"A Pirate Utopia" for Tactical Television
By David Garcia
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In recent years Amsterdam has become known for its free-net the Digital City.
Less well known but in some ways equally remarkable has been the emergence of
Amsterdam's radical movement for public access television.This text is just a
beginning, a highly selective historical snap shot.
Special Conditions
Amsterdam is one of the only television networks in the
world that has been able to carry some of the anarchic principles of the net
onto the old (but still overwhelmingly dominant) broadcast medium of
television. This has been possible only because the following unusual
combination of conditions apply.
To begin with, cable in Holland is not a luxury but a utility. Anyone with a
tv in Amsterdam can receive the open channels. However radical or extreme the
message, the maker can in principle reach the whole tv audience of the city,
unlike most cable channels in North America it is not part of a "gated zone".
Second; with two open channels available 24 hours a day, there is enough space
for anyone who wants to transmit to be able do so. Third; there is no quality
control. Programs can be produced with the most basic consumer equipment and
contain the most explicit material. Fourth; live transmissions, which are an
essential requirement for a genuine communications medium, are a routine
occurrence in Amsterdam. Fifth; there are generally resources and support
available to help those who want to produce technically, artistically or
socially ambitious projects. Lastly; there is the nature of the city itself,
a multilingual port of call for transients from around the world, with a rich
history of media piracy. Amsterdam is a global village if ever there was one.
With the intensity of a major metropolis it is actually quite small. Those
watching tv at home are quite often within cycling distance of the studio.
All these factors combine to allow Amsterdam television to be an intimate
communications medium rather than a traditional mass broadcast medium.
There is however a price to pay. Much of the output is shamelessly bad. The
quality controls that normally filter the "noise from the signal" have been
minimised or even suspended. In Amsterdam we practice television in the faint
hope that "Noise is just the price we pay for signal. that without junk
there is less chance for real quality to emerge....".
New Developments
Having two open channels instead of just one is a recent development and a
vital one. Over the years the number of groups wanting to make television has
grown to such an extent that cable time was becoming clogged. In January 96
a new community access channel, Amsterdam 1, was launched it coincided with
The Next 5 Minutes conference on tactical media.
The organisers of the Next 5 Minutes seized the opportunity of the new channel
to provide themselves (and more importantly the visiting tactical television
makers) with not only 24 hour live television throughout the three day
conference but also the chance to experiment with the multiple perspectives
offered by live parallel programming on the two channels simultaneously.
Although extreme, this was just the latest example in a long line of public
events in which groups, who are completely outside of the mainstream media
industry, have used the unique Amsterdam cable infrastructure to make
watching and making television into an integral part of a live event.
A situation that offers this kind of unique media access does not come out of
the blue. Many of the visitors to The Next 5 Minutes must have imagined that
they were witnessing a typical, one off, example of Dutch liberalism, this is
only partly true. In some ways it is not a national but a strictly local, that
is an Amsterdam, phenomenon. It comes on the back of a hedonistic,
multicultural, chaotic, frequently incompetent but occasionally groundbreaking
tactical television scene that has been evolving for over twenty years. A
Twenty year collective experiment in the emancipatory and euphoric potential
of electronic communications culture.
A Brief History
Amsterdam's tactical media scene is largely a product of the alternative
political and cultural movements that began in the 60's and culminated in the
Dutch squatting movement of the 70's. The Dutch squatters were never just
about housing they had a far broader political agenda and their campaigns had
a significant long term impact, most visibly in the shaping of the local media
policy. The Netherlands was the first country in Europe to have a nation
wide, cable tv infrastructure. Unlike most other countries cable was is not
considered a luxury but a utility like gas, water and electricity. If you have
tv in 99% of cases you have cable. But strangely, despite this privileged
technological position, the Dutch media law had become so calcified that it
was to be many years before it would be legal to generate local programming.
