AIRtime@Devotion Exhibition Series

Transmission art exhibition series

Bike box from Bill Brown on Vimeo.

Technology behind Bike Box created by Aris Games at University of Wisconsin’s Games, Learning and Society research group.

free103point9 is pleased to present AIRtime@Devotion, an exhibition series taking place July 2nd though August 16th at Devotion Gallery in Williamsburg, as part of the free103point9 AIRtime Fellowship Program.  The series consists of solo exhibitions by Zach Poff (Radio Silence), Sabine Gruffat & Bill Brown (Bike Box), and Brett Balogh (Noospherium), which span the contemporary genre of Transmission Art.  The Transmission Art genre is informed by works which employ an intentional use of space -- often the airwaves -- and manifests in participatory live art or time-based art, including radio, video, light, installation, and performance.

AIRtime@Devotion exhibitions open throughout the month of July:  AIRtime@Devotion: Radio Silence opens at 6:00 p.m. on July 2nd, 2010;  AIRtime@Devotion: Bike Box opens at 6:00 p.m. on July 16th, 2010;  AIRtime@Devotion: Noospherium opens at 6:00 p.m. on July 30th, 2010.  All openings and exhibition-related events take place at Devotion Gallery (54 Maujer Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11206). 

Admission is free and open to the public.

Radio Silence (Zach Poff)

Radio Silence explores the silent moments of talk-radio, combining eight AM broadcasts into a meta-conversation based on the negative spaces between words:  Pauses are treated as paradoxical opportunities to probe the neighboring airwaves in search of an expanded form of conversation.  Eight wire-frame radio sculptures are arranged in a circle, empty except for their speakers.  Each radio corresponds to a different local AM station which is being monitored by custom software.  One at a time, each radio speaks while the others play a chorus of hissing residue between words.  When the speaking radio shares a simultaneous moment of silence with one of its neighbors, the conversation silently shifts to the other radio before the next word begins.  Over time, Radio Silence surveys the spectrum of viewpoints currently on the air, weaving them together through the intersections of a shared linguistic device.

Bike Box (Sabine Gruffat & Bill Brown)

Bike Box is a mobile-media bicycle library and interactive installation housed at Devotion Gallery, allowing participants to check out cheap, durable, technology-enhanced bikes and a free open source iPhone application developed for this installation.  As participants pedal around central Brooklyn, they are able to contribute site-specific audio through the iPhone application, as well as listen to a curated collection of geo-specific sounds provided by a variety of local land-use experts, historians, poets, artists, and other interpreters.  Bike Box hopes to explore and give participants access to the layers of lived experience, personal anecdote, and history that are piled up invisibly on every street corner and city block.

Noospherium (Brett Balogh)

Since the inception of radio as a broadcast medium, the earth has been covered by an increasingly dense network of airborne communications.  AM, FM, SW and other portions of the radio spectrum represent a medium through which a re-imaging of space is possible.  This hertzian space is not defined by surveyed boundaries or geographic constraints but, rather, by field strengths, mass-media service areas, and consumer markets.  The overlapping spaces defined by these broadcasts can be collectively referred to as an envelope of thought around the world, or Noosphere.

Noospherium aims to render this sphere of human thought as an immersive sonic environment, providing a pansonic, panoptic view of simultaneous broadcasts.  The space of the installation can then be thought of as as a phrenologic observatory to this sphere of human thought where a real-time composition puts as many signals as possible into conversation within the space, allowing one to characterize the nature of our collective thoughts through chance occurrences, spurious juxtapositions, and the dynamic spatialization of sound.

2010/2011 AIRtime Call for Submissions

The AIRtime program provides artists with valuable assistance with which to concentrate on new transmission works and conduct research about the genre using free103point9’s resource library and equipment holdings.  Fellows present their work in conjunction with WGXC: Hands-on Radio, a FM radio station and media project in Greene and Columbia counties, upstate New York.  Fellows receive an honorarium, and technical and administrative support from free103point9 staff.  Participating artists are encouraged to archive recordings and other digital media with the free103point9 Transmission Art Archive project.

The 2010 deadline is July 15th. Fellowships span an 10-month period, and take place September 2010 through June 2011.  Fellows will participate in the WGXC/Prometheus Radio Project Station Barnraising, September 24 -26, 2010, as well as have an opportunity present/perform/exhibit their completed projects in the spring of 2011.  This program is designed to accommodate artists who have other committments during the fellowship period; specific scheduling of research trips and public programs will be determined in collaboration with successful Fellows after the selection process.

Visit http://www.free103point9.org/apply/airtime/ for application materials and information.

About free103point9

Founded in 1997 as an artists' collective creating works for radio transmission, in 2002, free103point9 became a nonprofit arts organization focused on cultivating the genre Transmission Arts. Work in this genre is informed by an intentional use of space, often the airwaves.  Transmission Art manifests in participatory live art or time-based art including radio, video, light, installation, and performance.  Based in upstate New York, free103point9’s major programs include the in-progress Transmission Art Archive, a definitive resource featuring artists, works, and exhibitions and events that define the genre and place it in a historical context; WGXC: Hands-on Radio, a creative community FM radio station serving Greene and Columbia counties; and the facilitation of a NYSCA Distribution Regrant for individual artists.

Press Materials

EXHIBITIONS:
                       At Devotion Gallery, L to Lorimer, G to Metropolitan:
                           -  Radio Silence opens 6:00 p.m., Friday, July 2nd, 2010. Through July 11th. 
                           -  Bike Box opens 6:00 p.m., Friday, July 16th, 2010. Through July 25th.
                           -  Noospherium opens 6:00 p.m., Friday, July 30th, 2010. Through July 14th.
EVENTS:
                       At Devotion Gallery, L to Lorimer, G to Metropolitan:
                          -  Bike Box bike tours:
                             Saturday, July 17, 2:00 p.m.
                             Sunday, July 18, 2:00 p.m.
                             Saturday, July 24, 2:00 p.m.
                             Sunday, July 25, 2:00 p.m.
                          -  Bike Box performances:
                             Saturday, July 17th, 5:00 p.m.
                             Saturday, July 24th, 5:00 p.m.
  PRESS RELEASE:
                       http://areyoudevoted.squarespace.com/storage/exhibitions/airtime/f103-PressRelease.pdf
  MEDIA RELEASE:
                       http://areyoudevoted.squarespace.com/storage/exhibitions/airtime/f103-MediaRelease.pdf
  FULL PRESS KIT:
                       http://areyoudevoted.squarespace.com/storage/exhibitions/airtime/f103-PressKit.zip
  PRESS CONTACT:
                       Marie and Phoenix at Press@AreYouDevoted.com