Goldsmiths, University of London Politics Department PhD Thesis Divine and Diabolic Radio Electromagnetic Spectrum, Aesthetics and Latin America Paulo José Olivier Moreira Lara 2 Declaration of Authorship I, Paulo José Olivier Moreira Lara hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: Date: 09/03/2020 3 4 Acknowledgements First the eternal comrades who have been opening up picadas with me since long ago. Rita and Leticia, my breath, ignis, splendor and magnetic field, this work is like our lifetime: as much yours as it is mine. A huge gratitude and appreciation for my supervisor David Martin who has been supporter, guide, analyst, mentor and interlocutor all at once. This would not be possible without you. During my days at the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths in London, I had the dear support, intellectual exchanges and friendship from many great people, including Bronac Ferran, Mathew Fuller, Luciana Parisi, Adelia Santana, Yuk Hui, Masa Kosugui, Chryssa Sdrolia, James Burton, Leila Withley, Maria José Pantoja, Karen Tam, Nicolas Salazar, Jaron Rowan and Franscesca Bria, who I will always remember with much love and affection. The expatriate company and friendship of Paulo Tavares was also fundamental to my life in London as it was before and will always be. I also appreciate the sometimes brief but always very productive interactions with great thinkers such as Julian Enriques and Edward King (many thanks for making this readable), Walter Mignolo, Michael Taussig, Bernand Stiegler, Gayatry Spivak, Sanjay Seth (special thanks), Enrique Dussel, Oscar Guardiola Rivera, Stephen Nugent (great advisor), Celia Lury (forever grateful), Joaquin Barriendos, and my dear punk friend, Dr. Richard Barbrook. In Brazil, Renato Ortiz (the one and only); the essential Submidia and Espectro Livre Network, particularly Francisco Caminati, Thiago Novaes, Rafael Diniz, Paulo Tavares and Cássio Quitério. Thanks also to Diego Vicentin, Adriano Belisário, Marta Kanashiro, Rafael Evangelista (thanks LABJOR) and Fernanda Bruno, extending my admiration to the whole LAVITS network and the ICTS study group. In the name of my friend Clemmens Apprich, I salute the Post Media Lab at Leuphana University. Abrazo y cariños to Cristobal Bianchi (beleza!) and Francisco Carballo (imprescindible como Sócrates), who demonstrated that from México to Chile, we do make sense together. A special thanks to my former supervisors Scott Lash and Jennifer Bajorek who helped me to make sense of my inquietude and brilliantly collaborated to many ideas. Thanks a lot also to John Hutnyk, red friend, camarada and teacher. Many thanks for the friendship and support from Dani and Jamie, who sheltered me in a much- needed time; a special hooray to the Emery family, Austin, Jolene, Lily and Hazel, who became part of our lives from the first moment and forever since. In Brazil, Uassyr, Simone, Antonio and Anita had always been compadres and comadres for life. In Paris and London, the support of Giulia Manera, Guido de Sena, Julio Matos, Coraci Ruiz, Hidalgo Romero, Alice Ruiz and the kids Noah, Martí and Francisco, whith happy memories. In Aix-en-provence, a hail to Radio Zinzine and its amazing group of people, who made the best efforts to understand my French and saved me from radio-abstinence. I thank the Sociology department of Goldsmiths and the ATACD project, which contributed to my professional life during the PhD; the former Centre for Cultural Studies with a special admiration and thanks to Luciana Parisi and Matthew Fuller and the Politics department which accepted to hoste me in a difficult time. Thanks to Senate House Library, to Sr. Luís, Bene and Rogério (in memoriam) at IFCH; to the Cultural Policies Department of the Brazilian Ministry of Culture (2012 – 2013) and to the library Luís Angel Arango in Bogotá for the access to the Sutatenza rare material. 5 To the Trepa Muleke podcast, Daniel Magalhães, Danilo Albergaria and Tiago Soares I will always be grateful for the smart conversations and the free radio spirit which it carries. To Rádio Muda, which inhabits a special place in my life, responsible for raising me for such fascinating issues, thanks and long live. To Mídia Tática and Sarava.org (never sufficiently reminded) and Elisa Ximenes, Rhatto, Braulio, Drica Veloso, Tati Wells, Ricardo Ruiz, Gisele Vasconcelos. The radio comrades Floriano Romano, Giuliano Djahjah, Francisca Marques, Guilherme Figueredo, Sérgio Silva, José Roberto Zan, José Balbino, Tininha Llanos, Thais Brito, Renata Lourenço, Thais Ladeira, Jerry Oliveira, Laurindo Lalo Filho, DJ Paulão, Daniel, Sidão, Cristiane Dey Andriotti, Guilherme Mitroto and the one and only Nilsão, for constructing a landscape and a manifested presence