Wave Farm Artist-in-Residence: N. Adriana Knouf

Jul 13, 2018 - Jul 22, 2018
Wave Farm + WGXC Acra Studio

518-622-2598
http://wavefarm.org/

N. Adriana Knouf Portrait Image

N. Adriana Knouf Portrait Image. (Mar 23, 2018)

N. Adriana Knouf's Aerial Actor Presentation at Art OMI

N. Adriana Knouf's Aerial Actor Presentation at Art OMI. Photo by Hajoe Moderegger. (Jul 28, 2018)

Close-up of One of N. Adriana Knouf's Drones

Close-up of One of N. Adriana Knouf's Drones. Photo by N. Adriana Knouf. (Jul 23, 2018)

N. Adriana Knouf Holding Dipole

N. Adriana Knouf Holding Dipole. Photo by N. Adriana Knouf. (Jul 23, 2018)

N. Adriana Knouf on WXGC's Saturday Afternoon Show

N. Adriana Knouf on WXGC's Saturday Afternoon Show. Photo by N. Adriana Knouf. (Jul 23, 2018)

N. Adriana Knouf's Telescope Image of the Night Sky Above the Wave Farm Study Center

N. Adriana Knouf's Telescope Image of the Night Sky Above the Wave Farm Study Center. Photo by N. Adriana Knouf. (Jul 23, 2018)

N. Adriana Knouf at WXGC's Tower Site in Leeds, NY

N. Adriana Knouf at WXGC's Tower Site in Leeds, NY. Photo by N. Adriana Knouf. (Jul 22, 2018)

Communal and Integenerational Piloting at the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop

Communal and Integenerational Piloting at the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop. Photo by Bryan Zimmerman. (Jul 21, 2018)

Detail from N. Adriana Knouf's Encrypted Poetic Drone Communications Workbook

Detail from N. Adriana Knouf's Encrypted Poetic Drone Communications Workbook. Photo by Bryan Zimmerman. (Jul 21, 2018)

Flight Instruction at the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop

Flight Instruction at the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop. Photo by Bryan Zimmerman. (Jul 21, 2018)

Hajoe Moderegger and N. Adriana Knouf Making Introductions at the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop

Hajoe Moderegger and N. Adriana Knouf Making Introductions at the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop. Photo by Bryan Zimmerman. (Jul 21, 2018)

Low-Altitude Drone Responding to Body Gestures

Low-Altitude Drone Responding to Body Gestures. Photo by Bryan Zimmerman. (Jul 21, 2018)

N. Adriana Knouf Demonstrating Mini Drone Quadcopter With FPV Goggles

N. Adriana Knouf Demonstrating Mini Drone Quadcopter With FPV Goggles. Photo by Bryan Zimmerman. (Jul 21, 2018)

N. Adriana Knouf Sharing Details from "Poetic Ciphered Transmissions"

N. Adriana Knouf Sharing Details from "Poetic Ciphered Transmissions" . Photo by Bryan Zimmerman. (Jul 21, 2018)

Participants of the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop Gathered on the Wave Farm Study Center Deck

Participants of the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop Gathered on the Wave Farm Study Center Deck. Photo by Bryan Zimmerman. (Jul 21, 2018)

Propeller Upgrade Demo at the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop

Propeller Upgrade Demo at the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop. Photo by Bryan Zimmerman. (Jul 21, 2018)

Securing a Drone Carriage

Securing a Drone Carriage. Photo by Bryan Zimmerman. (Jul 21, 2018)

Sharing Extreme Drone Videos at the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop

Sharing Extreme Drone Videos at the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop. Photo by Hajoe Moderegger. (Jul 21, 2018)

Sharing Lunch, Videos and Stories At the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop

Sharing Lunch, Videos and Stories At the Aerial Actor Drone Workshop. Photo by Bryan Zimmerman. (Jul 21, 2018)

Viewing the Perspective of a Drone in Flight Via FPV Goggles

Viewing the Perspective of a Drone in Flight Via FPV Goggles. Photo by Bryan Zimmerman. (Jul 21, 2018)

The FCC grants broad ability for licensed amateur radio operators to transmit in specific frequency bands, build custom transceiver equipment, and construct their own experimental antennas. Nevertheless, the content of what is actually transmitted is rather limited. There are vocal minorities of racists and misogynists on the air, and the remaining conversation sticks to the limited topics of the size of one's antenna or the amount of power transmitted. As well, amateur radio operators are, for the most part, prohibited from encrypting or otherwise obscuring the content of their transmissions. Yet there's an interesting loophole in the regulations, in §97.215, "Telecommand of model craft." Because of the need to limit who can control these model craft, the FCC allows the transmissions that control the craft to be encrypted. This, along with telecommand of space stations (that is, orbiting satellites), is the only place in the regulations where obscuring the content is allowed. Knouf's "§97.215 Revisited: Poetic Ciphered Transmissions" employs this loophole to create a new set of poetic, ciphered communication between himself as the transmitter and the resulting model craft (in this case, a drone).

N. Adriana Knouf is a media scholar and artist who lives in the liminal spaces between signal and noise. Her current research project is titled "At the Limits of Communication" and explores how we are searching for signals from extraterrestrial entities. Knouf considers the digital and analog worlds fundamentally intertwined and uses a variety of media in her work such as handmade paper, radio, digital signal processing, augmented reality, and generative poetry. She aims to bring people into closer relationships between themselves on this earth and the entities out there in the cosmos.