During the festival (January 25 – February 5, 2006), Satellite of Love will be the nerve center for the Exploding Television section of the IFFR’s program. As in previous years, this section of the festival, organized by Edwin Carels, focuses on recent developments in digital technology that influence or perhaps even result in radical shifts within visual and audiovisual culture. Satellite of Love will become the headquarters of a veritable TV commune, a utopian project. Furthermore, in association with the VPRO, Exploding Television will be manifesting itself online via www.explodingtelevision.net.
The rapidly changing media landscape and especially that of the medium of television lie at the basis of the Satellite of Love exhibition. Over recent months, not a day has gone by without the media reporting technological, financial or political maneuvers in the world of television. The number of digital broadcasters is skyrocketing. The convergence of television, the Internet and mobile telephony is bringing about a radical change in the way programs are being presented to the public.
The means of distributing image and sound may be increasing by the day, but this 'openness' also masks a new form of restriction. While at first a communal forum was developed for a broad public, it now appears that segmentation is striking due to market influences, with profit as the ultimate objective. In other words, the public space is disappearing while private space is gaining ground. Making television using a camera and a laptop hardly presents a problem, but a satellite link continues to be a privilege for the happy few.
In response to these trends, the organizers chose to provide a platform for the independent voice. In Satellite of Love, visual artists, media activists and television-makers rediscover something that is being torn apart from the top down. The aim is to establish a space (for reflection) where the production of live television is combined with installations. In addition, in the afternoon and evening there is a program of public discussions, masterclasses, and TV dinners organized in association with the Stimuleringsfonds Culturele Omroepproducties (Fund for Cultural Broadcasting Productions) and V2_, Institute for the Unstable Media. Satellite of Love and Exploding Television will also be broadcast online via VPRO Digitaal and local television, thus providing a lively context for interaction and reflection.
Participants in Satellite of Love include Franz Ackermann, AL+AL, Francis Alÿs, Mark Bain, John Logie Baird, Pierre Bismuth & Michel Gondry, Angela Bulloch, Edith Dekyndt, Dias & Riedweg, Michel François, Laurent Grasso, Erik van Lieshout, Yves Netzhammer, Melik Ohanian, Daniel Sauter & Osman Khan, Monika Sosnowska, Maurice van Tellingen, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Francesco Vezzoli.
During the ten days of the IFFR, the following units will be producing live television: Ambient TV.NET from London, CAC TV from Vilnius, Orfeo TV-Telestreet from Bologna, De Taalpolitie from Rotterdam/Brussels and tv-tv from Copenhagen.
A special program will be presented during the Museum Night on March 4, 2006, see www.rotterdamsemuseumnacht.nl/startEN.html.
Also see the Exploding Television website. From January 23 onward at www.explodingtelevision.net.