Why Are There No Radical Feminists On Television?

No friends, this is not the lead up to a reactionary punch line, but rather a question that underlies Pilot TV, a 4-day public access happening in Chicago that begins today. Subtitled 'Experimental Media for Feminist Trespass', Pilot TV explores the intersections of feminism and public broadcast through 50 'pilot' programs produced in a warehouse temporarily turned television studio. Several of the programs hijack the format of stock cable fare. Stephen Remington's anti-Bush workout pumps participants 'towards a new kind of America'. While in 'Extreme Takeover', Edie Fake offers her body up to an open call for 'grafting, tattooing, gluing, embroidering and fringing'. Multi-media lectures on Early 70‚s Video Collectives and ACT-UP situate the event in a trajectory of media activism. These earlier actions are echoed in contemporary art, performed and presented for the camera. Tara Mateik will read the manifesto of SBI (Society for Biological Insurgents) and demonstrate the ways it lives up to its mission of overthrowing 'institutions of compulsory gender through the code'. Stay tuned for the pilot programs on public access following the event. If you are in or near Chicago this weekend, see the site to find out how you can get involved. - Lauren Cornell