TUNE (IN))) THURS., APRIL 22 SCAPE 2 SAT., APRIL 24 THROUGH ...
WHAT IS "TRANSMISSION ART"? Simply put, it involves the artistic use of the airwaves. free103point9's upcoming Radio 4x4 at Art in General will engage four artists-Andrew Neumann, David Galbraith, David Matorin and Gabriel Burian-Mohr-each performing their own individual track on a separate radio frequency. Radios in the room will be turned to the different stations so that the audience is exposed to a different mix depending on where they're standing.
free103point9 will also be lending its talents to the Queens-based Flux Factory's "Scape 2" show, an installation that will bring together transmission artists from around the country, each creating a drone in D at 60 beats per minute, which is then mixed into a collective work of art.
Getting the most hype (which is to say, buy your tickets early), is "Tune (In)))", in which five micro-stations will broadcast the work of a star-studded list of artists within the Kitchen's walls. Though the radio technology used during these performances is much the same as what you find in cars, the signal isn't being beamed out through an antenna on top of the Empire State Building, so it doesn't travel beyond the theater. Audience members will be given a radio and headset (you can also bring your own), from which they can select from among the five in-house stations and commercial channels. With everyone using headphones, it is something of a together-but-separate concert.
"It does make for a very solitary experience," admits one of free103point9's founders, Tom Roe. "Most people really enjoy that it's so different than any concert experience that they've been to before. I don't know if this is the kind of concert you'd want to go to every night, but for them it was kind of eye-opening and made them think of going to shows a little differently."
As sound artist Matt Mikas explains, "The concept of 'Tune (In)))' is not so much about the happening itself but the workable hypothesis that new and interesting ways of adapting the machinery of mass media are still very much possible and as yet uncharted."
"The image of a pebble dropped into a pond becomes the active metaphor for transmission arts," writes Mikas, "which seeks to give birth to new and expanding waveforms in the realms of discussion and activation of communications."
Tune (In))) at the Kitchen, 512 W. 19th St. (betw. 10th & 11th Aves.), 212-255-5793 x11, 7-11 pm, $20, $10 with own radio.
Scape 2 at Flux Factory, 3838 43rd St. (betw. 3rd Ave. & Northern Blvd.), Queens, 718-707-3362, call for times, free.
Radio 4x4 at Art in General, 79 Walker St. (betw. B'way & Lafayette St.), 212-219-0473, 4-6, free.