TRANSMISSION ART ARCHIVE

Harmony Sign-Off

2015
I often work with cast-off and forgotten ideas to make art. I like to make antiquated systems relevant by giving them new form. Short wave radio is one of these esoteric systems; fewer and fewer people have the technical knowledge and equipment to operate it. So the content is no longer relevant to a mainstream audience, rather it is often niche, or intimate, or coded. These are sounds that cannot be found anywhere else, and that have been modified by the medium of short wave. On 10/22/2014, I was listening to a conversation between two people at 29662 kilohertz. I heard tonal information as well, pitches and musical bits in the conversation, which inspired this piece. I recorded the conversation and sign-off tones then used a sampler to arrange the 60 second composition.