A Culture Channel. An actual television channel, 24-7, airing a steady stream of innovative programming. New, fresh, different. Imagine it...odd, cool, unique, diverse, eclectic, extreme art - points of view. The programmers? The artists? The media makers? You, me, an Eskimo... As LA Freewaves' founder Anne Bray once said, "With 3,000 ads in our face per day, with only 9% of the TV directors being women and with more extra-terrestrials on TV than Asians, Latinos and Native Americans combined, there is much missing in our public pictures and many false mirrors presented to us." (MIT's Leonardo Vol. 35, No. 1 2002). Anne's life's work has lead her to this critical point. There's no turning back for her and others who believe that we have the ability now to create a new TV channel and succeed. We're at a great crossroads given the current state of technology and broadcasting and distribution. People and communities who have never, or rarely ever, had the opportunity or the platform to share
their work, their vision, will be able to do so.
Los Angeles-based media arts organization LA Freewaves is behind this gigantic endeavor. Spearheading progressive thought and art since 1989 they have gathered some of the freshest minds of our time to participate in these remarkable discussions (see a list of all 37 speakers below).
LA Freewaves is a nonprofit media arts network that produces festivals, workshops, curriculum materials and a web site to encourage artistic and social expression, serving the needs of artists and audiences alike. Probably best-known throughout LA and the global media arts community for their month-long, bi-annual media art festivals which take place all over Los Angeles County. Next festival: November 2004. While the panel discussions are ultimately focusing on launching a Culture Channel, each bi-annual LA Freewaves' festival presents various innovative works that could potentially air on such a Channel.
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Article comments
1 - visualsimplicity
As much as I'd hate to admit, the world of art is still not a fully supported thing in the United States (evidenced by educational budget cuts always affecting art first - which is much different from other industrialized countries). I'd love to see this go into fruition though, being an art lover myself.
2 - Steve Rhodes
If you have a dish, definately check out WorldLink TV which has a mix of documentaries, world music, and a roundup show of news from the Middle East called Mosaic.
They also recently had a panel on media consolidation including an interview with with Walter Cronkite (you can get the trascript as a PDF at that link).
I'll be in Chicago covering a big cable tv trade show a few days after that panel.