth rebellion, and it might be considered the pulse of the January 6 Capitol riot.