Friday 14:00-23:59
Saturday 00:00-23:59
Sunday: 00:00-14:00
This experiment, conducted by professional streamers from Amsterdam, will instantiate a 48-hour continuously operating local analog television stream, creating a microcosmic telecommunication system within the festival. This endeavor seeks to juxtapose the opaque surveillance mechanisms inherent in contemporary smart cities with an open, participatory alternative. In the age of AI, urban environments are increasingly defined by pervasive surveillance systems that funnel data into algorithms, yielding insights accessible to a privileged few. Such infrastructures epitomize the commodification of data and the centralization of informational power. Contrarily, Yaga aspires to manifest a utopian temporary city, subverting conventional urban and social paradigms. The analog television stream within this context will reflect this inversion, embracing low-tech and transparent methodologies. Operating on an open-source and participatory basis, this local television station will serve as a medium for collective expression and dialogue. It invites all participants to engage directly with the broadcast, thus democratizing the content creation process. The station will function as a platform for individuals to articulate their concerns, showcase artistic endeavors, and engage in discourse on matters of significance to them. Moreover, this televisual initiative will be complemented by an FM radio station that transmits the audio component of the television stream. This dual-broadcast system further decentralizes the media landscape within the festival, enabling widespread access to the content via conventional radio devices. The confluence of these mediums forms an inclusive communicative environment, fostering an ethos of transparency and collective participation. The experiment challenges the prevailing narrative of technological determinism and posits an alternative vision wherein media technologies can be reconfigured to serve communal and egalitarian purposes. By situating the television stream within the spatial and temporal boundaries of the festival, it underscores the potential for technology to facilitate diverse and nuanced human interactions, free from the coercive imperatives of economic gain. This utopian telecommunication system serves as a critical intervention, illuminating the possibilities of a future where media and technology are harnessed to amplify, rather than suppress, the multiplicity of voices within a community.
