The artists/ research projects invite professional practitioners to come to the STAR area of Cardiff and respond to the place, through the prism of their practice. The aim of the projects is to facilitate the creation radio programmes, unique to the STAR area of Cardiff.

Helen Clifford

Walking with a Roath resident and her dog, Helen Clifford explores the abundance and diversity of local wild flowers. This journey of discovery will give us an insight into the flora and fauna on our doorstep and also describes the history of Britain and the medicinal qualities of these plants through their names and historic uses.

(flowers in the image)Clover, Sowthistle, Great Willowherb, Cut-leaved Cranebill, Silverweed,Hop Trefoil, Dock, Bristle Ox-tongue, Common Vetch, Herb Robert and Grasses.

Marcia Farquhar

‘From Under Milk Wood’ is a cut up and collaged re-reading of Dylan Thomas’ 1954 radio play. It incorporates large and small parts of the script, alongside the assorted conversations, questions and mishaps that arose in the course of this six-hour uncast reading (held at Star Radio, July 16th). It also features voices from the original BBC broadcast. While our initial plan was to compile this project using only the discussions that arose from the reading of the play, and not the play itself, we found in the end that the performances of our ad hoc cast were too enchanting and unusual to leave out. The result is a mixed array of voices working in and around Dylan Thomas’s beautiful and often hilarious text.

www.marciafarquhar.com

‘Demo Hour’James Tyson

James Tyson has organised a live demo hour for STAR musicians to drop into the station and play some music:

“Come to STAR Radio and you can play a short demo of your music. Or phone in live and play from the comfort of your own home. Whether old-style piano tunes or breakbeat rappers. Let’s hear it. Let's see what we can entertain. If no-one calls, it will be quiet. Just a chance to listen to the music you can think of, in your dreams, in the wind …There could be a pattern.

Dominic Thomas The Rambler: Walking the STAR Green Way

In the 1968 film The Swimmer, Ned Merrill, played by Burt Lancaster, imagines the swimming pools of his wealthy Connecticut neighbourhood forming a river along which he can swim home. The map of the STAR area reveals a string of parks and open spaces that form a seven and a half mile green pathway that follows a dogleg loop from the northern end of Roath Park to Adamsdown’s Cemetery Gardens just minutes from the city centre. As the summer of 2005 draws to a close Dominic Thomas sets out in the manner of the nineteenth century amateur explorer, to walk the STAR Green Way, creating as he goes a rambling and idiosyncratic audio portrait of the changing landscapes of Eastern Cardiff.

For more info www.mundusloci.org

Michael Cousin: Panspermia

Panspermia - from dust we came and to dust we shall return. All life in the universe is now believed to have originated from cosmic dust that has existed since time began. This bacterial life form is in the air we breath, in the food we eat, it surrounds us at every turn and constantly falls down from the heavens to transform humanity. The evolution of man is not dependent on Darwinian theory but random alien bacteria that induce these genetic changes when we come into contact with them. This is the secret invasion, the subtle enemy that we cannot fight. Alien life is already here and has been for millennia. We are not alone. With special thanks to Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe of the Astrobiology Department at Cardiff University, the residents of the STAR area both human and non-human. takenandgiven@ntlworld.com

Simon Whitehead: Dancing on the Radio

5 one minute dances for the radio with dancers of different ages from the Rubicon Dance Centre.

The recordings are made using binaural field microphones worn on the dancers head, these record the dancers movement in space. Subsequently we recommend these dances be listened to via headphones, or by sitting between your speakers; if you close your eyes you may then be able to feel the dancers original movement, as well as hear them.
Each dancer moves individually in silence, and the resultant recordings are an amalgam of their breath, the movement of their body and the resonance of the space.

With thanks to Ruth Till and all the dancers from Rubicon.5 one minute radio dances Working with dancers from the Rubicon community dance building, Adamsdown. Recordings made using binaural field microphones (to recreate a 3d sound image) worn on the dancers body. 5 dancers (of all ages and from different dance forms) dance individually in silence, the resultant recordings are an amalgum of breath, movement of the body and the resonance of the space and Rubicon building. The dancers featured in these recordings will reflect the diverse community involvement and dance forms of the Rubicon programme, whilst the recordings return the dances to their basic and individualistic constituents; the body, air and space.

www.untitledstates.net
www.ointment.org.uk

Sara Fletcher. STAR: A PSYCHIC INVESTIGATION

Sara Fletcher meets Jane McCarthy, a Cardiff medium, in an exploration of how believers in the supernatural conceive of the spirit, and what they believe happens to people after death. Are apparitions the souls of deceased people that have become trapped and unable to move on into the afterlife? Or are ghosts a kind of magnetic recording of events which have become somehow engrained within the spatial fabric of a particular location? This is a paranormal exploration into how traces of the STAR community’s past might continue to influence and haunt the area today.

www.sarafletcher.ukartists.com
www.g39.org
paranormal society www.swpr.co.uk

Teresa Dillon

'Star Gone Tones' is about peoples voice and how their accents and can tell us about where they are from. 'Star Gone Tone', is also my impression of what the Star Radio areas would 'sound like'. To make each track, I asked people who live in the different areas what sounds they associated with their location. From this short 'sound poems' were made. When the composition goes live on the radio, I’ll be mixing new sounds captured live from each area into the mix.

