Fieldnote #18: In which we prepare for the launch of Field Notes Radio and reflect on pirate radio

On Monday (24th) we are starting an experimental radio signal called ‘Field Notes Radio’ (bookmark this page to get the radio link and see the schedule).

I’ve had some lovely conversations during the build-up.

Perhaps the most thought-provoking was about the genre of the ‘field note’ itself.

What is it? How are we using it?

Ever since reading Tom McCarthy’s novel, Satin Island, I have been fascinated by the field note as a form of writing. The novel is about a corporate anthropologist working for an elite consultancy who has been given the job of writing a ‘great report’.

It is a prolonged meditation on the relationship between literature and anthropology. And the novel is written, as you might expect, in the form of fictional field notes.

I have heard anthropology described as the most scientific of the humanities and the most human of the sciences. Anthropology’s tool, the field note, is a very unique type of data. It is fragmentary. It combines observation, interviews, description, recollection and memoir. It is a non-ornamental way of writing.

It is a compelling way of writing for anyone straddling the divide between research and creativity.

(One of the purposes of Studio61 is to queer the line between a professional field and a cultural scene)

But I think that one of the reasons field notes really clicks with me is because I have always enjoyed seeing other researchers notebooks. I have enjoyed the privileged access of peeking into the raw unstructured stream of someone else’s thoughts.

It is about trust. Vulnerability.

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But how might this form change when entangled with the act of broadcasting?

We can find some clues by thinking about grime .

I have always had deep admiration for the grime genre. It emerged despite cultural gatekeepers through persistent and mind-bending innovation.

Central to its success was pirate radio stations.

This history is explored in the book ‘Inner City Pressure — The Story of Grime’ by Dan Hancox.

They write that ‘pirates have always been the site of rebellious or marginal culture, operating outside the managed or official creative avenues, and often ending up changing them’. As one of the informants explains, pirate radio stations were the ‘sickest, most rebellious type of pop-up you could ever have.’

The first pirate radio stations were broadcast from ships off the coast of England in the sixties. Since then they have carried the signal that would incubate many underground electronic rave scenes.

They were a meeting point, a testing and rehearsal space, a communication channel, and a binding agent for nascent communities.

They were unpredictable and collaborative.

They involved the use of complex codes, rituals and slang.

They were the place where you would hear the freshest and most innovative songs months before anywhere else, providing an empowering and direct connection between creativity and listeners.

And they were illegal. Illegal, but permitted by authority in a complex way. Police would give some stations notice that they were going to be raided.

As Dan Hancox explains, the authorities were ‘tacitly cooperating with their targets, turning a blind eye, rather than engaging in pointless, circular games of cat-and-mouse’.

As another of the informants describes: ‘British society let pirate radio happen’

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But Field Notes Radio will not be breaking laws.

Instead, it will ‘bypass unnecessary bureaucracy by being a passively law abiding organisation’ (thanks, foamicle).

But it will challenge.

Our first broadcast will be a week of deep meaningful conversations between friends about an emerging practice: biodesign.

The topics will be rebellion, cooperation, solarpunk, love.

It is semi structured. It will go wrong. It will be unfinished thoughts. Fragmentary. It will be a safe space.