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One last transmission.
Over and out.
IN YOUR CAR
A belated look at NPR’s second to last Engagement Party event, shot Thursday, May 5, 2011 at MOCA Grand Avenue. Stay tuned for the video wrap-up of their third artwork IN THE AIR.
Video by Alex ManInnis
In the Air. A Reverberation.
IN THE AIR, June 2, 2011, MOCA Grand Avenue.
Neighborhood Public Radio’s final installment of Engagement Party, In the Air, was one so unique that it is difficult to ascribe words to.
Walking towards MOCA Grand Avenue the sense that you are approaching something special is palpable (you can hear the symphony of guitars over 3 blocks away), finally confirmed by the dense sonic waves that engulf you the moment you set foot on the MOCA campus.
Each guitarist plays a part in a drone-based open-ended score, with stretches of sound punctuated by periods of silence; their performances are synchronized via cues transmitted by NPR over radio frequencies broadcasting locally in the museum. Participants can speak directly into the ether by means of any one of several microphones scattered around the museum plaza.
Wandering through the galleries and plazas you move through pockets of dynamically intersecting waves of reverb, feedback, strums, and chords. Undoubtedly, each listener experiences these sounds differently, crafting unique sonic experiences by simply choosing the way in which they move through the museums physical space.
Equally powerful as ones audio experience is the inescapable awareness of the multitude and diversity of participating musicians, converging not only to make their own musical mark on the night and your experience of it, but to create a composition truly greater than the sum of its parts.
You are hard pressed not to feel that you are an integral part of this moment and in this space, regardless whether you listen and observe or are holding a guitar.
Following their fundamental interest in broadcasting and sound waves as aesthetic material, NPR couples a symphonic guitar-based composition with an attempt at interstellar transmission, flooding the air with ambient sound, voices, and light.
At 9pm the high-power lights start flashing, broadcasting Morse code messages to outer space in addition to being transmitted to listeners tuned in to 104.5 FM. Beyond the intention of making contact with life ‘somewhere out there’, the purest and most powerful connection is between the terrestrial beings present, coming together under the auspices of an undeniably extraordinary experiment in sound and space.
IN THE AIR for your eyes
A photo set from NPRs final artwork IN THE AIR. Photos by Mark Woodworth.
Click through for the entire set.
In the Air TONIGHT.
If someone busts out these sweet, sweet guitar licks this evening they’ll be getting a serious high five. And don’t you dare forget your message to outer space. Send it via twitter now to @AIRspacemessage so it can be sent first class airmail to the cosmos at 9pm TONIGHT for NPR’s final installment of Engagement Party at MOCA Grand Avenue!
Radius.
Radius is an experimental radio broadcast platform based in Chicago, IL whose goal is to support artistic works that engage the tonal and public spaces of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Radius features a new project semi-monthly with statements by artists who use radio as a primary element in their work, providing artists with live and experimental formats in radio programming.
All audio works are broadcasted locally on 88.9 fm with a secondary stream online. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
Get to know: Art on Air.
Operating in lower Manhattan’s historic Clocktower Gallery, AIR, Art International Radio is an Internet radio station, free cultural archive, and art center. AIR’s mission is to be a leading source for music, audio art, cultural dialogue and new media innovation, and a singular art space dedicated to facilitating and promoting the work of emerging and established artists.
AIR broadcasts weekly in-depth interviews, independent music programs, and original works of audio art. AIR’s audio archive is a unique and engaging cultural resource that involves diverse cultural groups, students, scholars, professionals, musicians, artists, writers and culture connoisseurs in the United States and around the world.
Check out the ART on AIR stream here.
FILL THE AIR WITH NPR
For their final Engagement Party event on Thursday June 2, Neighborhood Public Radio is staging a massive sonic, fuzz-tipped storm.
A message from NPR member Michael Trigillio:
WE. NEED. GUITARISTS.
Bring your guitar, bring your amp, bring your favorite fuzzbox. (Basses welcome.)
You don’t have to be a virtuoso or even a “serious” musician! We’ll be playing one simple guitar fuzz-drone intermittently (receiving instructions on our radios).
We’ll be both inside and outside the museum, essentially occupying the entire MOCA campus with our massive fuzz-tone drench.
While we can’t offer you rock-legend status, we will buy you a drink at the bar if you participate. Electricity can also be provided (though battery-powered amps will be viewed with great favor).
PLEASE RSVP TO GUITARS@MOCA.ORG
NEXT UP: IN THE AIR
THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 7–10pm
MOCA GRAND AVENUE
FREE
For In the Air, NPR will bring together local noise musicians and sound and performance artists to facilitate a live performance gesture exploring the ways in which we sonically experience indoor and outdoor spaces, and how sound informs our perceptions of our surroundings.