Portable Radio

Portable Radio was a touring local radio podcasting project hosting dialogues with artists, writers, curators and members of the public with an interest in the UK visual arts from May 2008 to May 2009. Organised and presented in collaboration with art market specialist Sarah Thelwall, Portable Radio created a series of mapped dialogues podcast from over 10 venues around the UK.

The Portable Radio website has been selected by the British Library to be archived into their national collection.

To listen to available audio, visit the Portable Radio website.

Each hour-long show explored a specific locale with around 4-5 invited guests. Guests were both arts specialists (visual artists, critics, writers, philosophers etc.) and non-specialist members of the public who live or work in close proximity to the arts (gallery security guards or cleaners, people who visit gallery or museum café’s), or even people who have little or no interest in the arts at all.

Dialogues revolved around topics specific to that location – local arts amenities, funding, the local opinion of arts projects and organisations – but focussed more specifically on the intangible issues facing the arts in the current political and economic climate. As well as sonic presentation, each dialogue was visually mapped using a technique devised and developed by Sarah in her practice with creative businesses. Viewing Platform is a visual mapping tool designed to enable the often intangible & invisible structures of the art world to be displayed visually, and we used Viewing Platform to map the dialogues to create a locally specific overview of the art world.

Dialogues were held in:

For full information visit the Portable Radio website.