Barnes-Wynters recalls his first glimpse of public access TV, brought back on VHS tapes from NYC by his then housemate in Bristol. “Peering into TV Party’s B&W, wonky, experimental and anarchic world of creativity across from the Pond was not only a revelation but an inspiration,” he says. “Seeing others – Jean-Michel Basquiat, Fab Five Freddy – who not only looked like me, but were creatively exploring/ experimenting with a medium – broadcasting – which seemed to be out of our reach was my catalyst to go and explore how can we share our world here in the UK.”
Barnes-Wynters threw himself into Britain’s febrile, DIY-driven pirate radio scene, before moving into televisual forms. “This broadcasting ‘access’ proved there were many of us worldwide creating new visions, musical forms, spoken word and also speaking politically from the same page,” he says. He took inspiration from Basquiat and Keith Haring’s vivacious energies to launch his own creative vehicle, Doodlebug, in 1991 (which extended to a YouTube channel in 2006), and has also presented programmes with Manchester’s Contact Theatre.
“Autonomy is key, and like TV Party, Doodlebug was a ‘lab’ to explore provocations whilst embracing magic moments and failures,” says Barnes-Wynters. He originally developed Take Back Control as a live TV “modular lab” for The Lowry gallery in Salford, and has now taken it online, with a call for open submissions from DIY filmmakers. “Take Back Control is a 72-hour (pilot) ‘cult transmission’ unleashing future grassroot gems as it wrestles deep into an AV realm of sublime mind food, nourishing provocations and era-defining soundtrack, courtesy of its stream of radical whispers, soiled pictures, fuzzed-out airwaves, sparky meaningful conversations and public interventions.”
According to Barbato, “in a multi-channel universe, if you don’t like what you see immediately, then you turn to something else.” And in a multi-channel universe, there is always something strong enough to cut through the white noise – unpredictable, irrepressible bursts of creativity first pioneered by public-access TV.
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