Dealing with Communication and Legibility, Translation, and Displacement
Radio producer and curator Peter Meanwell is the mentor in the category Beyond Radio, which he describes as being “about considering the notion of transmission and broadcast, but freed from the constraints of traditional radio infrastructures.”
“We think of radio as the news that comes out of the box in the kitchen,” he adds, “and sound art as something that is presented in the gallery. I want to collapse these notions to open up new spaces, that deal with communication and legibility, translation, and displacement, to engage both our presentation of sound and ideas, but listening, too.” Each of the concepts presented in this category echo his thoughts about the medium in a different way, while simultaneously speculating about its future.
Frequency Interference
The Canadian musician, sound artist, and radio producer Julia E Dyck will do a live performance of an experimental, multichannel sci-fi drama that will resonate in the building as well as play over individual headsets. With this piece, Dyck is interested in probing the authority that is given to the disembodied voice in public space. “As society looks more to personal channels of information and relies less on public communication,” she explains, “I am curious about public sonic infrastructure in a world where media and communication continues to be privatized.”
Everything’s Speaking
Radio Espacio Estation (radioee.net) is an online multilingual nomadic radio station launched in 2011. It has hosted broadcasts in partnership with museums, alternative art spaces, academic conferences, and public festivals ever since. At the Forecast Forum, Radioee.net (Augustina Woodgate and Stephanie Sherman) will broadcast a live show that will tune in to the Internet of Things. “Soon, data, objects, and nonhuman entities will communicate, and radio will be the conduit enabling human agents to listen in on this correspondence,” Augustina Woodgate and Stephanie Sherman—the artists and producers behind the project—explain. What could miscommunication between objects sound like? What kind of signals exist when drones deliver packages and refrigerators shop for groceries? What are the challenges of security, privacy, and deployment; of listening in and being listened in on? And in what languages do things speak?
insofar as
Born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Cyprus, the sound artist Emiddio Vasquez lives and works between the United States and Germany. His work considers the legal and societal differences between the two governments’ takes on radio. At the Forecast Forum, he will create an aural tapestry using FM transmitters and directional speakers. However, the audience will determine the nature of the sound, as its motion and engagement will affect transmission. The project is derived from Vasquez’s interest in public space, as well as in the freedom afforded to radio as a medium. “Despite law enforcement set on radio transmission—the ionosphere is up for grabs—radio, as energy, is freely emitted without control. Radio waves cannot be contained; data bytes can,” he explains. “Considering recent developments in net neutrality, in relation to the radio as an artistic medium and carrier of information, I am interested in its political dimension.”
Photos: Julia E Dyck, RADIOEE.NET, Emiddio Vasquez