"As radio markets increasingly become corporate owned monocultures and governments slash funding to public radio, smaller communities and subcultures become underserved or cut out completely from this vital form of communication. Our project, AIR, seeks to address this problem by going smaller instead of bigger, focusing on creating a direct relationship between radio listener and radio station, turning the top down one way direction of traditional radio into a circle.

AIR, is an autonomous, neighborhood oriented, interactive, micro-radio station. The station consists of a low power radio transmitter and wifi enabled computer that is scripted to automatically download, queue, and then play, all audio files emailed to it. Files are played as they are downloaded by the station computer, and if multiple files are sent at once, they are queued in the order they are received. All files are added to a running playlist that is played and looped through continuously when no songs are being received. The content of this micro-radio station is based solely on the files people email to it. The queue system is set up to ensure a direct and immediate way to interact with A.I.R. With this project we wish to make radio a new space for neighborhood level interaction, expression, and experimentation."

http://community.studiolabproject.eu/group/autonomous-interactive-radio

project leaders \ Reid Bingham & Sean McIntyre (USA)

collaborators \ Tomislav Butković (US), Helena Božič (SI), Peter Pavlakis (US), Simon Gmajner (SI), Kruno Jošt (HR), Andrea Baima (ARG/UK)

special thanks \ RadioCona: Brane Zorman and Irena Pivka, Radio Študent: Bojan Anđelković, Vuk Ćosić and BiKoFe