Taking its title from Chris Hill and Barbara Lattanzi’s 1992 article of the same name, this panel will critically examine the lively and highly productive public access television scene that emerged from within the Buffalo arts community in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Drawing from their experiences as both active public access producers and innovative media curators, in “Media Dialects and Stages of Access,” Hill and Lattanzi offered an extensive survey of public access programming produced by artists nationwide. Framing public access programing, “…as a public stage, as a stimulus to regionally specific and culturally-diverse video dialects and as crucial to the construction of an active audience,” they revealed the wildly inventive range of interactive media strategies that artists developed to engage in a direct and intimate dialogue with local audiences. The ideas introduced in “Media Dialects and Stages of Access,” will serve as a jumping-off point for our conversation as we seek to place a past history of local public access production in conversation with the present.

MEDIA DIALECTS & STAGES OF ACCESS PANELISTS:
Laura McGough (moderator)
Ron Ehmke
Chris Hill
Barbara Lattanzi

This multi-media conference celebrates Squeaky Wheel’s former and current programs, artists, scholars, and community members. The public is invited to participate in a series of free events at Burchfield Penney Art Center exploring media art and its makers in Western New York.