Radio Gallery number 6: Propaganda

Authors: Jeremy Deller and Alex Farquharson
www.radiogallery.org
Broadcast date: August 7, 2006

PROPAGANDA

This exhibition explores the uses of the radio as a tool for propaganda during times of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ war. It begins in World War II with a compilation of German and Italian propaganda aimed at British and American troops and civilians (featuring, for example, Lord Haw-Haw (hanged for treason in 1946) and Ezra Pound). After this historical, archival introduction, the programme becomes live, eavesdropping on what’s being said on clandestine radio stations around the world while the exhibition is on air. To do this we will gather speakers of several languages (Farsi, Arabic, Mandarin, Korean and Spanish) in the Resonance FM studio to deliver simultaneous translations of broadcasts coming from states at war with (or regarded as a threat of to) America, Britain and their allies, e.g. Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea, China and Cuba. Resonance FM, for the hour of the ‘exhibition’, will devour the content of other radio stations across continents, producing radio from intercontinental radio.