In those early days cable was simply used to improve picture quality and as a
way to import programs from other European countries (and later the global
media MTV, SKY CNN etc.). Only artists and pirates consistently and effectively
challenged this ludicrous state of affairs.
Pirates
Apart from specially organised experiments by visual artists the key players
were a group of media pirates who emerged from the squatting movement's
exuberant cultural scene in the late 70s'. Most notably PKP who later became
Rabotnik. Some like Radio 100 and Patapou still remain defiantly pirates.
Anyone visiting Amsterdam in the 70's and early 80's would have found a that
some of the best places in town were the squatted bars and clubs and if they
had stayed longer and looked deeper they would have also found a vivid
squatter's media, of news papers, zines, pirate radio stations, and
television.
Technically it was simple. The pirates Just set up transmitters near the
large parabolic dish used by the cable operator and simply beamed in their
illegal transmissions, which were then automatically spread city wide. The
programs they made were both very popular and highly innovative.
The popularity of the pirates made it clear to the city authorities that a
legal framework would have to be created. The framework that emerged was the
so called Open Channel. This was to be administered and regulated by a
government appointed organisation, SALTO. So ultimately although the whole
of the Netherlands has cable only Amsterdam has a genuine community access
system. And we owe this to the pirates and to the artists.
Although we need freedom, television, unlike the net cannot be a free for all.
There has to be some structure and in the case of Amsterdam it is imposed by
SALTO. SALTO is the controlling power behind Amsterdam local television and
radio. It's statutory obligation is to make the open channel culturally
representative. In other words ensure that the main ethnic and social groups
and movements are visible. It is this approach is that distinguishes community
access from public access which is open to anybody and is based on a simple
first come first served principal. Public access is the dominant system in
the US, the birth place of open channels on cable. It is also the model
followed by the Berlin Open Channel, the only major city in Europe with a
public access policy attempting to approach Amsterdam's in scale or ambition.
Tactical Media and the Political Establishment.
Over the last decade the SALTO model has given rise to a rich cultural mix and
sporned some strange alliances between local government and tactical
television makers. This process began in earnest 1989 when the municipality
asked former pirates, Stads TV Rabotnik to cover the results of the local
elections. Of the many groups making work for the open channel, Rabotnik are
one of the few groups that have retained their identity from the old pirate
days. Their deep roots in the life of the streets enables them to reflect
the cities distinctive feel better than most.
During the elections their talent for directness and improvisation was used to
particularly good effect as they succeeded in totally subverting the usual
drone of dry political analysis. The major Dutch national daily, NRC
Handlesblad certainly felt they had succeeded, comparing them favourably to
national television's failure, claiming that they had succeeded in putting the
drama of real local concerns back into the political process.
Next 5 Minutes
Three years later a number of us who had been active in Amsterdam tactical
media over the years started wondering how many groups from around the world
believed, like us, in television as a participatory and emancipatory tool. We
knew of random examples like Social Dialogue's samizdat media from Romania, or
the Gay Men's Health Crisis' whose weekly programs, Living With AIDS,
provided a weekly diet of information on Manhattan cable. We knew there was
more, but how much more? To answer this question a conference of "tactical
media" was organised. A conference designed to bring together as many of those
who were involved in democratisation of television together, as possible. It
didn't matter whether they came from the so called mainstream or the so called
alternative scene. In fact our desire to subvert these fixed dichotomies was
our reason for introducing the term "tactical television".
The resulting event, the first Next 5 Minutes, took place in 1993, the year
when the digital connectivity revolution entered popular consciousness as
"wired" culture. For many of those involved the first Next 5 Minutes was a
rare utopian moment when fragments seemed to come together, forming a pattern
that both illuminated the present and clarified the past.
More practically, on a local level the profile and importance of tactical tv
was immeasurably raised. Many groups who had never worked together before,
have continued to do so since. And live television transmissions by tactical
practitioners ceased to be a rarity and became routine.
