Discussion
Field Broadcast Rebecca Birch joins CTVR director Linda Doyle and artist Jessica Foley in a discussion of what broadcasting means in 2014. The discussion is chaired by Maeve Connolly (IADT) and coincides with the publication of her book, 'TV Museum: Contemporary Art and the Age of Television'.
This discussion explores the various ways in which broadcasting has been imagined by artists and researchers, particularly those engaged with the future of telecommunications. The contributors include artist Rebecca Birch, co-founder (with Rob Smith) of Field Broadcast, a live broadcast project that connects artists, audiences and obscure locations through the computer desktop; Linda Doyle, director of CTVR – the national telecommunications research centre; and artist Jessica Foley whose research at CTVR explores how forms of writing can be developed to critically explore, engage and practice cultures of communication. The discussion will address questions such as: What does the term ‘broadcasting’ mean now? Is it largely associated with an earlier moment in history? Is it possible to identify a common agenda shared by artists and telecommunications researchers in relation to the critique of broadcasting and the future of telecommunications infrastructure, practice and policy? Are there ways in which artists’ imagining of broadcasting (in the past, present or future) could contribute to telecommunications research? The discussion is chaired by Maeve Connolly and coincides with the publication of her book 'TV Museum: Contemporary Art and the Age of Television' (2014), which examines how television has been imagined, critiqued and memorialised by artists.
Facilitators' Biographies
Maeve Connolly
Rebecca Birch
Rebecca Birch and Rob Smith formed and run Field Broadcast, a live broadcast project connecting artists, audiences and obscure locations through the portal of the computer desktop.
Linda Doyle
Doyle is a Professor in the School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin. Her main areas of research are wireless communications, reconfigurable networks, cognitive radio and spectrum management. She is also the Director of CTVR, a national telecommunication research centre headquartered in Trinity that carries out industry informed research. It involves six different third-level institutions in Ireland and has multiple industry partners. Foley has a great interest in the intersection of art & technology.
Jessica Foley
Foley is a writer and academic concerned with how forms of writing can be developed to critically explore, engage and practice cultures of communication. Her research, practiced under a PhD program at Trinity College Dublin, involves developing ways to bring people together to collectively reconsider ideas, words, customs, objects, and practices, and to catalyze apperception through this work. Since 2009, Foley has been a member of Difference Engine, a touring exhibition of iterative mixed media work with artists Gillian Lawler, Wendy Judge, Mark Cullen and Gordon Cheung. In 2007, she established The Writing Workshop with Jessamyn Fiore, and together with many other writers and artists, she has exhibited at PS1 and Union Docs, New York, Tate Modern, London, and within thisisnotashop, Dublin, a gallery developed by Aideen Darcy and Jessamyn Fiore. Her educational background is in Graphic Design (B.Des, LSAD), Art and Design Education (H.Dip LSAD) and Contemporary Art Theory (M.A. Art in the Contemporary World, NCAD), and she is currently undertaking PhD research at CTVR/the Telecommunications Research Centre, Trinity College, Dublin, guided by Prof. Linda Doyle.