Field Broadcast is a live broadcast project connecting artists, audiences and obscure locations through the portal of the computer desktop. Field Broadcast has developed through the practice of, and is run by, artists Rebecca Birch and Rob Smith.

Field Broadcast works with live digital broadcast as a medium, commissioning artists to make work specifically for this platform. Broadcasts are made from specific locations, in interaction with the surroundings, which becomes an actor within the work. We send broadcasts directly to our audiences’ computer desktops (outside of a web browser) through our Field Broadcast software. This method of transmission means that broadcasts arrive unannounced onto the viewer’s desktop. Each individual experience of the broadcast is unique, a montage of the Field Broadcast window with the personal clutter of a computer desktop: emails, chat windows, web browsers, wallpaper.

The first Field Broadcast series took place in May 2010, with Wysing Arts Centre, in 2011 Field Broadcast collaborated with Bournemouth University (Field Broadcast: West), Distance Festival and RCA Curating Students. During 2013 we are partnering NearNow at The Broadway, Nottingham and are developing a programme of works with support from Arts Council England and Essex County Council.

For each broadcast series we release a tailored version of our software.