MAR 28 | Radio and Synesthesia

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Read Before Class

Discussion led by: N/A

• “The Peakaboo World” , Neil Postman, from Amusing Ourselves to Death
• “Music Video:Video Music” (Chapter 25) from Handmade Electronic Music by Nicolas Collins

Optional:

• “Visual (Ec)Static: On National Radio Silence Day” , Daniel Gethman, from Sound Art, Between Avant-Garde and Pop Culture
• “Visual and Acoustic Space”, Marshall McLuhan, from Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music
• “Kublin, Theorist of Synesthesia” by Mel Gordon (from Wireless Imagination)

In Class

• Discuss radio: its history, and its distance from the characteristics of the sound object; collapsing geography, encouraging simultaneity. Also include Burroughs and WR Reich in relation to systems of broadcast control and spiritual transmission.
• Discuss synesthesia in literature and art from Pythagoras’ “Music of the Spheres” through Romanticism, Symbolism, Theosophy, and into the “information age”.
• Introduction to Free103.9 transmission arts collective and DIY radio transmitter hardware.
• Transmit sound over a laser and use light-listeners in class, observing the sound that light makes inside, outside, natural, artificial.
• Use an inductive pickup to explore the tiny radio emissions around everyday objects.

Screening

• “Drive In Music” (1967) and “Radio Net” (1977) by Max Neuhaus
• “Sound Island” and Soundbridge by Bill Fontana
• The “Electrical Walks” of Christina Kubisch

• NPR interview with Steven Vitiello about his World Trade Center recordings (his site)
• Norbert Moslang’s bike-light sounds.
• short docu spot on Paul DeMarinas from KQED TV
• “Pen Point Percussion” film (Intro to Norman McLaren)

Further Research: Radio

• “Imagine radio that, instead of numbing us to sounds, strengthens our imagination and creativity; instead of manipulating us into faster work and more purchasing, it inspires us to invent…instead of silencing us, it encourages us to sing or to speak, to make radio ourselves.”
  —- Hildegaard Westerkamp
• Historical Transmission Works, as listed by free103point9
• Read about the Local Community Radio act of 2010 (pitchfork) which may help bring more low-power FM stations to the dial.
• Online “microcasting” instructions (both printed and video tutorials) from free103point9
• How to hack a Belkin Tunecast II (from instructables.com). Step-by-step instructions to extend the range of a small $30 FM transmitter  from 10ft to 300ft, basically for free! (A newer version, the Belkin Tunecast III, is hackable too.)
• HLLY Electronics – Hobbyist FM transmitters direct from China. They have inexpesive options that are similar to the hacked Tunecast, but more physically robust. Ships from China so you take your chances with customs.
• Radio Basics (how to build a simple AM radio & limited transmitter, from sci-toys.com)
• Marshall Mcluhan’s LP recording version of “The Medium is the Massage” (ubuweb)
• On the subject of the latent ideology embedded in visual media, check out John Berger’s 1972 BBC TV series “Ways of Seeing” (YouTube clip or VHS tapes in NYU Bobst library). There’s also a book version.
• If you’re interested in tinkering with radio or other electromagnetic phenomena, find a copy of this out-of-print book:
  “Exploring Light, Radio & Sound Energy with projects” by Calvin R. Graf
  (Alvin Lucier used it to build receiving equipment for his “Sferics” piece; recordings of “natural” low frequency radio signals emanating from the Earth itself.)
• I documented my own experiments building a VLF “natural radio” receiver here.
• An inductive pickup can translate electromagnetic fields into sound, similar to the VLF receiver above, but tuned for close proximity. Use it to explore the radio waves emitted by everyday objects like computers, phones, and TV monitors.
• The Conet Project is a 4CD anthology of shortwave “Numbers Stations”, undocumented international radio broadcasts that are widely believed to be messages from espionage organizations like the CIA, MI6, and Mossad. All tracks can be (legally) downloaded here.

Further Research: Synesthesia

• How to build a Simple Laser Communicator (from sci-toys.com)
• “Cloud Music” by Bob Diamond, Robert Watts and David Behrman, 1974. A set of synthesizer tones controlled by a video camera pointed at passing clouds.
• The Voyager probes launched by NASA in 1977 contained gold records encoded with images and sounds, along with diagrams to explain how to decode them.
• It’s easy to make “light-listeners” like the one Steven Vitiello used in “light-readings”. Consult this week’s chapter from Handmade Electronic Music for a method that uses a photoresistor, or use the solar cell from a cheap solar calculator, or buy super-tiny solar cells like these: Vishay BPW34 Silicon Photo-diode. (Larger cells are more sensitive)
• Here’s a circuit that amplifies the photo-diode above so it can directly drive a small speaker. (If link is broken, try wayback machine.)
• The Texas Instruments TSL230 Light-To-Frequency Sensor converts light level to an audible square wave signal in one step without any extra components. (More light = higher pitch)
• Eric Archer makes “Sound Cameras”: old 8mm film cameras with built-in light-listeners and headphone amps. (Plenty of audio samples on his page.)
• Derek Holzer performs improv sets called TONEWHEELS where he generates sound and light by shining lamps through spinning patterned discs.
• Russian artist Andrey Smirnov explores the popular eavesdropping technique of reflecting laser light off windows to hear the conversations inside.
• The Ruben’s Tube (video, wikipedia) traces audio waveforms with jets of flame, due to standing-wave patterns within a long tube.