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Voices repeat, loop, undermine meaning and elevate it and the self. Intercessions of machinic discourse take over. Intercessions recede and voices materialize, from within and outside the screen, whirling the disappearing knobs of a radio body.
Caroline Bouissou + John Roach – I Am a Radio
Radio, algorithm and space are intermediaries that connect us to waves, ideas and bodies. They exist seemingly without substance but provide an armature for experience to which we may become attuned and hopelessly attached. The words of the Transmitter, spoken by Caroline Bouissou, express an affirmation of Self. A radio is, like any mediator (or medium), both a trusted guide and a good listener eager to please. A litany of “I ams” was generated by a more recently birthed intermediary agent—the Google algorithm in response to the query, “I AM A RADIO.” John Roach generated sounds from recordings in an abandoned power plant in Isola, an empty apartment in Pontevico (both in Italy) and a cave in Kefalonia, Greece.
About the image, Caroline Bouissou mysteriously suggests: “Years ago I did a radiogramme from the radio in a hospital.”
Adern X – inter(media)lity
“The social intercourse is now based on screens (pc or smartphones) and from this perspective, intermedia could be intended in both ways: something that is in the middle of two persons and something that is at the threshold of all media. So, the piece was constructed with screen sounds as only source. This text was read and recorded from the same pc as a remind from the self-reference character of this medium.”
As corollary, Adern X offers: a response to this text is “non ho capito” (I haven’t understood) as this is the default Siri’s message when, if the phone is in silent mode, there’s any input. This is another reference to the impression that everyone writes but nobody reads. It’s relevant how the main sound on smartphones is the sound of an old typewriter as it’s a symptom of how we don’t “speak” anymore.
John F. Barber – We Can See Edith by Radio
Soon after its implementation at the beginning the twentieth century, radio was thought to facilitate communication with spirit spectrums, parallel dimensions, even alien worlds. Thus, radio is the intermediary with its sound(s) arriving through the ether, being heard by others in alternate realities or worlds. From parlor seances to radio signals from stars light years distant, this project hears one tuning of the intermediary radio.
Explore the artist’s creative sonic activities.
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