Certain ideas that emerged from the event, such as a translocal network of
tactical tv makers have since been integrated into Dutch national
broadcasting in the form of VPRO's World Receiver. This project is a monthly
program which features and commissions work from tactical tv makers from
around the world.
A Digital City
Although this story is primarily about television the birth of the Digital
City in 94 has been such a powerful influence on the local tactical media that
it cannot be passed over. In fact its impact nationally and internationally
has eclipsed all the other projects which have emerged from Amsterdam's
tactical media scene.
Born in 94 at the time of a new cycle of European, national and local
elections, Digital City grew out of an alliance between on the one hand, a part
of the squatters tradition that had gone mainstream, embodied by Marleen
Sticker of De Balie, and on the other hand Hacktic a younger generation of
former hackers and operators of the xs4all internet server.
Cleverly they used the elections as a fund raising opportunity, claiming
that it was "conducting an experiment about the relationship between citizens
and politics in the electronic age". In fact they were doing something far
more.
They were establishing a viable Amsterdam free net, with public terminals
that would turn out to be one of the most effective models for public access
computer networking in Europe.
However this early association of the Digital City with the elections was
misleading. It lead to many misunderstandings between the organisers and users
who expected the city to itself be a democratic organisation. One of the
directors Joost Flynt later attempted to defend their position as a benevolent
autocracy thus" For me the Digital City is not a medium and it has no editor.
But there is a management. The city metaphor might sometimes be misleading.
The system is one could say, not organised democratically. It is a project
managed almost like a company. The management group establishes the framework
(do not exceed 1 MB), but we do not determine what information goes where. Some
users think they must have the final say . I read the newspaper but I do not
dispute its proper. I go to the library but I do not feel like I am owning it.
It is annoying if a small group dispute your authority over a facility which
is offered free of charge".
Whatever the political arguments and power struggles the project was from the
beginning an outstanding popular success. It gave many Dutch citizens their
first taste of the Internet and created a key reference point for national
discussion on civic networking. Moreover its success acts as a counter
weight to the popular view that government investment has no role to play
in the communications revolution.
Despite bumps along the way the Digital City has continued to evolve not
only in its appearance, moving from a gopher menu to sophisticated 3-D
graphics, but more importantly in the complexity and richness of its
social organisation.
As local internet access grows exponentially so do the number of new
inhabitants of the city with approximately 200 new members a day. Like any real
city it is not one community but a "local assembly of virtual communities". In
fact a significant chunk of the traffic not only comes from outside
Amsterdam but from outside of the Netherlands. There are many Dutch ex-patriots
who retain a social life in Holland via the cafes and the MUDS of the DDS.
Or even through reading and contributing to the DDS citizens newspaper.
The contacts between inhabitants are not only virtual many of the on-line
groups particularly those from the MUD known as the Metro and the Central cafe
make a point of meeting regularly in real life. Currently various experimental
refinements are being tested, for example Cafes that were once separated by
themes are now being turned into one big cafe with many tables on which
different the themes are discussed.
(For a fuller discussion on DDS the text written by Geert Lovink in 95
for the symposium Wired World ).
Zoo TV and Beyond
At the same time as the Digital City was being born an even more marginal
group were also benefiting from the new cycle of elections. To the
astonishment of many, The Hoeksteen Live ( by far the most anarchic and
controversial tactical tv group in Amsterdam), were invited by a department of
the Amsterdam City Council, to televise a day long political fare, De Stad
Viseurs. In this fare, local activists placed their ideas and campaigns for
Amsterdam's future on stalls, literally a market place of ideas. Politicians
would be invited to meet activists and hopefully begin to bridge the gulf
between the formal political parties and the growing numbers who though
politically active feel alienated from the traditional political process.
