Oliver Barstow
Oliver Barstow is an artist and publisher from Johannesburg, South Africa, who completed a Masters degree in Materialisation in Art & Design at Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. His current interest lies in thinking through making: a making that brings the material onto an equal footing with the concept, allowing the spirit of the former to determine the shape of the latter. In light of the theme of the exhibition, Oliver has proposed a new work that he is developing which uses a combination of analog (specifically analog radio) and digital broadcast techniques, as an alternative or ‘off the grid form’ of self publishing. The project is composed of a ‘kit’ that uses a handmade analog radio transmitter, in combination with digital audio live streaming, and co-opts a free part of the electromagnetic spectrum, for the purposes of broadcasting. With the onset of digital radio broadcasting, the analog spectrum is increasingly being left behind and this resource becomes very interesting, as a space that looks to be less commodified, and subsequently more independent.