Radio Air Garden Windmill Hill

An edition of the Radio Air Garden and workshops will be at the Windmill Hill City Farm in July thanks to The Brunswick Club.

I have fantastic childhood memories of Windmill Hill City Farm, cleaning it up, facepainting and playing next to the community play bus. My parents were active community volunteers who help set it up back in the 70’s. My mum Jenny can be clearly seen with my dad in the first photo clearing the site. My dad had MS and I can recall being there running around with kids and being asked to take the photo, under his instruction whist my dad was acting as foreman to my mum was literally doing the heavy lifting!. We lived nearby in Cotswold Road, Windmill Hill which is known for its rows of colourful houses and was a very working class part of the city. The site was derelict, full of rats and destined to be a lorry car park, but the local community got together and created the wonderful public farm it is today. I recall playing there and thinking it seemed like impossible task turning it into a farm, however I witnessed its full evolution from concrete to green from aged eight in 1978 to present day.

My dad John was from an Irish farming family so clearly it was in his D&A to get involved, we were no strangers to farm life, although he had left home at 15 to be an engineer, we spent every single holiday on my Nanna’s farm in Ireland, without any respect for health and safety, riding round on Massey Fergusons from a very dangerous age. So I spent my formative years on two farms, a city one and a rural one, which mirrored my half irish, half bristolian young life. Bristol was always a hotpot of creativity. When the farm started my dad running was a technician running the architecture workshop at Bristol University, which was closed in the mid 80’s due to cuts, how times repeat sadly! He got students involved with a call out to help via the humerous article below which gives his first hand account on how the farm was set up and run. They built a huge barn which sadly burnt down many years later, along with its archive. So am adding to the history here with a photo I found of the barn and the article.

Bristol was still very industrial city at the time, and this was the very beginning of its journey and make over towards become the far greener city it is today. I am in the crowd watching the Morris dancers in a stripy top and purdy hair cut ! which soon turned into flares with badges and long hair. My dad took a lot of photos now in the farms archives which are still uncredited, as he was a very keen photographer.

So for me this it is such a fitting place for a radio air garden to be shared as Bedminster has always been the most congested air spaces in Bristol due to heavy car traffic and an ongoing regentrification of the area has not improved this aspect. It was also the reason my family moved out of the city to the far duller suburban wilds of Pill nearby, we still went to the farm most weekends, until teenage life and music took hold. I still like to visit when I can as the vegitarian food has always been good and I used to take my son before he became a moody teen. It’s one of Bristols best assests, a community hub which holds great memories for so many and is a key place to excite young and old minds alike.

These photos above are from the farms archive site, and uncredited, the first one was taken by me under instruction from my dad, they provide a great overview of how Windmill Hill city farm evolved found at https://windmillhillhistory.wordpress.com/the-1970s/

Barn Photo and article John Hall. I also just discovered my very first published writing was actually about being a city farmer aged 11.

TRANSMISSIONS : radio art lab invites us to think about and play with how signals are transmitted and received in the human and the more-than-human world, exploring radio art, sound art, eco-acoustics, theremins, detoxifying gardens,  subversive streaming, pond dipping, weather instruments and listening together.  The weekend includes installations RADIO AIR GARDEN by Magz Hall, and INSTANT PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS by Lia Mazzari with a programme of talks and workshops including Bristol Communal Modular, Matt Davies, Thawney,  Matthew Olden,  Ian Thornhill, Ana Castro-Castellon, Teresa Dillon and Kathy Hinde.

Radio Air Garden by Magz Hall  – Installation : John James Terrace,

Radio Air Garden uses plants which are known to absorb air pollution and are also great air pollinators promoting planting to improve air quality and linking in to the hundred-year long history of experimentation of using copper coils for growth, known as electro-culture.  A new edition of Radio Air Garden will be planted up and installed at the farm  to provide a place to share radio art activities, workshops and talks and to raise awareness of air pollution.

Instant Public Address Systems by Lia Mazzari – Installation : Garden Theatre

Lia asks “how can landscapes be understood through listening?”.  Remote microphones broadcast in real-time from multiple locations enabling us to listen together through a custom-made outdoor PA system in the Garden Theatre. This temporary network of live audio streams amplify and connect us to not-so-distant natural and urban sites in Bristol. Microphones listening with the harbour site, dangling inside the river Avon, suspended from the flyover of the M32, or hanging in a tree in Ashton Court’s Deer Park – we will explore spatio-temporal relations, duration and our resonating bodies.

FULL WEEKEND PROGRAMME :

Transmissions Website Bristol BEEF

FRIDAY 26TH JULY

Installations Open Friday 5pm – 6pm – meet the artists Magz Hall and Lia Mazzari

installations open over the weekend : Sat 10am – 5pm and Sun 10am – 7pm

SATURDAY 27TH JULY

10:00am – 12:00pm (John James Room)
Workshop: Build an FM Radio Transmitter with Magz Hall
Tickets here

12:00pm – 1:00pm (Wildlife Garden)
Workshop: Pond Dipping and Underwater Listening with Ian Thornhill &  Kathy Hinde
Tickets here

2:00pm – 3:30pm (John James Room)
Talk: ACOUSTIC ECOLOGIES with Magz Hall, Lia Mazzari, Ian Thornhill and Ana Castro-Castellon chaired by Teresa Dillon
Tickets here

4:00pm – 5:00pm (John James Room)
Talk / Demo: Subversive Streaming with Matthew Olden
Tickets here

SUNDAY 28TH JULY

11:00am – 1:00pm (John James Terrace)
Workshop: Build an Electroculture Aeolian Antenna from found objects with Magz Hall
Tickets here

2:00pm – 5:00pm (John James Room)
Workshop: Build a Theremin with Bristol Communal Modular
Tickets here

3:00pm – 5:00pm (Garden Theatre)
Workshop: Join “Our Radio Orchestra” led by Matt Davies
Tickets here

5:30pm – 7:00pm (Garden Theatre)
Performance: Radio Garden Improvisation
with Our Radio Orchestra, Bristol Communal Modular, Thawney’s Rummage, Matthew Olden and Lia Mazzari
Tickets here

With thanks to Windmill Hill City Farm.

This programme was made possible by the West of England Visual Arts Alliance (WEVAA) supported by Arts Council England.