authors: Irena Pivka, Brane Zorman
production : Jasmina Založnik (from 2011)
co-curators: llari Valbonesi (RAS 2011),  Jadranka Ljubičič (2008 MNC)
avdio: Marko Trstenjak (from 2010), Brane Zorman,  Jure Vlahovič (2008-2010)
voicers: Jelena Ličanin, Helena Božič, Matic Munc, Gregor Kamnikar
web design: Vesna Bukovec, Irena Pivka
production: CONA institute for contemporary art processing
with many different co-producers and partners by each projects

radioCona is a platform that uses the radio-frequency space in the art contexts. FM frequency is understand as public space and explored from a different perspectives and mediated through artworks, audiobooks, programming and exhibitions. radioCona is intervention into public space.

Art project radioCona first broadcasted on january 1st, 2008. Till present nine FM and internet broadcasts with series of sound art, radio art, discursive projects, thematic discussions and lectures were produced. radioCona appeared and exhibited in Modern Gallery Ljubljana, City Gallery Ljubljana, transmediale.11, RAM LIVE, among others.

radioCona broadcasting is announced at the competent national agency for the regulation of the frequency space with an aim to thematise the use of public space as a public good within the existing legislation and to think the non-media use of the frequency radio space.

Read more about radioCona

There has recently arisen the need to rearticulate the use and abuse of the radio-frequency space both in social and artistic contexts. The abuse of radio for exclusively propaganda purposes (for politics or the economy) is slowly but surely undermining this space. Already in Brecht’s texts the radio is interpreted as a forerunner of the Internet, mobile communication, and other two-way communication technologies. Artworks employing communication technology relate to locative media and to placing events in the artistic and social contexts. Through a series of FM and online broadcasts and the formulation of a radioCona platform, the project thinks the use of the radio-frequency space in the artistic and broader social contexts. Legally and without any major procedural complications (such as those that marked 2008, the first year of its operation), radioCona has occasional access to a frequency band. For this it was necessary to define the domain and find an interlocutor (the national administrator of the frequency space) in order to realize the project on the FM frequencies. The local FM broadcast is also streamed live for the sake of wider distribution. The project is set up and activated periodically for relatively short intervals. The mobile audio studio changes location in accordance with the content and logistics of the individual broadcast, captures sounds from the environment, and maps active spaces. RadioCona works as a platform for processing, producing, and exhibiting contemporary art projects that can be distributed by radio. Its program also comprises accompanying events: talks, panel discussions, guided tours of exhibition projects, with an important part being radioCona’s own sound-art projects and soundscapes. In the future radioCona plans to focus even more on projects that think two-way, radio-frequency based transmission of information, not one-to-one communication but rather social systems of communicating, social protocols, and temporary communities originating therefrom, and the interactions within a community in relation to what starts the basic information.

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V današnjem času se je pokazala potreba po ponovni reartikulaciji uporabe in zlorabe radijskega frekvenčnega prostora, tako v družbenem kot v samem umetniškem kontekstu. Zloraba v izključno propagandne namene (politične ali gospodarske) počasi, a vztrajno zajeda in razjeda ta prostor. Že v Brechtovih spisih je radio razumljen kot predhodnik interneta, mobilne komunikacije in drugih dvosmernih komunikacijskih tehnologij. Umetniška dela, ki zasedajo komunikacijsko tehnologijo, se navezujejo na lokativne medije in na umestitev teh dogajanj v umetniški in socialni kontekst. Preko serije FM in spletnih oddajanj, ter preko formiranja platforme radioCona, projekt misli rabo prostora radijskih frekvenc v umetniškem in širše družbenem kontekstu. Delo legalno in brez večjih proceduralnih zapletov, ki so bili značilni za prvo leto delovanja (2008), občasno dostopa do frekvenčnega prostora. Da je to mogoče, je bilo potrebno pridobiti sogovornika, nacionalnega skrbnika frekvenčnega prostora, za realizacijo projekta na FM frekvencah. Lokalno oddajanje prek FM frekvenc se zaradi širše distribucije vsebine istočasno tudi streama. Projekt se vzpostavi – aktivira občasno, za krajši časovni interval. Mobilni avdio studio menja lokacijo glede na vsebino in logistiko posameznega oddajanja, zajema zvoke okolice in mapira aktivne prostore. RadioCona deluje kot platforma za procesiranje, produciranje in razstavljenaje projektov sodobne umetnosti, ki prenesejo radiofonično distribucijo. Vsebino sestavljajo tudi spremljevalni dogodki; pogovori, okrogle mize, vodstva po razstavljenih projektih, pomemben del je tudi lastna produkcija sound art projektov in zvočnih krajin. V prihodnje se namerava radioCona še bolj posvetiti projektom, ki mislijo dvosmerni, preko radijske frekvence vsebinsko zastavljen prenos informacij. Ob tem ne gre za 1:1 (ena / na / ena) komuniciranje, temveč bolj za družbene sisteme komuniciranja, socialne protokole ter občasne skupnosti, ki se ob tem ustvarjajo in za interakcijo znotraj skupnosti v odnosu do sprožilca osnovne informacije.