of a radio-soul in me. Also in the ever shining memory of Diego de Moraes and happy to see that his presence lives on beautifully. I salute the works and actions of the Brazilian civil society, especially ARTICLE19 South America and Laura Tresca - a great supporter on key final moments. Congratulations to the tireless Coalition for Network Rights (Coalizão Direitos na Rede), extending here my admiration to all independent media activism and civil society in Brazil and Latin America. Finally, there will never be words to translate the love, admiration and gratitude for the family, which, if I had the chance to choose, I would not modify anything: Dó Rita, Maró, Pedro, Nina, Rú, Paula, Goty, Neo, Beré, Wilson, Joana and all their partners, kids, parents, siblings, grand-kids, cousins, aunts, and all generations to come, joining the broader kinship. 6 7 8 To Maró and Pedro, for obvious reasons. 9 10 Abstract This work investigates the idea of wireless communication and the construction of the electromagnetic spectrum from a perspective of the Latin American cultural studies and Radio studies. Demonstrating that the wireless forms of expression have had socio-historical particularities and different socio-political manifestations through time, I identify diverse forms, functions and qualities that were given to the spectrum in order to understand what sort of political influence is exerted by the rational organization of radio waves. The hypothesis presented here is that the current control over the wireless infrastructure should be characterised in terms of an aesthetic domination of colonial sort. As the “birth” of the spectrum is found in the “baroque” sciences of the sixteenth century, I also note the radical shift that the notion took with the emergence of industrial capitalism, its technical instrumentality and political economy, arguing that the modern uses and interpretations of wireless media is grounded in colonial conflicts over aesthetic sovereignty and natural resources beyond the disputes over standard regulations, democratic allocation, freedom of expression, access to technology and technical management. Through the study of three experiences of radio in Latin America, I highlight the aspects of interference, illegality, colonial discipline and the control of the territory as manners by which the coloniality of power is expressed within the radio universe. The contribution that this work intends to offer to the areas of media studies, politics and cultural studies is to establish a relationship between the history of the idea (in this case, the construction of order, function and quality) of the electromagnetic spectrum and its impact on the solidification of a domination of modern and colonial kind based on the study of the phenomenon of radio waves and their uses applied for communication and expression in determined Latin American social realities. 11 12 Depois do senhor barroco, bem instalado no centro do seu desfrute, a paisagem recupera uma imantação mais poderosa e demoníaca. José Lezama Lima, A Expressão Americana. Radio presents an inexplicable mystery, an obvious and recurrent miracle. It is no less astonishing than the highest manifestations of magic once were, and it is worshipped as an idol would have been worshipped, with the same simplicity and fear. Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society. De plata los delgados cuchillos, los finos tenedores; de plata los platos donde un árbol de plata labrada en la concavidad de sus platas recogía el jugo de los asados; de plata los platos fruteros, de tres bandejas redondas, coronadas por una granada de plata; de plata los jarros de vino amartillados por los trabajadores de la plata; de plata los platos pescaderos con su pargo de plata hinchado sobre un entrelazamiento de algas; de plata los saleros, de plata los cascanueces, de plata los cubiletes, de plata las cucharillas con adornos de iniciales… Y todo esto se iba llevando quedamente, acompasadamente, cuidando de que la plata no topara con la plata, hacia las sordas penumbras de cajas de madera, de huacales en espera, de cofres con fuertes cerrojos, bajo la vigilancia del Amo que, de bata, sólo hacía sonar la plata, de cuando en cuando, al orinar magistralmente, con chorro certero, abundoso y percutiente, en una bacinilla de plata, cuyo fondo se ornaba de un malicioso ojo de plata, pronto cegado por una espuma que de tanto reflejar la plata acababa por parecer plateada... Alejo Carpentier, Concierto Barroco. 13 14 Table of Contents Declaration of Authorship....................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgements..............................................................................................................................5