in/audible - Ibiblio

WEBCASTING continued from page 23
Michael Shoffner: The biggest fear I had the
whole time was that we would get scooped. You
had to assume that somebody else had thought
of it because it’s almost never do you think of
something and execute before anybody else in
the entire world does. So David and I were
pretty much sweating the whole time – trying
to get around the problems, light a fire under
everybody else, etc.
As it turned out, other stations had
thought of it. Bellingham, Washington’s
KUGS (another 89.3 FM!) started webcasting
their signal via CU-SeeMe a couple of
weeks after WXYC’s official announce date.
And Kansas University’s KJHK followed
in early December, also using CU-SeeMe.
Georgia Tech’s college radio station WREK
deserves extra credit for actually webcasting
via their own self-written audio-encoding
and webcasting software. WREK successfully
beta-tested their Internet simulcast in
early November 1994, but they did not go
into official release until early 1995.
Doug Matthews: This was definitely one of
those independent discovery things where a lot
of people all at once said, “Hey, wait a minute
– I can make noise all the time!”
It’s true. In cyberspace, everyone can hear
you stream.
TIM ROSS, a volunteer computer programmer
for WXYC, is getting his master’s degree
in information science from UNC’s School of
Information and Library Science. He has been
a DJ since 1991.
Illustrations by Ryan Martin.
POSSE continued from page 11
straddling a Flying V. How are you supposed
to play it while it’s inserted in some
woman’s vagina? There are many reasons
why we make the decisions we do, but we are
enlightened to possibilities by the example of
others. Female creators are not as visible as
male ones (women are incredibly visible, but
just as passive objects like Carmen Electra),
and young women are forced to actively seek
possibilities outside of conventional roles
and forge into male territory. That takes a
lot of balls! But should they create their own
uniquely female space or should they try and
break into the male space? By doing so are
they required to imitate men? Or can they
just be themselves?
Surely these issues and questions have
been addressed over and over again by those
more adept than I, and yet we continue to
wonder about them. Ideally we listen to
music and play music, engaging in all kinds
of art and creative endeavors, to try and
maybe “change things.” What else is going
to save us from boredom, disillusionment
and mediocrity? But artists also have a more
selfish reason (other than making money) –
seeking to escape reality. More importantly
they seek independence and power through
creation. According to surveys, of the majority
of people who say that music is “very
important” in their lives, most of them are
women and in comparison with men, they
are also more likely to have music-inspired
fantasies (1). That means that women are
not only the backbone of the music industry
but they are also visual, active listeners, and
much more so than men. Poised and ready
for action! But something is preventing
them from action.
Hakim Bey, in his “Critique of the Listener,”
wonders if listeners simply see or do
they see and act (2)? This passivity affects the
general audience, not just women. Inevitably
one must wonder, too, about the kind of art
being produced. To borrow from Bey yet
again:
We support artists who use terrifying material
in some ‘higher cause’ – who use loving/sexual
material of any kind, however shocking or illegal
– who use their anger and disgust and their
true desires to lurch towards self-realization
and beauty and adventure. ‘Social Nihiism,’ yes
– but not the dead nihilism of Gnostic self-disgust.
Even if it’s violent and abrasive, anyone
with a vestigial third eye can see the differences
34 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004
between revolutionary pro-life art and reactionary
pro-death art (3).
Therefore, to sum up these musings, a
message not just for Courtney but also for
everyone (and in the spirit of Destroy All
Monsters): “Peace, Love and Doom.”
1. Dean Abt, “Music Video: Impact of the
Visual Dimension.” From Popular Music and
Communication. Newbury Park: Sage Publications,
1987.
2. Hakim Bey, “Critique of the Listener.”
From Radiotext(e). New York: Semiotext(e),
1993.
3. Hakim Bey, T.A.Z.. New York: Autonomedia,
1991.
SARAH CARRIER was hired at WXYC
in the lovely spring of 1998. She works at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
On her website, you may be interested in finding
out about her handmade stuffed animals
and a CD of music, all of which are for sale or
possibly for trade if it’s good stuff, but not until
much much later in the year (http://www.unc.
edu/~scarrier).