2006 AIRtime Residents Announced

AIRtime is the free103point9 artist residency program, located at Wave Farm, in upstate New York. The following projects were chosen for the 2006 AIRtime residency program, by a panel of Galen Joseph-Hunter, Tom Roe, and Gregory Whitehead.



31 Down, METRONOMA (Brooklyn, New York)

31 Down members, Ryan Holsopple, Mirit Tal, Shauna Kelly, Jonathan Valuckas and Shannon Sindelar, will create the video elements for their upcoming project METRONOMA. The work is based on the writings and relationships of H.P Lovecraft and Robert Bloch. The theme of nature is a focus within the piece. 31 Down will use the Airtime residency to venture into the utopian environment of Wave Farm to capture images of this landscape for use in our production.


Stephanie Rothenberg, Zero Hour (Buffalo, New York)

Zero Hour is a radio program and participatory performance that examines how radio and electromagnetic radio waves have been used to disseminate propaganda and implement other forms of “mind control.” The piece, performed by three artists transmitting simultaneously, makes specific reference to communication strategies used for psychological warfare during World War II. Audiences will be provided with customized headgear (a variation of the infamous tinfoil hat) with which to receive the transmissions.


Sophea Lerner (Helsinki, Finland)

During her AIRtime residency, Lerner will refine and develop experimental participatory platforms for distributed hybrid radio production and integration of broadcasts into public space. These developments will be in preparation for a workshop in an Australia-wide live participatory performance scheduled for the Electrofringe Festival in Newcastle NSW taking place September/October 2006. Research conducted during AIRtime will include:

• Refining the design and documentation of very low cost and rugged mic/preamp/transmitter units for outdoor use in relaying a variety of signal types (surface contact, directional, hertzian etc) via micro fm

• Researching and specifiying a number of alternatives for live and asynchronous program contribution via various telephony systems to existing participatory programming database.

• Documetation of flexible modular broadcast platform of ääniradio These activities constitute practical infrastructure for food radio as a model for media participation based on the ideas in a text written for Radio Territories (ed B.Labelle forthcoming)


Karin Bolender, Signal-to-Pink Transmissions (Weyers Cave, Virginia)

Signal-to-Pink Transmissions will be a live performance/installation as part of free103point9’s Radio Festival August 5th. The project will assemble recordings made during Bolendar’s "Can We Sleep in Your Barn Tonight?" MYSTERY TOUR,” an assemblage of artists, musicians, poets, and farm animals gathering in June for a journey in and around the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia for an investigation into what's hidden and endangered in the present Appalachian landscapes. At Radio Festival, Pink, the MYSTERY TOUR's pygmy goat, will roam and graze around the Wave Farm over the course of the event, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the place as she broadcasts the recordings and some live-mixed material from a small transmission-wagon. Bolender will use her AIRtime residence for research, preparations, and testing.


Scanner, 24/48 (London, England)

24 Hours of recordings in 48 minutes.

Writes Scanner, “As life accelerates around us all the time, this work will explore an idea of time compression. In auditory interfaces, cassettes, mp3 players, etc. speeding up playback can improve the rate of listening, without significant distortion of the audio. Yet in our lives it seems ever clearer that slowing down can achieve more. In the nineteenth century, rest and relaxation were accepted pleasures. Today, we struggle to allow ourselves the sheer restorative joy of letting go.

In compressing an entire day into a single performance, it’s a playfully suggestive idea of what we miss whilst sleeping, yet drawing attention to the minutiae of every moment.”


Jeff Fedderson, EarthSpeaker (Brooklyn, New York)

EarthSpeaker will be a permanent outdoor sonic installation at free103point9’s Wave. Six or more solar-powered sounding elements, similar to speakers, will be distributed across the grounds, built into the earth. They will use the cavities in the earth as resonating chambers. Drawing inspiration from dusk-active creatures like crickets, bullfrogs and fireflies, the units will absorb and store solar energy during the day, perhaps emitting sparse, intermittent, sounds, just enough to give visitors the sense that something is there. At dusk, the nodes will come alive, emitting a brief, distributed chorus of sound as the sun sets that will continue until the energy each of the nodes has gathered during the day is consumed. Each node will consist of one or more solar panels, an energy storage device, one or more speakers, amplification electronics, and sonic behavior electronics. They will be visually integrated with the landscape and eventually overgrown with vegetation.


