I’ve been downloading the Stop-Rokkasho podcasts since the beginning. Also, i’ve been trying to post something about this but I did not find the right place, but maybe now it’s a good time because it has evolved since it started.
At the very beginning, one of my favorite music composers, Ryuichi Sakamoto, came out with this cool project which intended to create social awareness of the Rokkasho reprocessing nuclear plant in Japan which brings a great deal of danger to the environment. Since I’m clearly no nuclear expert you can find lots of interesting info on the official website.
What Sakamoto did was to make one song aside with Christian Fennesz and some other japanese artists to create the “Rokkasho Main Theme” and distributed it for free on the website along with single tracks of instruments and voice in order to invite everyone to make remixes of the song and send them. I’m not sure if they published them all in the podcast feed but there are over 30 different remixes available to download most of them from japanese artists. But that’s not it, now you can also find video and other music and audio pieces from artists such as Alva Noto, Filter and Kraftwerk making a great podcast worthy of collecting. Until today, there are 87 pieces available. You can act by sending your own remix, or simply by signing a petition with your name.
When I first saw this I got excited because this is maybe the first good example of activism through podcasting which I find really interesting and to have someone like Sakamoto and Thomas Dolby to start it using podcast as a way to speak to people was definitely a clue for me that by working with this technology was the right track to be in.
Also, Stop-Rokkasho now features in NetDiver in the “imaginative” category for it’s outstanding interface and design, so pointing the obvious I’d like to give a “shiny gold star” to this project for having a good initiative, using the right media to “shout it” and also making it look pretty darn cool!
Remember to subscribe to the Stop-Rokkasho podcast feed!
[Stop-Rokkasho Main Theme]
WHAT TO DO NOW?