Welcome to "The Radio Art Hour," a show where art is not just on the radio, but is the radio. "The Radio Art Hour" draws from the Wave Farm Broadcast Radio Art Archive, an online resource that aims to identify, coalesce, and celebrate historical and contemporary international radio artworks made by artists around the world, created specifically for terrestrial AM/FM broadcast, whether it be via commercial, public, community, or independent transmission. Come on a journey with us as radio artists explore broadcast radio space through poetic resuscitations and playful celebrations/subversions of the complex relationship between senders and receivers in this hour of radio about radio as an art form. "The Radio Art Hour" features introductions from Philip Grant and Tom Roe, and from Wave Farm Radio Art Fellows Karen Werner, Andy Stuhl, Jess Speer, and Jos Alejandro Rivera. The Conet Project's recordings of numbers radio stations serve as interstitial sounds. Go to wavefarm.org for more information about "The Radio Art Hour" and Wave Farm's Radio Art Archive.
This week on "The Radio Art Hour" tune in several works from Chicago-based radio artist Hali Palombo, and one from the Australian band The Cat's Miaow. First, Wave Farm Radio Art Fellow 2023, Lia Kohl introduces "Call Book" from Hali Palombo (2022). "Call Book" isolates and magnifies human broadcasts on amateur radio"little phrases, sentences, or vocalizations that might otherwise be forgotten. Palombos belief that theres something to be learned from every human interaction focuses the work on cementing these unnoticed moments in the imagination of the listener. Shortwave radio, she says, isnt just harsh frequencies, number stations, or signal interference"its also a longstanding method of communication. While making the piece, Palombo would record small pieces of chit chat, mouth sounds, or conversation and build elaborate compositions around them, framing the source material into more than just passing sounds or words. Then, tune in two tracks from Palombo's 2023 album "Radio & My Voice." We hear "Weather Balloon" and "Voice Scrambler" here. Finally we hear the 2023 release "Between the Stations and the Silence" by the Australian band The Cats Miaow.
Wave Farm is a non-profit arts organization driven by experimentation with broadcast media and the airwaves. A pioneer of the Transmission Arts genre, Wave Farm programs provide access to transmission technologies and support artists and organizations that engage with media as an art form. Major activities include the Wave Farm Artist Residency Program; Transmission Art Archive; WGXC 90.7-FM: Radio for Open Ears, a creative community radio station based in New Yorks Upper Hudson Valley; a Fiscal Sponsorship program; and the Media Arts Assistance Fund in partnership with NYSCA Electronic Media/Film. EVERGREEN EPISODE 144.
Hali Palombo, The Cat's Miaow
A show where art is not just on the radio, but is the radio.
00:58:00
1
Nov. 16, 2023
Produced for Wave Farm in the Hudson Valley in New York.