Joe Milutis, Radiophonic Paterson (Providence, Rhode Island)

Radiophonic Paterson is an homage to William Carlos Williams’ Paterson. The premise takes the poem not as an artwork, but as a map for the city and new experience, mediated through sound. The poem is notable for its interface between the materiality of the signifier and the intractable materiality of a city: how can the materiality of radio and sound extend William’s meditation into an exploration of Paterson today? Prior to his AIRtime residency, Milutis will complete preliminary research, interviews, and “field recordings.” AIRtime will provide Milutis with focused time and technical resources to mobilze Radiophonic Paterson.


FarmerBart, SOUNDseeds (Troy, New York)

SOUNDseeds is a “green” powered system for gathering sound and data from the environment in order to be harvested and processed through digital sound synthesis. After a designated duration (2-3 weeks) the SOUNDseeds will be collected. Their sounds will be transferred into a software application designed to analyze and re-synthesize the collected data.


LoVid, Cross Current Resonance Transducer (New York, New York)

In 1967, while working on a radio telescope in Cambridge, Jocelyn Bell Burnell detected unusual pulses recorded on the telescope's output tape. Burnell and her colleagues found it difficult to believe that these strange pulses were naturally occurring signals, and began referring to them as LGMs (Little Green Men), suggesting that the signals were indicative of extraterrestrial intelligence. In time it was discovered that the source of the pulses was a rapidly spinning neutron star that sends out regular bursts of radio waves and other electromagnetic radiation. Such stars are now called pulsars. LoVid’s Cross Current Resonance Transducer addresses the processes of interpretation and evaluation that are inherent in human attempts to understand natural phenomena. Inspired by the story of the pulsar's discovery, LoVid is building a system for monitoring, manipulating, and interpreting natural signals including electromagnetic radiation, wind patterns, ambient temperature gradients, and barometric pressure modulations. The project will involve three primary areas of exploration: collecting data, processing and manipulating collected data, and designing and outputting processed data. Cross Current Resonance Transducer is supported, in part, by a NYSCA Individual Artist Grant. LoVid will use thier AIRtime residency to research and experiment with the transmission related components of the project.


Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg, Azariah (Troy, New York)

The Azariah narrative explores prophecy and the power of singing. The story follows a young man named Azariah, who after the “Great Disappointment” (the failure of a prophecy predicting the return of Jesus in 1844), begins to have visions in which he meets strange prophets who speak to him through song. The narrative follows Azariah as he seeks the prophets during increasingly lengthy forest walks. For his MFA Thesis, Karlesberg presented the Azariah story as participatory singing event, molded after a shape note singing convention. Shape note conventions are daylong events featuring impassioned, often raucous, non-stop singing. With no audience, singers face each other in rows of seats arranged in an inward-facing hollow square.

Karlsberg will use his AIRtime residency to concretize his approach to transmission in an Azariah installation by using Wave Farm’s forest setting, transmission equipment, and library holdings to further develop the practical and conceptual details of the project. Writes Karlesberg, “Radio waves, like the prophets' songs that fill the air in Azariah, are all around us, but invisible and inaudible. Like Azariah, a radio receiver can capture those hidden signals and render them audible. I want to exploit this thematic intersection between radio and prophecy by working with radio to create an installation of the Azariah story.”


Matthew Ostrowski (Brooklyn, New York)

During his AIRtime residency, Ostrowski will develop a text-based music-theater work designed specifically for radio broadcast. The content will be non-narrative and utilize computer-generated voices to explore:

• Language that describes objects
• Language that describes scenes or activities
• Language that describes mental states

The use of computer-generated voices will exploit the tension and ambiguity around the idea of “a character,” and the idea of words and images generated by a “speaker” with a motive for using those words.