56k Bastard Channel TV

Bastard Channel is a cross between a television and a web project, a platform on the Internet that is itself a kind of television channel. On 18 November 2004, Bastard Channel celebrated its start with six programmes within the framework of the Viper Media Festival in Basel’s Kunsthalle. In 2005, seven new programmes were added. It is not possible to watch all the programmes at all times, as the online project was designed to operate according to the television programme structure.

At the time the project was launched, terrestrial television stations had only begun to think of how to make it possible for programmes to be broadcast online independently of times and dates. Bastard Channel was founded expressly to limit consumption and “wagging a cautionary medial forefinger at the zap & surf attitude.” Some of the programmes run like films, animating the screen at a breakneck pace, others step intentionally on the brake, tempting and frustrating at one and the same time. Still others bring streams of data onto the screen or make interaction offers where the public can spend 30 minutes or 30 seconds.

The channel works with the low-tech and financial means of network art and has collaborators on three continents. Participants are artists from Bangalore, Basel, Berlin, Geneva, Los Angeles, Mexico, Paris, Seoul, Tokyo and Zurich, as well as collaborating text writers, translators, programmers and graphic artists. Martin Woodtli is responsible for the site’s structure and aesthetics; Marc Lee realized the time switch programing and worked on the conceptual fine tuning. Monica Studer and Christoph van den Berg developed the basic idea, with Reinhard Storz who also is responsible the text contents.

xcult.org (Switzerland)
56KTV Bastard Channel, 2004
website project http://www.56k-bastard.tv/
With contributions by: exonemo, Monica Studer and Christoph van den Berg, Marc Lee, jimpunk, Birgit Kempker, Shu Lea Cheang, Beat Brogle and Philippe Zimmermann, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Nathalie Novarina and Marcel Croubalian, Jody Zellen, Martin Dahlhauser and Dorothea Hein, Fran Ilich, Estee Oarsed. Interface by: Martin Woodtli, Marc Lee. Concept by: Storz/Studer/van den Berg. Curated by Reinhard Storz