There is an explosion of media; desktop and on-line publishing have become a common place, digital media production and broadcasting have lead to a multiplication of 'channels' and the quality of consumer electronics rival high-tech equipment.

The increase of independent, subcultural and grassroots media as well as multi-media cross-fertilisation has recently been formulated as a hybridisation of the mediascape. Coincidentally, the term hybridity has gained currency within post-colonial cultural and political debates. When talking about hybridity, a deviation from a pure origin is implied. And hybridity always points back to its points of origin. Does the explosion of media really just come down to an extension of a media mono-culture or does this fresh harvest challenge its domination?

The issues at stake in an expanding mediascape are inevitably multiple. Does such a diversification destabilise or add to the culture of simulation? Does representation become more or less diverse? Is there a font for everything? By taking hold of media, do marginal groups develop complicity with mainstream power, or tools for social and political leverage? Do the moguls remain unshaken when assimilating the shaky cameras of subculture? Are alliances between marginalised groups developed or dissolved? Does a multiplicity of media promote direct democracy or develop into a structurless chaos, or even organise a new culture of conformity?

EXPLODING SENDER:

The manufacture of content is undergoing a parallel expansion - across previously untapped territories and into nooks and niches of minute market segments. In an environment of merging multi-nationals, does niche specialisation create the illusion of choice within the themed mega-mall of mainstream culture?

EXPLODING SIGNAL:

We have a new set of axioms: There is no pure signal, no objective truth, no neutral context, and communication is always an interactive activity. What has become of the relationship between medium and message in a many-too-many media environment?

EXPLODING RECEIVER:

In a culture of hobbyists and 'independent' media practitioners, not to mention a highly developed media literacy, is it possible (if it ever were) to talk of the category 'media receivers'? Do networked and community media create a shift in the understanding of the 'audience'?

Explode yourself on 29/08/98 @ Salford University.  

http://www.yourserver.co.uk/em/

(? Ninfomania)