Deep Wireless

This weekend was the annual gathering of the Tribe of Radio Producers.

The Radio without Boundaries conference is part of the Deep Wireless Festival, presented by an intrepid group called New Adventures in Sound Art.

I started this conference until it was passed on to the capable hands of Nadene Theriault Copeland and Darren Copeland. So naturally I feel a bond to this event that goes deeper than other events with which I am involved.

Hard to describe what happens when people get together united by a common passion for the work they do. Sound people are a rare breed, radio people even rarer. Add artist to the mix and it's truly an adventure in every sense of the word.

In addition to being the radio art deejay streaming on line to Free103.9, occasionally running two mixers at a time, I got to reconnect with people whom I haven't seen in a long time. And meeting people for the first time who have either known me or vice versa through the radio listserves I am on. It's a great community.

Here are some of the best quotes from the weekend:

"Radio is a process art, rather than a product" -- Tetsuo Kowgawa, visiting artist from Japan.

"The role of the producer is to ask clarifying questions. The producer is a fresh set of ears" - Neil Sandell, Senior Producer, CBC Radio's program "Outfront"

"A radio producer is only a radio producer if somebody tunes in" -- Christopher Allworth, Halifax (but I've decided I can leave "radio producer" on my business card anyway, even if I don't know if anybody's listening"

"The Moral High ground is where money flows away from" - Andreas Kahre, performance artist, Vancouver

I learned that when you only use one piece of duct tape on a dog's collar, your recording device ends up in the middle of Dundas Street" -- Marjorie Chan, one of this year's commissioned artists who did a piece about what dogs say. Further reflections -- little dogs are no damn good if you're trying to get the essence of dog. They don't record well.

And my favourite -- recounted in a story by Newfoundland artist Chris Brookes -- think about this several times -- it's truly a profound question about the deep mysteries of life:

"Why would you want to destroy the richness of the question with the poverty of an answer?"