1st Chorus: Tremorfa 2nd. Chorus: Adamsdown 3rd. Chorus: Splott. 4th Chorus: Roath

www.polarproduce.org
www.nestafuturelab.org

Simon Aeppli

Using Constellation Street as a starting point Simon Aeppli has been trying to pick up signals from space using a hand held radio scanner and the Outer Space Frequency Directory- a guide to eavesdropping on Satellites, Space Stations and other celestial frequencies.

In between scanning the heavens for beeps, rasps and clicks he has been interviewing the local residents about their relationship to the night sky. The result is a collection of intimate conversations ranging from stargazing, love, illness, grief and life after death.

Thanks to the residents of Constellation Street, Orbit Street etc. for taking part

Lloyd Robson

I’m a writer with close links to the STAR area. I live here & me family’s from here (me mam’s from tremorfa & me old man was roath). this area’s very important to me, it's been a part of my life all my life & often crops up in my writing. i consider this east-central territory to be much—maligned & overshadowed by more media—friendly parts of the city. for me, this area is an essential link to cardiff’s heart & the fact most people even cardiff people don’t even know where adamsdown is, serves as a good metaphor for the vanishing innercity cardiff of old. this ain’t a territory which rides on a fancy rep, but in terms of authenticity, it is the territory most deserving of its representation in art.

recommended reading:'cardiff cut' (novel/prose—poem.parthian, isbn 1—902638—16—6, £5.99) 'cardiff central' (essay in anthology. gomer, isbn 1—84323—280—4, £8.99)
www.lloydrobson.com

The DUO Collective

Dry-Store is network of caches along routes, meeting points and journeying paths: routes which are often defined by inaccessibility and minority activity. The resources provided will assist people in a range of activities from manicuring ones nails to having a rest. Dry Store tries to create resources accessible at all times and placed in an environment socially conducive to the specific activity. During STAR Radio we will be creating dry stores in Splott and at the Severn bridge. The Dry Store radio show will follow the project from the ideas to installment with interviews, field recordings and recitals. During the broadcast a library of related material will be available at STAR FM headquarters.

The DUO Collective are a dyadic cyclone consisting of Kayle Brandon and Heath Bunting Formed in 2002, Duo have produced a range of projects in terms of duration, formality and resources. Some are short, messy and cheap, others are long, expensive and structured. DUO's concerns and interested could be summaries as: Creative destruction. Collectivism and context construction. Physical activation and participation. Exploration, training and adventure. Ecology and environment. Techniques of daily life. Current projects include: The Status Project International Tree Climbing Day Lunch Packs Food 4 Free.

International Owl Project

‘...Two poachers are collecting their catch from a net. They disappear hastily, and are pursued by a group of gamekeepers who find the hidden net. Two policemen follow in the same direction. However, the poachers have been hiding in the bushes. They emerge and escape in the opposite direction. They are spotted by their pursuers, who give chase. The poachers turn and fire. The gamekeepers turn up, and there is a scuffle. The poachers break away, turn and fire their guns. One of the gamekeepers falls to the ground. The gamekeepers return the fire. A policeman catches up with one of the poachers and they struggle in the middle of a river. The poachers escape across the stream but are met on the other side and apprehended by the policemen and gamekeepers...’

For Star radio The International Owl Project have created an audio soundtrack to William Haggar’s silent film Desperate Poaching Affray (1903). As opposed to creating a musical interpretation of the film The Owl’s have recorded and edited field recordings precisely to the film. The soundtrack sonically adapts cinematic techniques developed by Haggar.

Desparate Poaching Affray was one of the first films to be made and toured around Wales.

www.owlproject.com

Gordon Dalton, Mark Gubb and Bedwyr Williams: KickOut the Jams

Dalton, Gubb & Williams’ (failed) attempts to write a classic Poe inspired horror story have taken them from the back streets of STAR to the gates of Graceland, via the romantic hills of the Lake District and the mean streets of Caernarfon.

Kick out the Jams is instead a black humoured story of environmental terror, teenage rebellion, dystopian fears and political aggravation, preached by a white haired Memphis evangelist and a Welsh Baptist minister with one eye and a love of the ladies.