The Hoeksteen was chosen because it was felt that its efforts to demystify
television would chime well with the De Stad Viseurs attempt to demystify the
political process. In the event disagreements resulted in two members of the
regular Hoeksteen team, splitting off and creating a temporary alliance of
various other local tv groups to form a new entity Beurs TV. Generally they
retained the Hoeksteen's approach of "tactical fundamentalism" in other words
making live television using only consumer electronics, with everything
delivered by "bakfiets"(bicycle powered carts) and tram. They did however
expand their communications system to include view phones that were placed in
cafes, for people to call in to Beurs tv and speak their minds or to question
politicians. These kinds of alliances between members of a political
establishment and tactical media activists are difficult to imagine outside
of Amsterdam.
Hoeksteen or The End of Television as we Know it.
The Hoeksteen Live is one of the most peculiar entities in Amsterdam's
tactical media landscape. Started five years ago by Colombian visual artist
Raul Marroquin. The real breakthrough occurred a year later, when Marroquin
discovered that there was a television injection point, in one of SALTO's
radio studios which meant that for the rental price of the cheapest radio
studio (at that time 1$ an hour) he had a direct feed for making live
television. Overnight the Hoeksteen was transformed into a monthly, non stop,
all night party on tv. Produced entirely with consumer equipment, cheap
camcorders combined with improvised graphics from Amiga computers. Recently
industrial and consumer conferencing equipment has also been incorporated
allowing live tv connections both to other cities in the Netherlands and
also to other parts of the world. Last week they made a connection to a
couple of media theorists in the Gertrude Stein Institute in New York and
In the coming program Richard Barbrook from The Hypermedia Centre in
Westminster University, will be hooked up to them Hoeksteen, live from
Cyberia in London. Not bad for no budget television.
Hoeksteen has a significant audience because from the outset it could attract
celebrities. The combined social talents of Marroquin and the its former chief
anchor man, Otto Valkman ensured that anyone from Philip Glass to a cabinet
minister was likely to turn up. The essence of the program is an atmosphere of
unpredictability, a well known member of parliament told me that on one
occasion even she has been handed the camera and been press ganged into the
production unit. On another occasion the chief anchorman responded to a
request (or a dare) from a late night phone in by pulling out his dick and
measured it on screen in.
It is how one might imagine Warhol's factory (before Valerie Solanis) a
platform for the city's extremes of exhibitionism and voyeurism. An all night
party with a continuous stream of gate crashers. But unlike the Factory which
comes down to us as film and photography Marroquin's studio goes out on live
tv! When I put this warholian comparison to Marroquin he was to quick to point
out that "Warhol didn't have mainstream politicians" . With a straight face
he went on to describe the Hoeksteen as a political program with a cultural
supplement. Geert Lovink's description is more accurate "high society for
low media".
Recently Hoeksteen's most public face Otto Valkman died. He had been ill with
cancer for many months but until very near the end he continued to appear on
the Hoeksteen. He even announced his imminent death on the program and was
rewarded with an immediate flood of phone calls of commiseration. To see his
physical deterioration, month by month in the subsequent programs sounds
ghoulish but that is never how it appeared. Unwilling to retire gracefully
he continued doing what made him feel most alive, being live, on television.
The Hoeksteen represents the best and the worst of the Amsterdam media
situation. In creating a community access tv environment that mirrors the
anarchic diversity of the net, Amsterdam viewers often have the doubtful
privilege witnessing mainstream media's nightmare scenario, disintegration.
The end of television, on television. In some senses the worse it gets the
more it succeeds.
Currently at The Centre for Tactical Media we are trying to imagine ways of
improving Amsterdam's tactical television without killing it. Till now the
achievement has been the collective creation of an inspiring framework. But
like the oyster we need more grit if we are to be left with more than an
empty shell. Amsterdam television could be great but at present it seems to
be trapped, unable to escape the defects of its qualities.
David Garcia.May 96
# Pit Schultz, Kleine Hamburger Str. 15, 10117 Berlin, pit@contrib.de
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