WIRELESS Audio Installation
An interactive sound installation for FM radio transmitters
Using 5 short range FM transmitters, the main hall of the campus is turned into a sound environment composed by the artist which is broadcast on a single FM frequency. The audience are then invited to interact with the space using the 8 portable FM radios provided (or their own should they wish to bring them). The radios will pick up on different combination's of the audio material being broadcast dependent on their position and path through the space.
An interactive sound installation for FM radio transmitters
Using 5 short range FM transmitters, the main hall of the campus is turned into a sound environment composed by the artist which is broadcast on a single FM frequency. The audience are then invited to interact with the space using the 8 portable FM radios provided (or their own should they wish to bring them). The radios will pick up on different combination's of the audio material being broadcast dependent on their position and path through the space.
“Noise is a world where anything can happen, including and especially itself. In a predictable world noise promises something out of the ordinary” (Douglas Kahn, Noise Water Meat, 1999 MIT Press).
Alongside the unpredictability of the audience in the creation of the audio content, there is also the unpredictable effect of interference and noise on the audio and the possibility of the distortion of the audio material. This is dependant on all kinds of environmental factors that create pockets of interference in the project space, and it allows the performer to fnd these pockets and use them to add a noise element to the performance.
“Radio expands the sound world....as a side effect of its main purpose. Between the signal lurks endless variation of static, different “colours” of noise...The signal itself can come and go, and weather conditions will alter which signals can be picked up – 'interference' is a key part of what humans hear as sound via radio” (Hegarty, Paul – Noise/Music: A History, 2007 Continuum Press).
It is this expansion of the sound world created by radio and transmission that is key to the audio content of the piece.
The recording of the project took on two forms a) a room recording of the full installation and b) recordings taken from individual radios as they moved between the transmitters for use in the creation of a sequenced piece of music that represented the project as a whole.
Alongside the unpredictability of the audience in the creation of the audio content, there is also the unpredictable effect of interference and noise on the audio and the possibility of the distortion of the audio material. This is dependant on all kinds of environmental factors that create pockets of interference in the project space, and it allows the performer to fnd these pockets and use them to add a noise element to the performance.
“Radio expands the sound world....as a side effect of its main purpose. Between the signal lurks endless variation of static, different “colours” of noise...The signal itself can come and go, and weather conditions will alter which signals can be picked up – 'interference' is a key part of what humans hear as sound via radio” (Hegarty, Paul – Noise/Music: A History, 2007 Continuum Press).
It is this expansion of the sound world created by radio and transmission that is key to the audio content of the piece.
The recording of the project took on two forms a) a room recording of the full installation and b) recordings taken from individual radios as they moved between the transmitters for use in the creation of a sequenced piece of music that represented the project as a whole.
The room recording took place in the main hall of the CCU Broadstairs Campus. The transmitters were set up and evenly spaced around the hall, with a Sound Field SPS442B microphone set up directly in the centre of the hall recording all 6 channels (in 5.1 surround) directly into Logic 9 via a Profre 2626 unit. Four people then “performed” with the 6 radios set up in the room to get a recorded representation of the installation in action from the point of view of a passive listener.
The second form of recording came from the radios directly. A Minidisk recorder was connected directly to the headphone output from a radio which then recorded the output of the radio as it moved around the hall and passed in and out of the 5 transmissions. The intention of this was to capture the subtleties of the radios picking up the transmissions, such as the static and white noise distortions of the signal as it went out of range or found a pocket of interference. These radio recordings were then used to create a 5.1 Surround, 20 minute “mix tape” style track, which also included audio from the original shortwave radio recordings used at the start of the project. This was sequenced using Ableton Live to create an “on the fly” live mix of the material, which it was felt was more in keeping with the nature of the project than a more traditionally sequenced track.