Ella Gibbs: This is not a radio club

A series of five minute slots. Presented every weekday with a Saturday omnibus + special extra bits and pieces. To all bargain hunters it could be your lucky day, get ready with your pen and paper! Recordings happened on the streets of (& underground) Adamsdown, Splott, Tremorfa and Roath. Thanks to all the people who have inspired and contributed, Including — Adrian at a Newport Road bus stop — Toni on Broadway — Sunny, Tracey, Alex, Robin, Robert & friends on Topaz Street — Dave, Nathan, Sian & Marek at Journies, Clifton Street — Terence & Peter on a building site, Newport Road who say 'we build mountains' — Susie, Jodie, Jereme, Olive & friends on Planet Street — Emad in his car on Eclipse Street — Catherine, Kelly, Nicolas, & Tin–Loi in System Street, Derek, Frank and Brummie on the Clifton street re–development site — Josie & Michelle on Sun Street — A Couple on Constellation Street — Policemen on Pearl Street — Sarah in her front garden on Diamond Street — Gillian on Carlisle Street who say's ‘hello people!’ — The Postman, Mary & kelly at a bus stop on Clydesmuir Road — Perry in Tremorfa park — Angela at Seawall Cafe — Drivers on Seawall Road Industrial Estate — Sarah at a bus stop on Willows Avenue — Firemen and Shopkeepers on Clifton Street during the power cut. .

Stefhan Caddick

‘A rose and fields and the birds’,

This project will reveal aspects of the lives of those who live in Cardiff, but who are not from the city. Using the medium of letters sent to people who have arrived in the city from elsewhere, the project will explore the aspirations and personal histories of people moving to the city, through the voices of those they leave behind. The project will make the personal political by the simple process of presenting deeply personal stories in a public arena.
www.useblackinkonly.com
www.ointment.org.uk/crwydro

Anya Lewin with Michael Lawson-Smith: STEEL

STEEL is a dialogue between ex- and current steelworkers in Pittsburgh, PA (USA) and Cardiff, Wales, two cities which have gone from industrial centres of steel production to post industrial service economies. Steel focuses on the politicisation of two communities and those with in them who have worked in an industry that once provided a good income and a clear identity. Over the last 25 years in Pittsburgh and more recently in Cardiff, ex-steelworkers have had to recreate them selves after being laid off due to the steel industries decline. On both sides of the Atlantic steel workers have been faced with unemployment, lost pensions, and the uncertainty of their future. Steel is the voices of steel workers from Pittsburgh and Cardiff making an argument that worker's rights and experiences are an international as well as local issue.

The Battle of Homestead Foundation http://home.earthlink.net/~homestead1892/BoH/about.html
Rivers of Steel Heritage
http://www.riversofsteel.com
Tony Buba – A filmmaker who has chronicled the Town of Braddock as it faced the decline of the steel industry
http://www.braddockfilms.com/
Steffi Domike – an artist and activist who worked in the Coke works
http://home.earthlink.net/~steffidomike

From July 1st – 4th Tony Novosel, an ex-steel worker from Pittsburgh will be visiting Cardiff. We hope to meet local people who have been involved in the Steel industry in and around Cardiff. Did you or someone in your family work in the Tremorfa or East Moors Steel works? Are you still involved in the industry? Or are you interested in local history? Please get in touch by e-mailing anya.lewin@btinternet.com

This project is co-funded by the university of Plymouth

Anthony Shapland. Chorus

Its 7am and the radio alarm jerks you into reality with its harsh am signal and the staccato voices of newsreaders reporting places you will get snarled up in traffic or that it will rain for the rest of the day or that something bad has happened somewhere else. It's not a good start. I set the alarm these days at 7.07 because you have more chance of missing the news.
Living the lives we do, up late under sodium streetlights and waking up in sealed boxes across the city behind heavy curtains we are missing something. It's the slow wake up call of birdsong and it is happening in every back garden.

I propose that this is the way that STAR radio listeners should be roused. For the duration of the seven days I will produce a short morning programme that begins so slowly that it enters the dreams of the listeners before coaxing them into consciousness. Each day recordings will be made at different locations across the area, from the Seagull chorus on Newport Road to the garden birds at the allotments; every day will be different.

But this will be done from a different perspective to that of the twitcher with spotters' handbook at the ready. This is not the rural idyll that it appears; the area is undeniably urban. I will be turning the tables on Starlings, who have become so adept at mimicry that their mating call now includes ringtones from mobile phones. Every morning a song will be subverted. A blackbird may sing a Cole Porter song, or a seagull a Britney phrase, it will be those with sharp ears that spot them but the rest will wonder why they've woken up with Oops!I did it again? going round in their heads.

Websites of interest: